Düsseldorf Airport (German: Flughafen Düsseldorf, pronounced[ˌfluːkhaːfn̩ˈdʏsl̩dɔʁf]) (IATA: DUS, ICAO: EDDL), known as Düsseldorf International Airport until March 2013, is an international airport serving Düsseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi; 3.8 nmi) north of downtown Düsseldorf and some 20 kilometres (12 mi; 11 nmi) southwest of Essen in the Rhine-Ruhr area, Germany's largest metropolitan area.
Düsseldorf is the fourth-busiest airport in Germany and handled 16 million passengers in 2022.[3] It is a hub for Eurowings and a focus city for several more airlines. The airport has three passenger terminals and two runways and can handle wide-body aircraft up to the Airbus A380.[4]
Düsseldorf Airport is the largest and primary airport for the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region – the largest metropolitan region in Germany and among the largest metropolitan areas in the world.[5] The airport is located in Düsseldorf-Lohausen. The largest nearby business centres are Düsseldorf and Essen; other cities within a 20-kilometre (12 mi) radius are Duisburg, Krefeld, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Neuss, and Wuppertal. The airport extends over a compact 6.13 square kilometres (2.37 sq mi) of land – small in comparison to airports of a similar capacity, but also a reason for Düsseldorf being known as an airport of short distances.[clarification needed] The airport has more than 18,200 employees.
The city of Düsseldorf owns half the airport, with the other half owned by various commercial entities. Düsseldorf Airport is a public–private partnership with the following owners:
The current airport was opened on 19 April 1927, after two years of construction. The first international route was inaugurated by SABENA in 1929 between Brussels, Antwerp, Düsseldorf and Hamburg.[7]
At the beginning of World War II, civil use of the airport ceased in September 1939 and the airfield was used by the military.[7] After the end of the war, the airport reopened for civil use in 1948. With the area under British administration, the first international flights were operated by British European AirwaystoLondon.[7]
Since 1950, the airport is owned by a state-owned operations company.[7]
In 1969 the main runway was lengthened to 3000 metres while a new second terminal was under construction.[7] The new Terminal 2, which is today's Terminal B, opened in April 1973.[7] Another addition, today's Terminal A, was opened in 1977[7] while the last annex, Terminal C, opened in 1986.[7]
On 11 April 1996, the Düsseldorf Airport fire, which is the worst structural airport fire worldwide to date, broke out. It was caused by welding work on an elevated road in front of Terminal A above its arrivals area. Insufficient structural fire protection allowed the fire and especially the smoke to spread fast, destroying large parts of the passenger areas of the airport. Seventeen people died, mostly due to smoke inhalation, with many more hospitalised. At the time, the fire was the biggest public disaster in the history of North Rhine-Westphalia. Damage to the airport was estimated to be in the hundreds of millions; Terminals A and B had to be completely reconstructed. While repairs were ongoing, passengers were housed in big tents.[8]
In November 1997, Terminal C was completely redeveloped, with three lightweight construction halls serving as departure areas. Also in 1997 construction began on the new inter-city railway station at the eastern edge of the airport. In 1998 the rebuilt Terminal A was reopened and the airport changed its name from "Rhine Ruhr Airport" to "Düsseldorf International". Reconstruction of the central building and Terminal B began in the same year.[9]
The first construction stage in the "Airport 2000+" programme commenced in 1998 with the laying of a foundation stone for an underground parking garage under the new terminal.[10]
The new Düsseldorf Airport station was opened in May 2000, with a capacity of 300 train departures daily. 16million passengers used the airport that year; Düsseldorf is now the third-biggest airport in Germany. The new departures hall and Terminal B were opened in July 2001 after 2½ years of construction time; the rebuilt Gebäude Ost (East Building) was reopened.
In 2002, the inter-terminal shuttle bus service was replaced by the suspended monorail called the SkyTrain connecting the terminal building with the InterCity train station. The monorail travels the 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) between the terminal and station at a maximum speed of 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph). The system was developed by Siemens and is based on the similar H-Bahn operating with two lines on the Dortmund university campus.
