Bremen Airport (own name since 2017 Bremen Airport Hans Koschnick)
(IATA: BRE, ICAO: EDDW) is the international commercial airport of
Bremen. It is located in Bremer Neustadt on Flughafenallee. Measured by
the number of passengers, the airport ranks thirteenth in Germany in
2022 and fourteenth in terms of freight.
The operating company is
Flughafen Bremen GmbH. Its sole shareholder is the city of Bremen.
Position
Bremen Airport is located 3.5 kilometers south of the
city center in the Neuenland district of Bremen Neustadt. The
westernmost part (about 600 m) including the end of runway 27 is located
in Lower Saxony. Due to its proximity to the city center, it was
marketed as "City Airport Bremen".
The airport can be reached via
the A1, A 27, A 281 motorways and the B6 and B75 federal roads.
Local public transport
The airport is connected to public transport
with the BSAG tram line 6, which offers a connection via the Neustadt
district to the city center and to the main station in the direction of
Schwachhausen and Riensberg to the university every 6 minutes during
peak traffic times. In addition, bus line 52 runs every 30 minutes from
the Roland Center in Huchting via the airport and the Airbus facilities
to the Kattenturm district and sometimes continues from there as line 29
to the Hemelingen, Sebaldsbrück and Neue districts Vahr North.
Beginning
The Bremer Verein für
Luft(schiff)fahrt, which still exists today and is active at Bremen
Airport, was founded in 1909. From the beginning he tried to build an
airship port in Bremen. The Senate of the Hanseatic city supported this
project and commissioned the North German Lloyd and the Bremen Aviation
Association to take over the planning of an airship port on the Bremen
Werder. In May 1910, an application by engineer Walter Schudeisky was
submitted to Senator Clemens Carl Buff for construction; Schudeisky
wanted to carry out flight tests on the Neuenlander Feld parade ground.
Both the Senate and the garrison command agreed, and so in the summer of
1910 three sheds were built to house the aircraft. Right from the start
there were complaints from residents about aircraft noise and the
occasional crash landing in the farmers' fields. This resulted in a
short-term flight ban. As early as 1912, the Bremen Association for
Aviation, which has since been renamed, began to offer sightseeing
flights and received approval on May 16, 1913 to set up an air base on
Neuenlander Feld. The airport here had a size of almost half a square
kilometer. During the First World War there were no flights at the
airport. After the end of the war, the Bremen Senate decided in 1919 to
build an airport.
On July 18, 1920, the Dutch KLM carried out the first international
flight via Bremen. On September 15, 1921, the Bremer
Flughafenbetriebsgesellschaft came into being, whose share capital of
75,000 marks and working capital of 25,000 marks did not come from the
city of Bremen, but from Bremen personalities and local companies such
as A.G. Weser, North German Lloyd, Bremer Bank, Deutsche Bank,
Kaiserbrauerei Beck & Co. and the Bremen Aviation Association. Later,
the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen concluded an operating
transfer agreement and contributed a further 1.2 million Reichsmarks.
This made it possible for Lloyd Luftfahrtdienst GmbH, a subsidiary of
North German Lloyd, to offer flights from Bremen to Berlin, Dortmund and
Wangerooge as early as 1920. Aircraft construction was also closely
linked to the airport. Henrich Focke, his brother Wilhelm and Georg Wulf
began building aircraft in the basement of the Focke Museum while the
Treaty of Versailles was still banning aircraft construction and testing
them on the airport site from 1921. On October 24, 1923, the two founded
"Bremer Flugzeugbau AG", which later became "Focke-Wulf-Flugzeugbau AG".
From 1925, Hall A with 2400 m² was built on the plans of the new
full-time manager of the airport, the former Rear Admiral of the
Imperial Navy Hans Gygas. He remained director of Bremen Airport until
1933 and was replaced by Cornelius Edzard. In January 1934, line 5 of
the Bremen tramway was extended to the airport, and a new airport
administration building was built in the same year.
Due to the
increasing weight of aircraft and faster take-off and landing speeds, a
system of paved runways was built in 1937. A total of four concrete
lanes were laid, the longest of which was 600 meters long and 52 meters
wide. The tracks crossed in a star shape, making it possible to maintain
flight operations in different wind directions. Together with the
taxiways, the night flight lights and the Lorenz beacon, the most modern
airport in Germany at the time was created, christened the Bremen Air
Station by the press. In addition, in 1937 the hangar E was completed on
the now almost one square kilometer site. The two-storey functional
building combined weather station, administration, customs and post
offices with the check-in counters and a restaurant.
