with terrace offering a view on the airfield. History The aviation activity in this area began in first world war when it was used as an auxiliary airfield of the Austro-Hungarian Air Force during the Isonzo front. It was then used as the auxiliary German airfield during the second world war, but the airfield was plagued by the frequent flooding and terrain instability. The republic gliding center was established there in 1947 to explore soaring in the mountains. A hangar was relocated from Kompolje and remains at the airport to this day. After the war a new grass runway was constructed to remediate the flooding, which was completed in 1954. In 1956, the Alpski letalski center flying club was founded and continued with tradition of numerous pre-war flying clubs in the vicinity. In July 1957 JAT Yugoslav Airlines opened the Belgrade-Bled route with a Douglas DC-3 airliner., however the commercial traffic ceased with the opening of Ljubljana airport in 1963. Since then, the airport served mainly for sport and panoramic flying, but the sudden reduction of state funding forced the flying club members to find other sources of income, by doing various jobs for the local companies, thus collecting the money to buy new aircraft and pay for their flying. Lesce airport was also one of the few airports in Yugoslavia where the flying of the foreign pilots was allowed, thus greatly contributing to the tourism in the region. Many aviation-related business emerged because of the airport. Elan started the production of Glaser-Dirks gliders and the former employees of Elan Flight still continue with a business of aircraft construction and repair. References External links Lesce-Bled Airport (official site) Map from MultiMap Satellite image from TerraServer Airports in Slovenia