On 12 November 2006, the first Airbus A380 landed in Düsseldorf as part of a Lufthansa promotional flight.
In March 2013, the Airport received a new corporate design and dropped the phrase International from its official name.[11]
In January 2015, Emirates announced it would schedule the Airbus A380 on one of their two daily flights from Dubai to Düsseldorf starting in July 2015.[12] In May 2015, the airport finished construction of the new facilities needed to handle the A380, including a parking position with three jet-bridges, widened taxiways and new ground handling equipment.[4]
In June 2015, Lufthansa announced the closure of its long-haul base at Düsseldorf Airport for economic reasons by October 2015. The base consisted of two Airbus A340-300s which served Newark and Chicago-O'Hare. Newark remained a year-round service which is operated in a W-pattern from Munich Airport (Munich - Newark - Düsseldorf - Newark - Munich) while the Chicago service was suspended for the winter 2015/2016 season.[13] A few months later, Lufthansa announced the cancellation of the Düsseldorf-Chicago route.[14] The same route was served by American Airlines during the summer seasons from 2013[15] to 2016, when it was discontinued.[16]
In January 2017, the airport's largest hub operator Air Berlin announced a massive downsizing of its operations due to restructuring measures. While some leisure routes were handed to Niki more than a dozen destinations were cancelled entirely.[17] In August 2017, Air Berlin also announced the termination of all long-haul routes from Düsseldorf to destinations in the Caribbean on short notice due to ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.[18] However, both Condor and Eurowings announced it would step in and start some of the terminated Caribbean destinations by themselves.[19][20] Shortly after, Air Berlin also announced the termination of all remaining long-haul operations leading to the loss of several connections to the United States at Düsseldorf Airport.[21] On 9 October 2017, Air Berlin announced the termination of all of its own operations, excluding wetleases, by the end of the month[22][23] leading to the loss of one of the airport's largest customers.
In February 2018, Eurowings announced the relocation of all long-haul routes currently served from Cologne Bonn Airport to Düsseldorf by late October 2018 to strengthen its presence there.[24]
In March 2018, Lufthansa announced it would close its base at Düsseldorf Airport after the 2018/2019 winter schedule which ended in March 2019. When the single remaining long-haul route to Newark was taken over by Eurowings, 400 staff members were offered a relocation to either Frankfurt AirportorMunich Airport.[25][26] In November 2018, Ryanair also announced they would close their base in Düsseldorf after only a year. Its routes were taken over by Lauda.[27]
In August 2020, Delta Air Lines removed the Atlanta route from their schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] It started resuming its three-times-weekly service to and from Atlanta on May 9, 2023, albeit making the route to Düsseldorf summer seasonal only, therefore leaving the airport without any transatlantic connection in the winter season.[29]
Shortly after Delta Air Lines suspended its Atlanta route, Ryanair announced the closure of its base in Düsseldorf - which was operated on a wetlease basis by Lauda - by 24 October 2020.[30] In September 2020, Singapore Airlines permanently removed the route to Singapore from their schedule.[31]
In the autumn of 2022, German airline Sundair drastically reduced its operations from Düsseldorf, leaving a single route to Beirut. The two previously based aircraft were relocated. In January 2023 it became public that Sundair would not return to Düsseldorf in the summer season of 2023 with any flight, eradicating its former base from the network.[32][33]
Just five months after resuming the previously long-standing route to Atlanta, Delta Air Lines announced in September 2023 that it would not return to Düsseldorf in the 2024 summer season. The route had been announced at only three weekly flights and was downgraded to summer seasonal before it even started.[34] This leaves Düsseldorf without a single scheduled transatlantic flight.[citation needed]
Düsseldorf Airport has three terminals connected by a central spine, even though the terminals are essentially concourses within a single terminal building. The current terminal buildings are capable of handling up to 22 million passengers per year.
