Bremen Airport

Bremen Airport
Flughafen Bremen
IATA: BRE – ICAO: EDDW
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Flughafen Bremen GmbH
Serves Bremen, Germany
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL 14 ft / 4 m
Coordinates 53°02′51″N 008°47′12″E / 53.04750°N 8.78667°ECoordinates: 53°02′51″N 008°47′12″E / 53.04750°N 8.78667°E
Website airport-bremen.de
Map
EDDW

Location of airport in Bremen

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
09/27 2,040 6,693 Asphalt
23 700 2,297 Asphalt
Helipads
Number Length Surface
m ft
H1 30 98 Grass
Source: German AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

Bremen Airport (German: Flughafen Bremen, also known as City Airport Bremen, IATA: BRE, ICAO: EDDW) serves the city of Bremen, in Northern Germany. It is located 3.5 km (2.2 mi) south of the city[1] and handled 2.56 million passengers in 2011. It mainly features flights to European metropolitan and leisure destinations and serves as a base for Germania and Ryanair.

History

Early years

The beginnings of the airport date back to the early 20th century. The Bremer Verein für Luftschiffahrt, a local aerospace club, conducted the first experimental flights at the present site in the summer of 1910, on what was then the parade ground of the local garrison. The Senate of Bremen supported the establishment of an airfield to connect Bremen to the growing airship route network. Official permission for the opening of an airport was granted on 16 May 1913. The initial infrastructure was geared towards aircraft operations instead of the initially envisaged airships. Several wooden hangars were erected.[2]

During World War I, the airport was taken into military administration, and civilian operations ceased. The military erected a wooden hangar, but conducted only a small number of operations from the airfield.[2] After the war, the airport only reopened on 18 July 1920, with Dutch airline KLM beginning scheduled flights to Amsterdam soon thereafter. In the same year, the Weimar National Assembly authorised investment into upgraded facilities at the airport. Administration of the airport was transferred to the newly founded Bremer Flughafengesellschaft.[3] In 1923, the aeroplane manufacturer Focke-Wulf was founded on a site adjacent to the airfield.

World War II

In the 1930s, several new terminal buildings and hangars were constructed, with the largest to date being completed in 1937. In the same year, four new runways were built. These were arranged in a star-like pattern. The increasing military buildup under the rule of the Nazis also began to show itself at the airport, with the Luftwaffe establishing a flight training base there. Civilian operations again came to a standstill with the beginning of World War II. For a short period between November 1939 and June 1940, the airport served as the base for a squadron of Focke-Wulf Fw200 bombers. In the later stages of the war, the airport came under repeated bombardment due to co-location with the Focke-Wulf plant. This left most of the infrastructure destroyed or severely damaged by the end of the war.[2]

The United States Army took over the airport and the adjacent aircraft plant in 1945 for use as an airbase. After conducting the necessary repairs, it operated mostly transport aircraft into and out of the American enclave within otherwise British-occupied northern Germany. Control was handed back to the Bremen authorities in 1949. Civilian operations resumed that year with Scandinavian Airlines using Bremen Airport as a stopover on routes from Scandinavia to Geneva and Vienna.[4] Runway 09-27 was extended to 2.000 m.[2]

Development since the 1950s

In the mid-1950s, the terminal buildings were reconstructed and Lufthansa began scheduled flights to the airport. The German airline also established its pilot training operations (Lufthansa Flight Training) at the airport. During the 1960s, scheduled jet flights began to be operated at Bremen. In 1971, a large radar system was installed on the southern perimeter of the airport.[2]

1989 was the first year that the airport had more than one million passengers.

Facilities

The airport consists of one main passenger terminal building that features several shops, restaurants and service facilities as well five aircraft stands equipped with jet bridges and some additional stands for mid-sized aircraft on the apron. Ryanair uses another more basic facility to the west of the main terminal called Terminal E which only features walk-boarding.

The Bremenhalle inside the airport hosts a little aviation and space exploration museum, displaying the Junkers W33 Bremen and the first Spacelab module.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Bremen Airport:[5]

Airlines Destinations
Air France
operated by HOP! 		Paris-Charles de Gaulle
AIS Airlines Zürich
Seasonal: Sylt
BMI Regional Toulouse
Express Airways Split (begins 17 May 2015)
Germania[6] Antalya, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Hurghada, Lanzarote, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South, Vienna
Seasonal: Agadir, Burgas, Corfu, Enfidha, Ibiza, Kos, Marsa Alam, Paphos, Rhodes, Varna
Germanwings Stuttgart
KLM
operated by KLM Cityhopper 		Amsterdam
Lufthansa Frankfurt, Munich
Lufthansa Regional
operated by Lufthansa CityLine 		Munich
Onur Air Antalya
Ryanair Alicante, Dublin, Girona, Gran Canaria, Lisbon, London-Stansted, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Prague,[7] Riga, Stockholm-Skavsta, Vilnius
Seasonal: Bergamo, Chania, Corfu, Edinburgh, Faro, Málaga, Manchester, Tallinn, Tampere, Thessaloniki
Scandinavian Airlines Copenhagen
SunExpress Izmir
Seasonal: Antalya
Tailwind Airlines Seasonal charter: Antalya
Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Atatürk

Statistics

Inside the terminal
Apron overview
Several Ryanair Boeing 737-800s at Bremen Airport
Passengers Movements Freight (in t)
2000 1,918,064 – –
2001 Decrease 1,819,831 – –
2002 Decrease 1,693,015 – –
2003 Decrease 1,639,834 – –
2004 Increase 1,674,987 – –
2005 Increase 1,739,797 – –
2006 Decrease 1,697,883 – –
2007 Increase 2,232,018 – –
2008 Increase 2,486,337 46,876 27,661
2009 Decrease 2,448,846 Decrease 43,650 Decrease 20,603
2010 Increase 2,676,297 Increase 46,412 Increase 20,673
2011 Decrease 2,560,023 Decrease 45,412 Increase 25,609
2012 Decrease 2,447,001 Decrease 44,737 Decrease 21,799
Source: Airport Bremen GmbH[8]

Ground transportation

Tram

Tram line 6 departs every 5 to 10 minutes (on Sunday evenings up to 20 min) to the city centre. The ride takes 11 minutes.[9]

Car

The airport can be reached via motorway A1 (Baltic Sea – Ruhr area; Exit Arsten) and the yet only partly completed city motorway A281 which crosses the city of Bremen.[10]

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "EAD Basic". Ead.eurocontrol.int.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Fliegerhorst Bremen-Neuenlander Feld". Relikte.com. 17 January 2002. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "City Airport Bremen | History". Airport-bremen.de. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  4. ↑ "Scandinavian Airlines System Timetable May 1, 1949". Airline Timetable Images. 2013.
  5. ↑ http://www.airport-bremen.de/en/flight-info/flights/overall-flight-schedule/
  6. ↑ "Germania Flight Schedule / 30.12.2014 - 01.11.2015" (PDF). Germania.
  7. ↑ "Ryanair Startet Neue Bremen – Prag Strecke" (in German). Ryanair.com. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "Traffic statistics City Airport Bremen" (PDF). Airport Bremen GmbH. January 2013.
  9. ↑ BSAG Bremer Straßenbahn AG
  10. ↑ "Anreise – Einfache und schnelle Fahrt zum City Airport Bremen". Airport-bremen.de.

External links

Media related to Airport Bremen at Wikimedia Commons