Flanders International Airport, Flanders Airport or Kortrijk-Wevelgem International Airport is an airport located in the town of

Wevelgem Wevelgem () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Gullegem, Moorsele and Wevelgem proper. On January 1, 2006, Wevelgem had a total population of 31,020. The total area is 38.76 ...

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

in the

Flemish Region The Flemish Region ( nl, Vlaams Gewest, ),; german: Flämische Region usually simply referred to as Flanders ( nl, link=no, Vlaanderen ) ; german: link=no, Flandern is one of the three regions of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and t ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and partly also in the

Bissegem Bissegem is a sub-municipality of the city of Kortrijk, Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the nor ...

section of the city of

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Regio ...

( west.

History

The airport was created in 1916 by the Germans during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 2022 the airport attracted media attention after

Zara Rutherford Zara Rutherford (born 5 July 2002) is a Belgian-British aviator. At age 19, she became the youngest female pilot to fly solo around the world and the first person to complete a circumnavigation in a microlight aircraft after a five-month journ ...

became the youngest woman to fly across the Earth solo. She both started and finished the program on the airport's grounds.

Features

There is a passenger terminal with police and customs on demand. The airport runway is . Alongside a section of the airport is a business park, some of which is restricted to enterprises undertaking airport related activities: several of the business park tenants have paid for direct private access to the runway. The aerodrome used to offer

IFR In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument Fly ...

("instrument" or "blind flying") procedures, but as of June 2017 these had been withdrawn from the AIP. In 2019, an

RNAV Area navigation (RNAV, usually pronounced as "''ar-nav"'') is a method of instrument flight rules (IFR) navigation that allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons, rather than navigate directly to and from t ...

approach,

GNSS A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pre ...

based, is given in the AIP.

Uses

It is used mainly as a business airport. One of the main users of this airport is

Abelag Aviation Abelag Aviation is an air charter company based in Brussels, Belgium. It operates ad hoc charter, air taxi, cargo and medical flights, as well as helicopter VIP flights and air ambulance work. Its main base is Brussels Airport, with seats at Ant ...

, though it is also used by flying clubs and schools. According to its official website, around 100,000 passengers used the airport every year.Kortrijk-Wevelgem International Airport: Accommodation
official site (English)

Airlines and destinations

There are no scheduled services offered from Flanders International Airport.

Ground transportation

By car

The airport is situated on national road 8 (

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Koksijde Koksijde (; french: Coxyde ; vls, Koksyde) is a town and a municipality in Belgium. It is located on the North Sea coast in the southwest of the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises apart from Koksijde, the villages of O ...

), nearby ringway 8 (

), E17/ A14 and the

E403 Alginic acid, also called algin, is a naturally occurring, edible polysaccharide found in brown algae. It is hydrophilic and forms a viscous natural gum, gum when hydrated. With metals such as sodium and calcium, its salts are known as alginates ...

/ A17 (

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (, from: ''Brugge aan zee'' meaning "Bruges at Sea", french: Zeebruges) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeeb ...

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...

By bus

Bus 40 operated by

De Lijn Vlaamse Vervoersmaatschappij De Lijn (English: Flemish transport company ''De Lijn''), usually known as De Lijn (, "The Line"), is a company run by the Flemish government in Belgium to provide public transportation with about 2240 buses and 399 tr ...

connects the airport with

and its railway station ( local, national, international trains) and Menen and its railway station ( national trains).

Statistics

References

External links

*
Wevelgem Airport
(official site)
{{Authority control Airports in West Flanders Airports established in 1916