Air base
In 1939, civil air traffic in
Bremen collapsed completely with the start of the Second World War. From
August 1939, the Luftwaffe set up an air base headquarters. The
Bremen-Neuenlanderfeld air base, as it was called at the time, was only
occupied by active flying units for a short time. So here was the I./KG
40 (I. Gruppe of Kampfgeschwader 40) from November 1939 to April 1940.
From March to May 1940 the Aufkl.St. Bremen from here their missions and
as a last the I./JG 27 (I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 27) was stationed
here in June/July 1940. After that, the airport served as a works
airport for the Focke-Wulf Flugwerft. It was often the target of Allied
bombing raids.
After the war, Bremen became part of the American occupation zone.
The US Army took over this airfield. After carrying out the first repair
work, it used it together with the Focke-Wulf factory premises as an
Army Air Force base until March 1948. Mainly military transport aircraft
flew to Bremen. With the support of the US military, Bremen Airport was
able to reopen on January 27, 1949.
In the course of the
renovation work, the east-west runway (today 09/27) was extended to 1300
meters in an easterly direction, and a little later again to 2034
meters. New radio systems were installed to keep flight operations
running even in bad weather. This allowed the airport to be used for
international destinations as well.
Within Germany, the
Scandinavian SAS flew a few routes per week. Flights to New York were
offered from Bremen for returning US soldiers, and Rio de Janeiro was
also on the flight plan in the early 1950s. Although Lufthansa was
allowed to fly again in 1955, it did not include Bremen in its flight
schedule until January 2, 1957; however, on May 1, 1956, Lufthansa
established the Bremen Air Traffic School at the airport. Later the
school moved to a new building in the immediate vicinity of the airport
and the old building with a direct connection to the apron was given
over to air traffic control. Today the commercial pilot school operates
under the name Lufthansa Flight Training. From 1965 to 1974 a new
airport building was built according to plans by Hermann Brede.
After the accident involving BEA Flight 609 at Munich-Riem Airport, the
security areas behind the runways at airports had to be enlarged. This
meant that in Bremen only 1740 meters for take-off and 1909 meters for
landing from the west and 2034 meters and 1740 meters from the east
could be used. This resulted in more and more frequent short-term flight
cancellations, since a safe start on the shortened route was only
guaranteed under optimal weather conditions.
In the 1960s and 1970s there were various efforts to convert or
expand the airport. Because of the proximity to the city and the noise
problem, the Bremen Senate defined the airport in 1973 as an airport for
short and medium-haul flights. Ochtum's location in the west and new
development in the east limited the airport's potential for development.
Plans for a second, parallel runway failed due to local protests. Around
1973, as capacity problems increased, Bremen unsuccessfully tried to
convince the other coastal cities and the state of Lower Saxony of the
need for a major airport. Instead, the decision was made to relocate the
Ochtum at a cost of 23 million marks. The planning approval procedure
for this began in early 1982, after Mayor Hans Koschnick had granted the
residents of neighboring Huchting that the existing runway would not be
extended, but only the existing length of 2034 meters would be made
usable by relocating the Ochtum. Plans for a second runway parallel to
the first were also abandoned. The construction of a planned motorway
and a freight bypass in the area between the airport and Huchting did
not take place. Instead, the park on the left bank of the Weser was laid
out here.
In the mid-1970s, holiday flights also started from
Bremen. In 1979 the facilities of the Instrument Landing System (ILS)
were expanded. On January 13, 1983, business people from Bremen founded
the interest group Förderverein Bremer Flughafen. In 1987, the aircraft
manufacturer Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm (MBB), now part of Airbus,
applied for the runway to be extended to allow Airbus wings to be
transported on the Super Guppy. In 1988, Bremen's Senate finally
accepted this request and the runway was extended on both sides by 300
meters to a total of 2634 meters. On January 25, 1989, a contract was
signed between the city of Bremen, the municipality of Stuhr and the
operating company of the airport, which stipulates that the extensions
at both ends of the existing runway may only be used in exceptional
cases. Another court order in March 2004 stipulates that a designated
resident must be informed if the runway extension is to be used. For the
expansion of the runway u. a. the Ochtum will be diverted and a local
canoeing club will be relocated.
In 1989, more than a million
passengers were handled at Bremen Airport and the Airport 2000 expansion
plan came about. Almost all of the previous facilities were demolished
for the equivalent of 199.4 million euros, and in their place from 1991
to 1998 a new, three-part terminal building according to plans built by
Gert Schulze as well as two multi-storey car parks and administration
buildings. The airport fire brigade was given a new, more centrally
located location. Traffic routing around the airport was redesigned
accordingly.
