Bremen Airport

Bremen Airport Flughafen Bremen
IATA: BRE – ICAO: EDDW BRE Location of airport in Bremen
Summary
Airport type		Commercial
Operator		Flughafen Bremen GmbH
Serves		Bremen
Elevation AMSL		14 ft / 4 m
Coordinates		53°02′51″N 008°47′12″E
Website		www.airport-bremen.de
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

Bremen Airport or Flughafen Bremen (IATA: BRE, ICAO: EDDW) serves the German city of Bremen and is located 3.5 km (2.2 mi) south of the city. There were 2.4 million passengers in 2008.

History

A Ryanair Boeing 737 at Bremen Airport

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 in order to connect Bremen to the growing airship route network. Official permission for the opening of an airport was granted on May 16, 1913. The initial infrastructure was geared towards aircraft operations instead of the initially envisaged airships. Several wooden hangars were erected.

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. After the war, the airport only reopened on July 18, 1920, with Dutch airline KLM beginning scheduled flights to Amsterdam soon thereafter. In the same year, the Weimar National Assembly authorized investment into upgraded facilities at the airport. Administration of the airport was transferred to the newly founded Bremer Flughafengesellschaft. In 1923, the airplane manufacturer Focke-Wulf was founded on a site adjacent to the airfield.

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.

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 in April with Scandinavian Airlines connecting Bremen to Copenhagen, with onward flights within Germany and from 1951 onwards to New York. Runway 09-27 was extended to 2.000 m.

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.

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

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

Ground transportation

Tram number 6 departs every 5 to 10 minutes (on Sunday evenings up to 50 min) to Bremen City Centre. The ride takes 11 minutes and costs €2.35. Bus2fly offers a bus to and from Hamburg, scheduled to coordinate with Ryanair flights. The ride takes 90 minutes and costs €18.00 each way.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Air Berlin	Seasonal: Antalya, Nuremberg, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South
Air France operated by Régional	Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Atlasjet	Seasonal: Antalya
Corendon Airlines	Antalya
Freebird Airlines	Seasonal: Istanbul-Atatürk
Germania	Fuerteventura, Hurghada, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Antalya, Burgas [begins 25 May], Corfu [begins 29 May], Dubrovnik [begins 27 May], Funchal, Heraklion [begins 4 May], Kos [begins 12 May], Málaga [begins 16 May], Palma de Mallorca [begins 1 April], Rhodes [begins 5 May], Split [begins 23 May], Thessaloniki [begins 24 May]
Germanwings	Stuttgart [begins 29 July]
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper	Amsterdam
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich
Lufthansa Regional operated by Augsburg Airways	Munich
Lufthansa Regional operated by Contact Air	Stuttgart
Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine	Munich
OLT	Brussels, Copenhagen, Gdańsk, Toulouse, Zurich Seasonal: Heringsdorf
OLT operated by OLT Jetair	Brussels, Gdańsk
Ryanair	Alicante, Edinburgh, Fuerteventura, Girona, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Łódź [begins 28 March], London-Stansted, Málaga, Manchester, Sandefjord, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tallinn, Tampere, Tenerife-South, Vilnius Seasonal: Faro, Haugesund, Ibiza, Marrakesh, Milan-Orio al Serio [resumes 25 March], Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Rhodes, Venice-Treviso
Sky Airlines	Antalya
SunExpress	Antalya
Tunisair	Seasonal: Enfidha
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk [begins 26 April]

Traffic statistics

	Number of Passengers	Number of Movements	Freight (tonnes)
2007	2,232,018	-	-
2008	2,486,337	46,876	27,661
2009	2,448,846	43,650	20,603
2010	2,676,297	46,412	20,673
2011	2,560,023	45,412	20,470
Source: [Airport Bremen GmbH]

References

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

External links

• Airport Bremen (English)
• Photos of Bremen Airport (from the official website)
• Aircraft photography of Airport Bremen (non-official website)