At one time, some seventy five spitfires where stationed in the airfield, which was situated between the villages of Xewkija, Ghajnsielem, Nadur and Xaghra. The airfield was only used for two months between June-July 1943, until the Allied Forces landed in Sicily. Today the airfield is no longer existence and no planes have landed in Gozo for the last fifty years, except on September 18, 1993, when a Kitfox made an emergency landing in a field near San Dimitri, in the western part of Gozo.
Before the air strip was built during World War II, some aircrafts had crashed in Gozo, including some axis aircrafts which crashed in the town of Nadur. Aircrafts like the German JU.88, ME.110 and an Italian Fiat BR.20, were some of the multi engine planes known to have crashed in Gozo. Other single engine aircraft which crashed in Gozo, include the Italian Macchi 202 which crashed in Marsalforn valley. Nowadays, Gozo is experiencing some aviation activity again. A heliport with some 300ft landing strip has been built almost on the site of the former air field. Mil MI-8 operate daily between the Gozo heliport and the international airport in Malta. The Armed Forces of Malta Qortin Base in Nadur, is another place in Gozo where helicopters land daily, as well as the General Hospital in Victoria where patients are often tranported to or from the hospital.
Gozo is very small to have a big airfield. However an axtension of the landing strip at the heliport could easily facilitate the landing of small planes there, with hardly any effect on the environment.
