Kiel Airport (german: Flughafen Kiel, ) is a small regional airport in Kiel, Germany. It is located in the borough of Holtenau, north of the city centre. It is registered as a ''public airfield'' (german: Verkehrslandeplatz). As of 2006, it served 30,528 passengers p. a.

History

The aerodrome was built in 1914 on a plain area that had been created from material dug out during the construction of the Kiel Canal. In 1927, the Kiel Airport Company (german: Kieler Flughafengesellschaft) was founded, which operated the State Airport of Kiel (german: Landflughafen Kiel). During this time, there were 27 national and international destinations. In 1937, the airport was designated a military airbase. However, it continued to be used for civilian flights, such as scheduled flights to Braunschweig and Berlin (Tempelhof). Its taxiways were extended in 1963, a first terminal was built in 1965. This terminal was used for scheduled flights to West Berlin operated by Pan Am. In 1987, the terminal that is still used today was built. At the same time

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 m ...

began offering scheduled flights to Frankfurt, and later to Cologne/Bonn, Munich, Copenhagen, Kaliningrad and

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. In 1995, the airport became a civilian airport again and in 1997, a new

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

that was operated by civilian staff was constructed. However, it continues to be used for military purposes. A new hangar was built in 2000. In the same year, the airport's future prospects were analysed. Based on that analysis, plans approved by the state administration of Schleswig-Holstein in March 2002 included an extension of the runway from 1300 m to 2100 m. This would have allowed

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines. Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, je ...

to land at Kiel. Federal Highway B 503 would have crossed the extended runway in a tunnel. However, use of the airport declined in the following years as more and more scheduled flight routes were discontinued. When the last route was cut on 23 December 2005, operation of the airport was suspended until 3 April 2006 and on 24 January 2006, the state's Secretary of Commerce announced that the extension plans were scrapped for good. Cirrus Airlines operated scheduled flights to Munich from 2 May 2006 using a single DHC-8-100 aircraft, which was based in Kiel Airport. The state of Schleswig-Holstein offered subsidies for three years. However, as the number of passengers was substantially lower than expected, the service was discontinued in October 2006.

Airlines and destinations

There are no scheduled services to and from Kiel Airport.

Civil use

''Luftsportverein Kiel e.V.'' (German for ''Air Sports Association Kiel''), the charter airline FLM Aviation and a helicopter flight service are based at Kiel Airport. Further, there are annual ''Internationale Flugtage'' (German for ''International Aviation Days'') with air acrobatics, parachute jumps and displays of historic aeroplanes.

Military use

The aerodrome has been in military use from the beginning. During World War II, the Luftwaffe operated aircraft in support of the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

from the base, including the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th squadrons of Embarked Air Group 196 (german: Bordfliegergruppe 196) which provided aircraft for service aboard surface combatants. Since 1958, it is a base for air wings of the German Navy. Until 28 March 2013 the Air Wing No. 5 (german: Marinefliegergeschwader 5) was based at Kiel, which was known for search and rescue operations flown from the airport with Sea King helicopters. The are now based at Nordholz. Further,

German Air Force The German Air Force (german: Luftwaffe, lit=air weapon or air arm, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ''Bundeswehr'') was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War a ...

aircraft operating as fake targets for practice depart from Kiel Airport.

Incidents and accidents

* On 15 February 2006, a private aircraft from Russia had to make an emergency landing at Kiel because of smoke within the aircraft. The plane overran the runway and slipped down a slope as the pilot was unfamiliar with the airport and misunderstood the runway length given over the radio.

References

External links

Official website

* * {{authority control Airports in Schleswig-Holstein Airports established in 1914 Luftwaffe bases Airport Airport 1914 establishments in Germany