Düsseldorf Airport

Düsseldorf Airport is the international airport of Düsseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about north of downtown Düsseldorf, and some south-west of Essen in the Rhine-Ruhr area, Germany's largest metropolitan area.
Düsseldorf is the third largest airport in Germany after Frankfurt and Munich; it handled 24.5 million passengers in 2017. 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.

Overview

Usage

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 of the world. The airport is located in Düsseldorf-Lohausen. The largest nearby business centres are Düsseldorf and Essen; other cities within a radius are Duisburg, Krefeld, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Neuss, and Wuppertal. The airport extends over a compact 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. The airport has more than 18,200 employees.
With 18.99 million passengers passing through in 2010, the airport was the third busiest in Germany, after Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport, and was the 23rd busiest airport in Europe. Transfer passengers and those travelling on long-haul flights from the airport accounted for around 13% of all passengers in 2010.

Ownership

The City of Düsseldorf owns half the airport, with the other half owned by various commercial entitites, including ARI which is itself owned by the Irish Government. Düsseldorf Airport is a public–private partnership with the following owners:

50% city of Düsseldorf
50% Airport Partners GmbH
History

Early years

The first aviation event in the area was the landing of Zeppelin LZ3 on 19 September 1909 about south of the present airport. The present airport was opened on 19 April 1927, after two years of construction. Deutsche Luft Hansa opened routes to Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Geneva. At the beginning of World War II civil use of the airport ceased in September 1939 and the airfield was used by the military.
After the end of the war the airport reopened for civil use in 1948. With the area under British administration, the first flights were operated by British European Airways to RAF Northolt.
In 1950, the main runway was extended to 2475 metres. In 1964 planning began for the construction of a new terminal, with capacity for 1.4 million passengers, and in 1969 the main runway was further lengthened to 3000 metres.
In 1973 the new central building and Terminal B were opened and in 1975 the railway connection between Düsseldorf central station and the airport opened. The additional new Terminal A was opened in 1977. In 1986 Terminal C was opened and 8.22 million passengers used the airport, making it number two in Germany.
By 1992, when the new second runway was built, 12.3 million passengers were using the airport. At an undisclosed date the north-south oriented runway was shut down and converted into a taxiway and aircraft parking.

Düsseldorf Airport fire

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, so these destroyed 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.
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.

Development since the 2000s

The first stage in the "Airport 2000+" programme commenced in 1999 with the laying of a foundation stone for an underground parking garage under the new terminal.
The new Düsseldorf Airport station was opened in May 2000, with the capacity of 300 train departures daily. Sixteen million 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 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 between the terminal and station at a maximum speed of. The system was developed by Siemens and is based on the similar H-Bahn operating with two lines on 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.
In January 2015, Emirates announced it will schedule the Airbus A380 on one of their two daily flights from Dubai to Düsseldorf starting in July 2015. 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.
In June 2015, Lufthansa announced the closure 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 while the Chicago service was suspended for the winter 2015/2016 season. A few months later, Lufthansa announced the cancellation of the Düsseldorf-Chicago route. The same route has been served by American Airlines during the summer seasons from 2013 to 2016, when it was discontinued.
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 have been cancelled entirely. 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 the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. However, both Condor and Eurowings announced it would step in and start some of the terminated Caribbean destinations by themselves. 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. On 9 October 2017, Air Berlin announced the termination of all of its own operations, excluding wetleases, by the end of the month leading to the loss of one of the airport's largest customers.
In February 2018, Eurowings announced the relocatation of all long-haul routes currently served from Cologne Bonn Airport to Düsseldorf by late October 2018 to strengthen their presence there.
In March 2018, Lufthansa announced it would to close its base at Düsseldorf Airport after the 2018/2019 winter schedule which ended in March 2019. With the single remaining long-haul route to Newark was taken over by Eurowings, 400 staff members were offered a relocation to either Frankfurt Airport or Munich Airport. In November 2018, Ryanair also announced they would close their base in Düsseldorf after only a year. Their routes were taken over by Lauda.

Facilities

Terminals

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 A

Terminal A was opened in 1977 and has 16 gates used by Lufthansa and Eurowings, its airline partners and Star Alliance members, All Nippon Airways, Air China, Austrian Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, TAP Portugal, and Swiss International Air Lines. Terminal A houses two Lufthansa lounges. It was refurbished fundamentally for two years after the 1996 fire. From 21 July 2016, Singapore Airlines began to use Terminal A.

Terminal B

Terminal B was originally inaugurated in 1973 and has 11 gates used for domestic and EU-flights by a few Star Alliance members such as Aegean Airlines, but mainly by SkyTeam and Oneworld members like Alitalia, British Airways, KLM, Finnair, Iberia, and Air France. Also located within this terminal are leisure carriers such as TUIfly and Condor. Terminal B houses an observation deck and airline lounges by Air France and British Airways. After the fire in 1996 the whole terminal building was torn down and reconstructed. It was reopened in 2001.

Terminal C

Terminal C was opened in 1986 and has 8 gates used exclusively for non-Schengen-flights by non-Star Alliance airlines. These are long-haul flights – among others – by Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Mahan Air. 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. It was still reopened in 1996 after intensive maintenance works. 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.

Executive Terminal

operates a small terminal solely for private and corporate customers.

Runways and apron

Düsseldorf has two runways, which are and long. There are plans to extend the runway to, 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.

Airport City

Since 2003, an area of south-west of the airport terminal has been under redevelopment as Düsseldorf Airport City with an anticipated gross floor area of 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 and Congress Centre and a Sheraton Hotel. Messe Düsseldorf is situated in close proximity to Düsseldorf Airport City.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines offer regular scheduled and charter flights at Düsseldorf Airport:

Statistics

Passengers and freight

Source: ADV, Düsseldorf Airport

Busiest routes

Source: Düsseldorf Airport

Largest airlines