Service companies have settled in the vicinity,
which, as an airport city, make up their own commercial area. The
expansion of the airport city is being carried out in several stages
depending on demand and has not yet been completed.
During the aviation crisis of 2001, which was exacerbated by the
terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, passenger numbers at Bremen
Airport fell for the first time; the charter sector in particular was
affected, since TUI increasingly focused its activities on Hanover. In
2006, the number of flights fell to 40,419, the lowest since 1988, and
passenger numbers were 1.7 million.
In 2004, Atlas-Air-Service AG
from Ganderkesee converted the Beechcraft HLW center at Bremen Airport
into a Cessna Citation Service Center for the repair of various
aircraft. The hall was on the apron at today's Terminal 2 (formerly
Terminal E). In 2009, the company moved into a new building on the
apron.
In the summer of 2004, Germania was the first low-cost
airline to offer flights from Bremen, which were taken over by dba a
year later and finally discontinued. From the winter timetable
2005/2006, the airline Easy Jet started a daily connection to
London-Luton. From April 2007, the airline Ryanair included Bremen
Airport in its network of bases and initially stationed two Boeing
737-800 aircraft in the Hanseatic city, and from September a third.
Ryanair also bought a former cargo hall and converted it into Terminal
E. Easy Jet withdrew from Bremen at the end of the 2007 summer
timetable. In 2008, increased involvement from Ryanair increased
passenger numbers to 2,486,337.
In 2006, Deutsche Flugsicherung
(DFS) dissolved its Berlin district control center (ACC), which was
responsible for East German airspace. The northern half of their area of
responsibility was transferred to the Bremen district control center
located directly at the airport. Since then, air traffic over the whole
of northern Germany in the lower airspace (up to flight level 245,
corresponding to an altitude of around 7,500 m) has been monitored by
the Bremen branch of DFS. Their approx. 200 employees thus look after
the largest contiguous airspace area in Germany in terms of area. Added
to this is the operation of the control tower on the roof of the DFS
building, from which air traffic at and around the airport is monitored.
Between 2007 and 2008, the airline Air Berlin announced the
discontinuation of the three daily connections from Bremen to Munich.
Only from May to September 2008 did they operate flights to Berlin-Tegel
with Dornier 228s from Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (LGW).
In
2009, Bremen Airport celebrated 100 years of aviation. The highlight of
the event was the first landing of an Airbus A380 in Bremen, the largest
passenger aircraft in the world. The events with the highest number of
visitors were the major flight day on May 10th with a wide variety of
large and small aircraft and on June 14th the landing of around 100
aircraft that took part in the DAeC Germany flight. The event was
attended by around 130,000 visitors.
Bremen is the place where
the airline Bremenfly was founded, which started operations in the
summer of 2009. The first flight took place in May, a chartered plane
brought fans of the Werder Bremen football club to Istanbul. However,
Bremen was not served by the company in regular air traffic. In April
2010, the company headquarters were relocated to Berlin-Schoenefeld
before flight operations were completely discontinued in November 2010.
In October 2009, Ryanair started its first domestic German
connection from Bremen with Memmingen. This was discontinued at the end
of March 2011. From May 2010 to January 2011, Ryanair also flew to
Berlin-Schoenefeld. Ryanair justified the discontinuation of this (and
other routes) with the introduction of the air traffic tax in Germany.
According to Ryanair, the fourth Boeing 737-800, which was stationed in
Bremen in the summer of 2010, should therefore be withdrawn. In fact,
four of the company's machines are still stationed in Bremen.
With 283,336 passengers, October 2010 was the busiest month in the
airport's history. In 2010, the airport set a new record with 2,676,297
passengers.
Since February 2012, Bremen has been the first German
airport to be able to carry out satellite-supported instrument
approaches. The system, called GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation System),
works with GPS and several transmitters at the airport, the exact
position of which was measured and the data from which the aircraft can
determine its own position precisely. The procedure, operated by DFS, is
initially only available to AirBerlin's Boeing 737NG, which can use it
to conduct approaches down to a cloud base of 200 feet and a visibility
of 550 meters (CAT I).
In 2016, the airport's marketing nickname
was changed from City Airport Bremen to Bremen Airport. Since November
29, 2017, the airport has officially had an additional name: Bremen
Airport Hans Koschnick. Hans Koschnick was President of the Senate,
Mayor of Bremen, honorary citizen and recipient of the Bremen Gold Medal
of Honor.
