Cottbus-Drewitz Airport
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Cottbus-Drewitz Airport Flugplatz Cottbus-Drewitz | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Civilian | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Flughafen Süd- Brandenburg-Cottbus GmbH | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Cottbus | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Jänschwalde-Drewitz | ||||||||||||||
| Built | 1939 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 276 ft / 84 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 51°53′22″N 14°31′55″E / 51.88944°N 14.53194°E | ||||||||||||||
| Website | www.flugplatz-drewitz.de | ||||||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Cottbus-Drewitz Airport (IATA: CBU, ICAO: EDCD) is a civilian airport located in Drewitz, an Ortsteil of Jänschwalde, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) north-east of Cottbus in Brandenburg, Germany.
History
During World War II Cottbus-Drewitz Airport was used by the Luftwaffe and from 1956 by the National People's Army.
Upon German reunification in 1990, the Luftwaffe officially took over the airport once again but after 1993, the airport's new owners, Flughafen Süd-Brandenburg-Cottbus GmbH, had opened it up for civilian use.
In April 2000 a new control tower was opened.
Present
The airport is most often used for charter flights for the football team FC Energie Cottbus, but is also used for training flights by Air Berlin, TUIfly, Lufthansa and Germania.
In late May 2012, a grass strip at the airport was used to conduct unpaved runway trials of the Airbus A400M military airlifter.[1] Although Airbus Military had examined the grass strip and believed it suitable, testing was cut short when the test aircraft penetrated the runway surface during a rejected takeoff test.[1] The test aircraft departed undamaged.[1]
Aside from a bistro serving the terminal, there is also a small aviation museum and flying school.
Future
Due to investors pulling out, there has been several failed attempts to turn the civilian airport into a freight hub with a 3000 m runway, similar in concept to Frankfurt-Hahn.
References
- ^ a b c Hoyle, Craig (May 25, 2012), "Soft ground cuts short A400M landing trials", Flightglobal.com website, London: Reed Elsevier, OCLC 173992746, archived from the original on June 7, 2012, retrieved June 7, 2012,
Development aircraft MSN2 arrived at Cottbus-Drewitz airport on 22 May, following a transfer flight from Toulouse, France. It had been expected to remain at the location until the end of this week to perform landings on a grass strip at the site, but was involved in a minor incident during a test conducted the following day.