Most heliports are primarily used by VIPs, rescue services or by official organizations such as the police or the military. Pigs are not normally users, but there is a heliport in Europe that was built specifically for pigs to fly in and out. It also has an official IATA code.

A small island in the Mediterranean, on which there is a single hotel, which is currently being converted and will appear as a luxury hotel in the future, and a heliport would go well together at first glance. Well-heeled customers could fly in quickly and in style. But far from it, because without a clever off-road vehicle, the Comino Heliport can only be reached by a long walk.

While the heliport on the neighboring island of Gozo is well known, but is only used for rescue flights, the one with the IATA code JCO is hardly known to locals either. And rightly so, because the helipad is literally in the middle of nowhere and has no infrastructure at all. Even the windpants are long gone and have not been renewed.

Lost place from the picture book right next to the landing site

The neighborhood of the Comino Heliport is also not exactly inviting. An abandoned pig farm that meets all the criteria of a lost place is in close walking distance. In other words: The landing site is a few meters above ruins and, given its condition, fits perfectly into the surroundings.

The question quickly arises why a heliport was built in a remote place on an island that officially only houses two people. In addition, the two residents have absolutely nothing from the landing site, because this is very far away from them and can only be reached by hiking or with a good off-road vehicle. The latter has to be restricted a little, because the former pig farm would have to be driven through and in view of the rubble and junk, the unpaved road is rather impassable. This is also evident between the former farm and the heliport, because nature has long since reclaimed the former road.

However, the Comino Heliport was never shut down, so that it continues to be an active landing site for helicopters with the code JCO. At some point they even retraced the markings on the dilapidated concrete slab. Inexplicable, but true: someone has "disposed of" old car tires at the Comino Heliport. Quite weird when you consider how difficult it is to get to it.

Otherwise, the landing site only consists of a concrete slab, an empty rainwater tank - whatever this is supposed to be used for, because even the lid is missing, an enclosure the height of a normal garden fence and the remains of a former wind indicator. There is no longer any electricity or even lighting because the line has obviously been without cables for a long time. Some of the masts are still standing. By the way, the fence is more or less pointless because the entrance gate is open and is now so badly affected by the weather that it can no longer be closed anyway. The Comino Heliport is freely accessible and there is no signage prohibiting this. The remains of small buildings can still be seen on the ground.

Heliport exclusively for pigs

Why was this heliport built, which looks like a lost place in the middle of nowhere? As mentioned at the beginning: It was not built for people, but for pigs. This was built on Comino in the late 1970s and housed up to 6.000 pigs at peak times. 

The reason was that a wave of disease killed almost the entire Maltese pig population. Therefore, a large pig farm was built on the island of Comino, which was already sparsely populated at that time. The animals were flown directly to the heliport from other countries or, for example, from Sweden via Luqa. Concerned about the introduction of possible diseases, these were reloaded from airplanes into helicopters at the only airport in the country and brought to Comino. This practice continued into the 1990s and early 2000s. Conversely, pigs were also exported in the same way. Occasionally, feed was also brought to the farm in this way.

Initially, the facility also served the “production” of meat, but later only animals were raised and then given to farmers on Gozo and Comino. The state of Malta has always owned it, with the area leased to a private operator. In 2009 it was decided that the cooperation would not be extended any more and even then the herd had been reduced to “only” 1.200 pigs. In 2011, the end came to an end, because a successor system was put into operation on the main island.

Nobody knows exactly when the last landing was

Again and again there are demands that the former pig farm should be used for tourism in some way, but nothing has happened so far. This is increasingly decaying and is now a lost place from the picture book. If you look for it explicitly, you will even find documents from the former operator. Entry is officially forbidden for safety reasons. Sometimes “walking through” is complicated because nature has expanded in the form of plants and trees.

The Comino Heliport has not been used “agriculturally” for over a decade. Even during the last few years of operation, flight operations were rather a rarity. Officially, the JCO is still online, but nobody knows when a helicopter last landed, as it is an uncontrolled landing site.

The island of Comino is better known among tourists for the Blue Lagoon, which is very overcrowded in the main season. Numerous providers brought vacationers to the small island and one can certainly speak of real mass processing. If you move a few steps away from this place, there is a lot to discover in the Lost Places area. You can also get to know the animal world and, with a little luck, even meet chameleons in the wild.

In the 1970s they wanted to expand Comino for tourism and built a hotel and bungalows. These are currently under renovation and are to be positioned as luxury accommodation in the future. The project is massively controversial because the client no longer wants to rent the holiday homes to tourists, but rather sell them. There is a dispute about this because the law does not allow new residences to be built on Comino. Opponents say that this should be bypassed, so to speak, through the back door. The heliport will therefore no longer receive traffic, because the way to the landing site from Santa Maria or San Niklaw Bay is extremely difficult.