Passenger building
Bremen Airport has
two terminal buildings. The southernmost main building, which forms a
curve, was built between 1991 and 1998 according to plans by Gert
Schulze. Main Terminal 1 with five passenger boarding bridges is located
here. The terminal is divided into three sections, which until 2018 were
known as Terminal 1 (General Departures), Terminal 2 (Arrivals) and
Terminal 3 (Lufthansa Group Departures). A former maintenance hangar was
converted into the "economy terminal" Terminal E, now Terminal 2, for
the airline Ryanair. Since 2018, the central security check for all
flights without exception has been in Terminal 1. (Lufthansa: Gates
A01-A05, other Gates A06-A14) Ryanair and Wizz Air passengers can get to
Terminal 2 after security check via a corridor. (Gates B01- B04) There
was also the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) for general aviation. Due
to a tightening of security regulations, all pilots and passengers in
general aviation now have to go through the central security check,
which is why the GAT, which has become superfluous as a result, was left
to the local Bremen Aviation Association for association purposes. The
airport has 4500 parking spaces, of which 2550 are in car park 1 and
1950 in car park 2.
Control tower
In
Bremen there is no free-standing tower, as is common at most airports.
In 1974, DFS took over the former school building of the Lufthansa
flight school and set up a district control center there. The tower
pulpit was then erected on the roof of the building.
Aeronautical weather station
On the
opposite side, on the southern edge of the airfield, is the building of
the flight weather station of the German Weather Service (DWD) with the
meteorological measuring field.
Airport
fire brigade
The airport fire engines (FLF) were a special feature
for many years. In the 1980s and 1990s, the employees of the Bremen
airport fire brigade developed and constructed fire engines based on MAN
chassis according to their own ideas (initially from used Bundeswehr
vehicles), which were unique . The FLF comply with the regulations of
the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which has
classified the airport in fire safety category 7 (out of a maximum of
10) since 2016. At airports of this fire protection class, 15,000 liters
of water and 450 kilograms of extinguishing powder must be available. In
the meantime, however, these self-developed fire engines have been
phased out and replaced by several Panther vehicles from Rosenbauer
since 2013. The airport fire brigade has an emergency firefighting
vehicle for building fire protection and a rescue staircase for the
evacuation of commercial aircraft.
Rescue
helicopter
The rescue helicopter "Christoph Weser" of the German Air
Rescue Service (DRF) has been stationed at Bremen Airport since October
1, 1984.
Visitor terrace and Bremen Hall
Until 2014 there was
a VFW 614 on the airport's visitor terrace, which was used by
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace to develop fly-by-wire systems. The
"Bremenhalle" (entrance fee) is also accessible via the visitors'
terrace. It was a museum on the history of Bremen's aerospace industry.
Among other things, the Spacelab, which was largely developed by the
Bremen space company ERNO, and the Focke-Wulf Fw 44 "Stieglitz" biplane,
which was once built in Bremen, were on display here. The Junkers W 33
"Bremen", with which the first direct East-West Atlantic crossing was
achieved in 1928, is still in the hall. After renovation work, the
visitor terrace is partially open again or depending on the weather
conditions. The airport offers guided tours for guests, which
traditionally start in the Bremen Hall and then take the bus, after
admission through gate 1, to the apron and to the fire brigade and the
runway.
Flight simulator
The
original cockpit of an Airbus A320, which has been converted into a
flight simulator, is located in Terminal 1 of Bremen Airport.
Commercial flight
The operating
company Flughafen Bremen GmbH is wholly owned by the Free Hanseatic
City of Bremen.
Sports flight
A
special feature, unique in this form in Germany, is the headquarters
of the Bremer Verein für Luftfahrt e.V. (BVL), directly at the
airport. The association has been based in the former GAT (General
Aviation Terminal) at Hanna-Kunath-Strasse 18 since April 2009. As a
founding member of the airport, the association, which was founded
in 1909, has intangible special rights operates five of the club's
own light aircraft at the Bremen location with its powered flight
group air sports.
He also runs a flight school; several
members also own their own aircraft. The four club aircraft of the
powered flight group bear the names of well-known and deserving
members of the club's history, such as the name "Hans-Joachim
Schulze" (founder and chief flight instructor of the Lufthansa
commercial pilot school, who made a great contribution to the club).
One aircraft is named after the famous aerobatic pilot "Gerd
Achgelis", a member of the club at the time.
