De Kooy Airfield ( nl, Vliegveld De Kooy) is an

airfield An aerodrome ( Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for pub ...

south of Den Helder, Netherlands, named after the nearby hamlet

De Kooy De Kooy is a hamlet in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Den Helder, and lies about south-east of the Den Helder city centre. The hamlet is known for the nearby naval air field, De Kooy Airfield De Koo ...

. It serves as both a civilian airport under the name Den Helder Airport and a naval airport under the name ''Maritiem Vliegkamp De Kooy'' (Dutch for Maritime Aviation Site De Kooy). Most movements on the De Kooy are made by

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s, bringing workers to and from offshore oilrigs and naval helicopters such as the

NH90 The NHIndustries NH90 is a medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-role military helicopter. It was developed in response to NATO requirements for a battlefield helicopter which would also be capable of being operated in naval environments. The NH90 ...

of the Naval Aviation Service of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Fixed-wing aircraft visit and operate from the airport alongside. ''Skyline Aviation'' operates from De Kooy, mainly operating business aircraft and also do airwork such as

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

for civilian and military contractors. Amongst its fleet of aircraft most noticeable are several

Aero L-39 Albatros The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer designed and produced in Czechoslovakia by Aero Vodochody. It is the most widely used jet trainer in the world; in addition to performing basic and advanced pilot training, it has also flo ...

jets.

History

The airport was constructed in 1918 for the Royal Netherlands Navy, whose primary base was and still is located in Den Helder. A

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

base already existed nearby on the south side of

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...

however the navy required an airport for conventional aircraft as well. The base came under

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

control during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and was renamed ''Fliegerhorst De Kooy''. It suffered heavy damage during the war, this despite the construction of heavy anti-aircraft defences in the area. After the war, the need for a naval air base in the area remained, and the airport was repaired. In 1960 a concrete runway was constructed, the base using a simple grass field prior to that. The retirement of the last aircraft carrier operated by the Dutch navy, the HNLMS Karel Doorman, in 1968, meant that the navy started to replace its fixed wing aircraft based at De Kooy with helicopters. In the 1980s, the need for offshore helicopter services for oilrigs in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

resulted in the military sharing the base with civilian users.Ontdek Den Helder �
Marine Vliegkamp De Kooy (1)
article retrieved 14 December 2014.

Future

The oil fields in the

will eventually be depleted and when that happens the airport would lose most of its helicopter movements and thus alternative markets are being looked at, such as business and holiday flights.

Airlines and destinations

There are currently no scheduled services to and from Den Helder. A service to Manchester and Norwich offered by

Loganair Loganair is a Scottish regional airline based at Glasgow Airport near Paisley, Scotland. It is the largest regional airline in the UK by passenger numbers and fleet size. In addition to its main base at Glasgow, it has hubs at Aberdeen, Edinb ...

was briefly operated in March 2013. This route was terminated after only two weeks of service due to weak demand.

References

External links

Skyline AviationPhotos taken at Den Helder – De Kooy (DHR / EHKD)
from

Airliners.net Airliners.net is an aviation website that includes an extensive photo database of aircraft and airports, as well as a forum catering to aviation enthusiasts. Created by Johan Lundgren, Jr., the site originated in 1996 as ''Pictures of Modern Air ...

* * {{authority control Royal Netherlands Air Force bases Airports in North Holland Den Helder