Weeze Airport

Weeze Airport
Flughafen Weeze/Niederrhein
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Flughafen Niederrhein GmbH
Serves Kreis Kleve, Nijmegen
and Duisburg
Location Weeze
Focus city for Ryanair
Elevation AMSL 106 ft / 32 m
Coordinates 51°36′09″N 006°08′32″E / 51.60250°N 6.14222°E / 51.60250; 6.14222 (Weeze Airport)Coordinates: 51°36′09″N 006°08′32″E / 51.60250°N 6.14222°E / 51.60250; 6.14222 (Weeze Airport)
Website www.airport-weeze.de/index.php?lang=en
Map
NRN
NRN
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
09/27 2,440 8,005 Concrete/Asphalt
Statistics (2016)
Passengers 1,854,108
Source:German AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

Weeze Airport (IATA: NRN, ICAO: EDLV), less commonly known as Niederrhein Airport, is a minor international airport in the Lower Rhine region of Germany. It is mostly used by low-cost carriers, especially Ryanair. The airport is situated 3.7 km (2.3 mi) southwest[1] of the municipality of Weeze and 7 km (4.3 mi) northwest[1] of Kevelaer, about 33 km (21 mi) southeast of the Dutch city of Nijmegen, and 48 km (30 mi) northwest of the German city of Duisburg.

History

The airport uses the facilities of the former military airbase RAF Laarbruch, it began operations as a civil airport in 2003. There is also a big fire brigade training facility at the grounds of the airport. Its IATA code is NRN because of its official name Flughafen Niederrhein.

Weeze was served by the short-lived Dutch low-cost carrier V Bird, which opened a base here and operated flights to Berlin, Munich and several European destinations, from its inception in 2003 until its bankruptcy in 2004. During this time, passenger numbers doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 within a year.[2]

In 2008, with 1.52 million passengers, which represented a growth of 80% on the previous year, the airport was among Europe's fastest-growing.

In February 2014, Ryanair announced the cancellation of 18 routes from Weeze for the 2014 summer season stating a lack of aircraft.[3]

Naming controversy

The airport has had several different names in its history as a civil airport. The operators originally wanted to name it after the city of Düsseldorf, but the significant distance of 83 km (52 mi) to that city, which already had two closer international airports (the actual Düsseldorf Airport as well as Cologne Bonn Airport), resulted in the name being blocked by a court ruling that it was likely to mislead passengers.[4] However, Ryanair still refers to it as "Düsseldorf-Weeze". The airport is actually closer to the Dutch cities of Venlo, Nijmegen and Arnhem, the German city of Duisburg and the immediate Weeze area than Düsseldorf.

Facilities

Weeze Airport features one passenger terminal building featuring restaurants and shops besides the check-in facilities. The apron, which lies to the west of the terminal building, features nine aircraft stands for mid-sized aircraft such as the Boeing 737-800. As there are no jet bridges due to the location of the apron – it is located to the west of the terminal building instead in front of it – bus-boarding is used for 6 stands. Only 3 stands are close to the terminal which could be boarded by foot.

Airlines and destinations

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

AirlinesDestinations
Eurowings operated by Air Berlin Munich
FlyEgypt Seasonal charter: Hurghada
Ryanair Agadir, Alicante, Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Edinburgh, Eilat-Ovda (begins 30 October 2017)[6], Faro, Fes, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Málaga, Malta, Marrakesh, Nador, Niš, Oradea (begins 30 October 2017)[7], Oujda, Palermo, Porto, Rabat (begins 30 October 2017)[8], Rome-Ciampino, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tallinn, Tangier (begins 29 October 2017)[9], Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Timișoara, Valencia, Växjö
Seasonal: Alghero, Ancona, Béziers, Cagliari, Chania, Comiso, Corfu, Girona, Ibiza, Lamezia Terme, London-Luton, London-Stansted, Malta, Palma de Mallorca, Pescara, Pisa, Santander, Zadar

Statistics

Check-in area at Weeze Airport
Passengers
2008 1,523,990
2009 Increase 2,402,083
2010 Increase 2,896,730
2011 Decrease 2,421,108
2012 Decrease 2,208,429
2013 Increase 2,487,843
2014 Decrease 1,807,543
2015 Increase 1,909,704
2016 Decrease 1,854,108[10]
Source: ADV[11]

Ground transportation

Coach

Direct buses serve Düsseldorf Main Station up to 7 times a day; the travel time is 1h 15min. There are also shuttle buses on reservation to Duisburg and Essen in Germany and to the Dutch cities of Nijmegen, Venlo and Arnhem. Airexpressbus offered until spring 2017 a service from Weeze Airport to Amsterdam with stops at Eindhoven Airport, Den Bosch, and Utrecht.[12]

Train

Bus shuttles serve the railway stations of Weeze, Kevelaer and Goch on a frequent basis. Travellers for Düsseldorf Main Station will need to catch the bus to Weeze or Kevelaer railway stations.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "EAD Basic – Error Page". Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  2. ↑ rp-online.de - "10 years ago: V Bird gives wings to the airport" (German) 15 November 2013
  3. ↑ "Ryanair streicht Angebot in Weeze kräftig zusammen". airliners.de. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  4. ↑ GmbH, FVW Medien. "Flughafen Weeze darf nicht Düsseldorf heißen". Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  5. ↑ "airport-weeze.de - Timetable". Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  6. ↑ Staff. "Ryanair Startet Neue Strecke Von Düsseldorf Weeze Nach Eilat (Owda)" (in German). ryanair.com. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  7. ↑ Sander van Mersbergen. "Woedende topman Ryanair schrapt vluchten in Eindhoven" (in Dutch). ad.nl. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  8. ↑ Sander van Mersbergen. "Woedende topman Ryanair schrapt vluchten in Eindhoven" (in Dutch). ad.nl. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  9. ↑ Sander van Mersbergen. "Woedende topman Ryanair schrapt vluchten in Eindhoven" (in Dutch). ad.nl. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  10. ↑ http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/goch/airport-weeze-2016-mit-rekordgewinn-aid-1.6538119
  11. ↑ "German Airport Statistics (German)".
  12. ↑ http://www.airexpressbus.com/images/timetable-aeb/Weezewinter.pdf
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