Take-offs and
landings usually take place on the main runway 09/27. In addition,
runway 23, which is 700 meters long and faces southwest, has been
available since 1991. It may only be used for take-offs under visual
flight rules and only by aircraft up to a maximum of 5.7 tons.
take-off weight are used. If the conditions are right, private
pilots should preferably use this runway, since the take-off route
leads through a less populated area and residents are thus protected
from noise. Reduced airport charges when using runway 23 serve as an
incentive.
Gliding was also operated at Bremen Airport until
1974, since then the glider pilots have been active at the gliding
area in Osterholz-Scharmbeck and Tarmstedt/Westertimke. The
approximately 100 microlight aircraft fly at Rotenburg/Wümme Airport
with three C42s, one of which, purchased in November 2009, bears the
design of the Bremen bacon flag and the name "Bremen". The
ballooning group was disbanded in 2014.
Club
lounge
Contrary to popular belief, the small viewing tower next
to Terminal 2, built in 1964, is not an air traffic control tower,
but is owned by the local BVL. In 2009, the clubhouse was moved to
Hanna-Kunath-Strasse and the tower was redesigned as an event
location called the "Clublounge". Since then, numerous internal and
public celebrations and events have taken place here every year.
On May 10th, 2009 the Bremer Verein für Luftfahrt e. V. and
Bremer Flughafen GmbH held a large flight day on the occasion of
“100 years of aviation in Bremen”, in which the aircraft
manufacturer Airbus also took part with a family day. For the first
and probably only time, an Airbus A380 landed at the airport in this
context.
On the so-called Lufthansa Day, August 9, 2009, the
Boeing 747-400 D-ABVR (original name: Bremen) coming from Frankfurt
landed in Bremen and took off on the same day for two sightseeing
flights towards Helgoland, before the jumbo jet left for Frankfurt
in the evening flew back.
Destinations
Scheduled connections to destinations within Germany and to various
European countries are offered from Bremen. Charter flights to
various European countries, preferably to destinations in the
Mediterranean region, and to North Africa are also operated.
In 1967, the Bremen Association for the Protection of Air Traffic Damage Victims was founded as an association to protect the population from noise, air pollution and other damage caused by air traffic, which sees itself as an "independent protection community". This association aims, among other things, at an eight-hour night flight ban at the airport, a new edition of the noise protection program, information for residents in the form of a comprehensive noise protection report and the ban on visual approaches and training flights over inhabited areas.
On the evening of January 28, 1966, during a go-around, the Lufthansa
Convair CV-440 Metropolitan (registration D-ACAT) crashed into a field
west of the airport next to the Ochtum. All 46 people on board Lufthansa
Flight 005 perished.
On January 16, 1968, a Lockheed JetStar C-140 of
the Federal Ministry of Defense's flight readiness department (CA+102)
coming from Cologne/Bonn Airport collided with a Piaggio P.149D of the
Lufthansa Aviation School (D-EJCO). The Piaggio, flying on a training
flight in the traffic pattern, crashed 2 km north-northwest of the
runway, killing the flight instructor and student. The JetStar was badly
damaged, but could be landed with a belly landing at the airport;
however, it became a total loss.
On February 1, 1972, the first
prototype of the VFW 614 (D-BABA) was lost during the testing phase when
the machine crashed from a height of 3000 meters above Bremen Airport
due to a design error. While the test pilot and an engineer were able to
save themselves with parachutes, the co-pilot had a fatal accident.
Although he managed to get out, he was unable to open the parachute
because he fainted.
On December 2, 2001, a Dornier 328-100 turboprop
aircraft of the OLT – Ostfriesische Lufttransport (D-CATS) coming from
Braunschweig Airport on a positioning flight skidded on landing. The
left main landing gear collapsed, causing the left wing and propeller to
hit the runway violently. All three crew members survived the total
accident of the aircraft.
Around noon on August 1, 2014, a historic
training aircraft owned by Lufthansa Flight Training, a Saab 91B Safir
(D-EBED), crashed after take-off into a parking space on Kornstrasse,
just a few hundred meters from the runway. The plane, two tire stores
and some cars caught fire. The pilot and his passenger were killed. In
its final report in June 2019, the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident
Investigation came to the conclusion that a pilot error was the cause of
the crash. As a result, the accident was due to the fact that the pilot,
when making the decision to turn left, did not take into account the
speed required for the turn and as a result the aircraft went into a
stall condition. In addition, the pilot may have been distracted by oil
vapors and splashes of oil on the cockpit window, which could have
contributed to the crash.