Russian city marks 100 year anniversary of first passenger flight over Europe

First EU passenger flight landed on Devau airfield in 1919.

KALININGRAD (Reuters) - The Russian Baltic city of Kaliningrad marked the 100-year anniversary of the first passenger flight over Europe on Saturday (August 18) with an airshow featuring about 50 light airplanes from all over the EU.

Pilots and airplane owners from from Germany, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland and many others gathered at Devau - the oldest airfield in Europe - to show off their skills and exchange stories.

The first European passenger flight which opened the civil airway from Berlin to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), landed on Devau airfield in 1919.

For some pilots the trips from their home cities were lengthy. Detlev Kellinghusen, who worked as a pilot at Lufthansa for 40 years, flew for 5.5 hours, with a tail wind, from his home in Aschaffenburg but he said the 1300 kilometre (800 mile) flight was about the journey, not the speed.

"It’s a very slow airplane, yes. But I think that the travel is the target. You have to travel and that is the target. I don’t want to have speed. When I need speed, I take a airliner," he said.

Some aviators performed stunts in air and allowed the public to take photos beside and even inside their aircraft.