Dortmund Airport
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| Dortmund Airport Dortmund Airport |
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| IATA: DTM - ICAO: EDLW | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Operator | Flughafen Dortmund GmbH | ||
| Serves | Dortmund, Germany | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 424 ft (129 m) | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 06/24 | 6,560 | 2,000 | Asphalt |
Dortmund Airport (IATA: DTM, ICAO: EDLW), is the international airport of Dortmund, Germany. Its slogan is Näher als man denkt (Nearer than you think). Since 2006 it has been carrying the name "Dortmund Airport 21", in reference to the fact that Dortmund's utility company, DSW21, is its major shareholder.
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[edit] Early history
The airport, originally located in the suburb of Brackel, was first served by commercial flights in 1925 by Aero Lloyd, which operated flights to Paris. By the business year 1927/1928, service had expanded to 2,589 commercial flights annually. During World War II the airport was used a German air base, and was subsequently used by the British Royal Air Force. Service to Dortmund was not recommenced when German commercial air service was restarted in 1955. In 1960, the civil airfield was relocated to Dortmund-Wickede. The old airport was abandoned and occupied by British forces until the 1990s. Since 2006, part of the original airport area has been used as training grounds by the soccer club Borussia Dortmund.
[edit] Little service
Over the next decades Düsseldorf International Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport were the dominant commercial airports in the Rhine-Ruhr Area. Additionally Hanover/Langenhagen International Airport and Münster/Osnabrück Airport also covered some of the air travel needs of this region. Furthermore, the 257km (160mile) Sauerlandlinie opened in the late 1960s, connecting Dortmund with Frankfurt International Airport in under two hours by car.
Commercial service was restored in 1979 with daily flights to Munich by Reise- und Industrieflug GmbH (RFG). Nuremberg and Stuttgart followed shortly afterwards. Following German Reunification in 1990, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, and London were added to the flight schedule.
RFG and NFD (Nürnberger Flugdienst) merged in 1990 and Eurowings was formed, which is still based in Dortmund. Construction was started in 1998, and completed in 2000 on a new replacement terminal. This multi-level terminal prepared the airport for its resurgence.
[edit] Resurgence
From late 2000 onwards, Dortmund Airport has experienced a drastic increase in air traffic. In the 1990s weekly service had been generally restricted to a few turboprop flights to destinations within Germany, as well as occasional charter flights to warm-weather destinations. Since 2000, several new airlines have commenced service to Dortmund, many with mainline jets. Most of the air traffic today is by low cost airlines operating Boeing 737 or Airbus A318/19/20/21 series aircraft to warm-weather destinations and business centers.
The first mass carrier at Dortmund Airport was Air Berlin, which began flights to London, Milan, and Vienna in 2002, supplementing its leisure routes to the Mediterranean. EasyJet made Dortmund a hub in 2004, and Germanwings will follow in 2007. Air Berlin eventually ceased most non-leisure routes from Dortmund in 2005, but EasyJet and Germanwings have taken these over or will do so by the Summer 2007 timetable.
[edit] Future
The airport's master plan consists of the following elements:
- Increasing normal operating hours by one hour at night (to 23:00h), with an additional one hour window in the morning and at night for exceptions.
- Lengthening the runway to 2800 meters
- Expanding the terminal and its infrastructure
- Improving freeway connections
- Directly connecting the airport to mass transit
[edit] Airlines and destinations
Airlines include:
- Air Berlin (Ibiza, Nuremberg, Palma Mallorca, Rome-Fiumicino)
- Air Via (Burgas)
- Austrian Arrows (Bolzano [weekends])
- Blue Wings (Ankara, Antalya)
- Bulgarian Air Charter (Varna)
- easyJet (Alicante, Barcelona, Budapest, Edinburgh (from 30 May), Krakow, London-Luton, Malaga, Milan-Malpensa, Nice, Palma Mallorca, Prague, Rome-Ciampino, Thessaloniki (from 31 May) )
- Germanwings (Operations begin on 22 June to Faro, Ibiza, Istanbul, Palma Mallorca, Vienna)
- Lufthansa (Munich)
- Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (Berlin-Tempelhof, Dresden, Leipzig-Halle, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Westerland)
- Sky Airlines (Antalya)
- SunExpress (Antalya)
- Wizz Air (Bucharest-Băneasa, Gdańsk, Katowice, Warsaw, Wrocław)
Charter destinations include numerous vacation destinations around the Mediterranean Sea. Air Berlin flies to dozens of these types of destinations weekly.
[edit] Ground transportation
Dortmund Airport is served by an express bus to Dortmund Central Station, a shuttle bus to a nearby rail station (Holzwickede/Dortmund Flughafen), and a bus to Unna, a city to the east.
[edit] References
- Faszination Fliegen. Flughafen Dortmund. Retrieved on July 1, 2005.
- Dortmund Destinations. Dortmund Destinations. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