Terminal B was originally inaugurated in 1973 and has 11 gates (B01–B11) used for domestic and EU flights by a few Star Alliance members such as Aegean Airlines, but mainly by SkyTeam and Oneworld members like Air France, British Airways, KLM, Finnair, Iberia and ITA Airways. Also located within this terminal are leisure carriers such as TUIfly and Condor. Terminal B houses an observation deck, which got shut down after the COVID-19 outbreak due to economic reasons,[35] and one contract lounge [36] After the fire in 1996, the whole terminal building was torn down and reconstructed. It was reopened in 2001.
Terminal C was opened in 1986 and has 8 gates (C01–C08) used exclusively for non-Schengen flights by non-Star Alliance airlines (except Turkish Airlines). These are long-haul flights – among others – by Emirates and Etihad Airways. Terminal C has a direct access to Airport City's Maritim Hotel, part of a German hotel chain, and houses lounges operated by the airport and Emirates. Terminal C was the least affected terminal after the fire in 1996, reopening the same year after intensive maintenance work. Thus it was the only usable Terminal at Düsseldorf Airport for a couple of years. Terminal C features the airport's only parking position equipped with three jet-bridges to handle the Airbus A380.[12]
Düsseldorf has two runways, which are 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) and 2,700 metres (8,858 ft) long. There are plans to extend the 3,000-metre (9,843 ft) runway to 3,600 metres (11,811 ft), but the town of Ratingen has been blocking the expansion, as it lies within the approach path of the runway. 107 aircraft parking positions are available on the aprons.
Since 2003, an area of 23 hectares (57 acres) southwest of the airport terminal has been under redevelopment as Düsseldorf Airport City with an anticipated gross floor area of 250,000 square metres (2,700,000 sq ft) to be completed by 2016. Already based at Düsseldorf Airport City are corporate offices of Siemens and VDI, a large Porsche centre and showroom, a Maritim Hotel,[37] and a Sheraton Hotel. Messe Düsseldorf is situated in close proximity to Düsseldorf Airport City (some 500 m or 1,600 ft).
The main station, Düsseldorf Airport station, is located 2.5 km (1.6 mi) from the terminal, and is served by all categories of railway, including Intercity Express (ICE) high-speed trains. A fully automatic suspended monorail called SkyTrain connects this station to the airport parking areas and the passenger terminals and also serves as an inter-terminal connection.
The airport can be reached via its own motorway section which is part of the motorway A44 (Belgium – Kassel, Exit Düsseldorf-Flughafen) which also connects to motorways A52, A57 and A3. There are also several local bus lines connecting the airport with nearby areas and Düsseldorf city center.[95]
On 22 December 1955, a Manx AirlinesDouglas C-47 on a positioning flight crashed at DUS attempting a visual approach rather than an instrument landing system approach in low clouds. The aircraft descended too low and struck trees, crashing about three miles from the runway. All three occupants were killed.[100]
On 3 November 1957, a Karl Herfurtner DüsseldorfDouglas C-54 crashed into a residential area 4.5 km (2.8 mi) S of DUS after takeoff due to mismanagement of the flight by the chief pilot. There were six fatalities out of the 10 on board and one killed on the ground.[101]
Weeze Airport, an airport 80 km (50 mi) north-west from Düsseldorf, that is sometimes advertised by low-cost airlines as『Düsseldorf-Weeze』or "Weeze (Düsseldorf)". A German court ruled that naming the airport after Düsseldorf would be misleading to passengers; however, some airlines still use that name in advertisements outside Germany.
^"Kontakt." LTU International. Retrieved 21 June 2009. "LTU International Airways Flughafen Düsseldorf, Halle 8 D40474 Düsseldorf"
^"Contact." Blue Wings. 12 June 2005. Retrieved 30 December 2012. "Blue Wings AG Duesseldorf Airport Terminal A 5. OG 40474 Duesseldorf, Germany"
^"Welcome to Blue Wings." Blue Wings. 27 March 2009. Retrieved on 30 December 2012. "Blue Wings AG . Düsseldorf Airport . Terminal A . D-40474 Düsseldorf . Germany"
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