Lelystad Airport is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

south southeast of the city of

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and youngest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

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 is the biggest

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 ...

airport in the Netherlands. The first flights were in 1971 and it became an official airport in 1973.

Schiphol Group Royal Schiphol Group is a Dutch airport management company. It was established during 1916 in conjunction with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, having been responsible for operating and developing throughout its operational life. During October 2008, ...

became owner of the airport in 1993. It is home to the aviation

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Aviodrome The Nationaal Luchtvaart-Themapark Aviodrome (also known simply as Aviodrome) is a large aerospace museum in the Netherlands that has been located on Lelystad Airport since 2003. Previously the museum was located at Schiphol Airport.

, which has a former

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 ...

Boeing 747-200SUD on display. The airport serves Lelystad, the province of

and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. The airport is the base of

AIS Airlines AIS Airlines is a Dutch airline headquartered at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands. In addition to scheduled flights, it operates charter and wet lease services. The company operates international charters and scheduled services between Denma ...

, although they do not operate scheduled passenger flights from Lelystad Airport.

History

In 1966 it was decided that the newly created

Flevopolder The Flevopolder is an island polder forming the bulk of Flevoland, a province of the Netherlands. Created by land reclamation, its northeastern part was drained in 1955 and the remainder—the southwest—in 1968. Boundaries Unlike other major p ...

required a central airport. A suitable location with room for future expansion was found to the south of Lelystad. The first flights from this location took place in 1971, but it was not until 1973 that it received official status as an airport. At first Lelystad had grass taxi- and

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s, but it was found that the

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

could not support the traffic, as tracks started to form. Because of the often poor condition of the terrain, the airport suffered from frequent closure. To resolve this problem, in 1978 the first of the

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

s was hardened and in 1981 the runway was hardened. In 1991 the runway length was increased to , to try to attract more business aircraft. In 1993 the

became the owner of the airport. The Aviodrome museum moved to Lelystad Airport from

Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...

in 2003. Local flying school ''AIS Flight Academy'' started an airline in 2009,

, and is still headquartered at Lelystad Airport, although they do not operate any scheduled flights from Lelystad. Because of the museum, various aviation events are frequently held at the airport.

Expansion

An expansion of the airport is underway. The runway (05-23) is being extended to a total length of 2700 meters with a TORA of 2460 meters and an ASDA of 2700 meters, which is long enough to facilitate all aircraft of the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

and

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

families and also is suitable for operations with wide bodies like the

Boeing 787 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...

and

Airbus A350 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 ...

although not at maximum take off weight. The ILS (instrument landing system) was tested in June 2018. The new terminal will be built in phases, easily expandable when the airport grows. In 2018 the terminal building will be finished, capable of handling 25,000 flights per year. The building can be doubled on the RDW-location, capable of handling eventually up to 45,000 flights (7 - 8 million passengers per year). The same strategy is used for the airside apron with the aircraft stands, starting with 4 stands and ending up at 12 stands or more. The number of allowed aircraft movements is much discussed in the Netherlands and will start the first year of operation at only 4,000 per year, which means only around 11 movements daily. In 2021 and 2022, 7,000 and 10,000 flights respectively will be allowed. The airport will have its own exit from the A6 motorway, which connects with Amsterdam, with travel times around 40–45 minutes when traffic allows. A public bus service also takes travelers to the Lelystad Centrum railway station, where trains run frequently in the direction of Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport and The Hague,

Zwolle Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is o ...

and

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

. A 10-year concession for all handling (landside and airside) is awarded to Viggo, a Dutch handling company. The expansion of Lelystad Airport was driven by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol reaching its maximum 500,000 allowed aircraft movements.

References

External links

*
Aviodrome
museum website
Airliners.net – photos taken at Lelystad Airport

Information and artist's impression
{{Airports in the Netherlands Airports in Flevoland Buildings and structures in Lelystad