Enschede Airport Twente is located outside of

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the Episcopal principality of U ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It has one runway (05/23), though one of the current taxiways has been used as a runway (taxiway A, formerly runway 16/34). The airport is currently uncontrolled and closed for scheduled passenger flights and military operations. A local flying club uses the airport for their activities. The airfield has also been approved for limited use by business charter operators and aircraft scrapping, storage and maintenance.

History

Twente Airport was opened July 1931 by the mayor of

, Edo Bergsma.

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

started a scheduled flight to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in 1932, which was suspended in 1939. During

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

took over the airport and made it a

military airbase An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...

, renaming it ''Fliegerhorst Twente''. In April 1945 allied troops reoccupied the airport and transferred ownership to the Dutch armed forces. A minor typo in the

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferrin ...

misspelled the airport name as Airbase Twenthe, with an added 'h'. After

the airport became a "joint use airport", with both civil and military use. The military stationed both fighter and trainer aircraft at the base. Aircraft based at Twente since the Second World War include the

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...

Lockheed T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

, Fokker S.14 Machtrainer,

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Ro ...

, North American F-86K Sabre,

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

, Northrop NF-5 and

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a success ...

. For civil operations the airport was renamed to Enschede Airport Twente and ran by the privately held company Enschede Airport Twente BV. On 7 December 2007 military use of the airport ceased. As of 1 January 2008 the airport has been closed for civil aviation as well, pending governmental agreement on the future of the airport. On 16 June 2010 the province of

agreed on a spatial plan including an airport.The Province of Overijssel established its spatial perspective on Twente Airport and its environs
17 June 2010, retrieved 21 December 2010 On 1 December 2010 the ownership of the airport grounds was transferred to the Twente region and the city of

. Though it was attempted to find a party interested in operating the airport commercially, it was announced on 4 December 2012 that despite three parties showing interest in this proposal, none of them made a bid to operate it. In March 2013, the military briefly re-opened the airport for military use as part of exercise ''Cerberus Guard''. In March 2014 the government proposed that the airport could re-open for General Aviation users in 2015, and commercial traffic in 2016. Movements would be limited to 22.000 a year under the proposal primarily for noise abatement. However, in June 2014 both the provincial government and the city of Enschede abandoned the plan to re-open the airport for commercial traffic. The future of the airport remained uncertain. In August 2015 it was announced that Belgian aircraft recycling firm Aeronextlife intended to start using the airport to scrap aircraft. As part of the plan, Aeronextlife would become responsible for the costs of certain vital services required for airport operation, such as a fire fighting presence during aircraft operations. Approval was granted, and flights to Enschede Airport resumed on 1 May 2016 with the landing of a

Cessna Citation Sovereign The Cessna Citation Sovereign (Model 680) is an American business jet developed by Cessna, part of the Cessna Citation family. Announced at the 1998 NBAA convention, the Model 680 made its maiden flight in February 2002, certification was award ...

coming from

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, which departed for

Aosta Aosta (, , ; french: Aoste , formerly ; frp, Aoûta , ''Veulla'' or ''Ouhta'' ; lat, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum; wae, Augschtal; pms, Osta) is the principal city of Aosta Valley, a bilingual region in the Italian Alps, north-northwest o ...

later that day. Besides the arrival of aircraft for scrapping, additional traffic allowed at the airport include cargo aircraft to transport airplane parts, business charter aircraft of a number of operators that requested permission to use the airfield, a limited number of smaller

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

aircraft and

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of gliding ...

s. In November 2016 it was announced Aircraft End-of-Life Solutions (AELS) was taking over the permit for the dismantling of aircraft from Aeronextlife. AELS already conducted such activity at Woensdrecht Air Base, however, they are limited in the size of the aircraft they can dismantle at Woensdrecht. The first aircraft to be scrapped was HB-JMK, an Airbus A340-300 formerly operated by Swiss International Air Lines, which arrived on 27 April 2017. Since then, aircraft from

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

and other airlines have also been flown to Twente for scrapping. Luchtfoto gebouwen Vliegclub Twente

In June and July 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

economic downturn, six

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...

Boeing 747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeti ...

aircraft arrived at Enschede for storage and possible dismantling. In October 2020 Lufthansa decided to remove the aircraft for scrapping in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

but it was discovered that, while local environmental regulations permitted the arrival of large aircraft it did not permit them to take-off again. After negotiation a limited exemption from the regulation was agreed and Lufthansa planned to fly the aircraft out, over a period of time, with the last aircraft to leave before July 2021. On 18 April 2021, the airport was the site of the ''NN Mission Marathon'' won by Eliud Kipchoge in 2:04.30. The race was originally scheduled for April 11 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

but postponed because of Covid-19 restrictions before being relocated to ENS. Besides the storage and scrapping of aircraft, the airport also worked to establish themselves as an aviation technology hub under the name Technology Base. As an example of this, in September and October of 2021, the airport was used as part of a research project to explore changes to how aircraft approach airports in order to reduce noise and emissions. After several aircraft previously operated by

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The ai ...

were flown to the airport by their owner

Nordic Aviation Capital Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) is an aircraft leasing company with offices in Ireland, Denmark, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Toronto and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. NAC owns the world's largest fleet of regional aircraft. History The company was ...

, the company responsible for their maintenance, Direct Maintenance, decided to start aircraft maintenance operations at the airport and started renting office and hangar space in October of 2021.

Airlines and destinations

Currently there are no scheduled flights from Enschede Airport. Historical destinations include charter flights to

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auto ...

Antalya la, Attalensis grc, Ἀτταλειώτης , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 07xxx , area_code = (+90) 242 , registration_plate = 07 , blank_name = Licence plate ...

Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca ...

, Faro and

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Gree ...

Access

Enschede Airport is accessible by car via the nearby

A1 motorway A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to: Education * A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects * A1, a ...

, exit 33. The car park is adjacent to the terminal and free of charge. There are no public transport links to Enschede Airport.

References

External links

Airliners.net - photos taken at Enschede Airport Twente

- Website Vliegclub Twente
{{Authority control Airports in Overijssel Buildings and structures in Enschede