Rostock Airport, German: ''Flughafen Rostock-Laage'' , is the

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 ...

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

, the largest city in the German state

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

, and is named after

Laage Laage () is a town and a municipality in the Rostock district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the river Recknitz, 23 kilometres southeast of Rostock. Rostock Laage Airport Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and Uni ...

, within the boundary of which it is located. Laage is a town in the Rostock district. It features flights to major cities throughout Germany as well as some leisure routes. In addition to civil activity,

Jagdgeschwader 73 ''Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader'' (Tactical Air Force Wing) 73 " Steinhoff", formerly known as ''Jagdgeschwader 73'' (Fighter Wing 73), is a fighter wing of the German Air Force. The wing is based in north-eastern Germany at Rostock-Laage Airp ...

of the

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 ...

is stationed on the military side of the airport.

History

Construction of the airport began in 1979 as a

National People's Army The National People's Army (german: Nationale Volksarmee, ; NVA ) were the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The NVA was organized into four branches: the (Ground Forces), the (Navy), the (Air Force) an ...

facility. It became operational in 1984 with the Fighter Wing JBG 77 and the Navy Fighter Wing 28. It was deactivated by the

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

in 1990 and was reactivated in 1993 when

was posted there. In the same year the Rostock-Laage-Güstrow GmbH begins civilian operations on a 60 hectare section of the airport. The airport is expected to post losses of €2.8 million for 2013 while the passenger numbers decreased by 12 percent in the same year. As the government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is not willing to give additional financial aid, the airport operator may face

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in the near future. In October 2014, Rainer Schwarz, a former general manager of

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Berlin Brandenburg Airport ''Willy Brandt'' (german: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt", , ) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the Germany, German capital Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Named after the f ...

(which has not yet become operational), was appointed to the same position at Rostock–Laage Airport. After the British regional airline Flybmi, which operated flights to Munich and Stuttgart ceased the operation and declared bankruptcy, Lufthansa took over the route from Rostock to Munich with a twice daily rotation (except from Wednesday and Saturday) with

Bombardier CRJ900 The Bombardier CRJ700, CRJ900, and CRJ1000 are a family of regional jet airliners that were designed and manufactured by Canadian transportation conglomerate Bombardier (formerly Canadair) between 1999 and 2020. Their design was derived from t ...

aircraft. In 2019, the airport suffered a sharp downfall in passenger numbers with a decrease by more than half to just 148,000.ndr.de
(German) 11 January 2020 This was mainly caused by the shutdown of

Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...

which operated several leisure routes from Rostock. In February 2021,

Lufthansa Aviation Training Lufthansa Aviation Training GmbH is the flight academy subsidiary of Lufthansa, that trains Lufthansa Group pilots as well as cabin and technical staff. The company has about 500 employees and has been in business for around 50 years. Operati ...

relocated their practical training from

Bremen Airport Bremen Airport (German: ''Flughafen Bremen'', ) is the international airport of the city and state of Bremen in Northern Germany. It is located south of the city and handled 2.66 million passengers in 2015. It mainly features flights to Europ ...

to Rostock.

Facilities

The airport consists of one modern passenger terminal building containing a large check-in hall as well as some shops and restaurants. The building is equipped with two

jet bridge A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...

s and apron positions. Rostock–Laage Airport usually sees traffic by mid-sized aircraft such as the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

but is equipped to handle wide-body aircraft up to the

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, targeting ...

. It also has several stands for smaller general aviation planes.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate seasonal flights at Rostock Airport:rostock-airport.de - Rostock Airport flight schedule
retrieved 29 June 2022 Additionally, the airport is frequently used for non-public cruiseship charter flights to and from Southern Europe to carry passengers travelling to and from the nearby cruise port of

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow. is one of the world's busie ...

. The nearest major international airports are

to the south and

Hamburg Airport Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...

to the west.

Statistics

Ground transportation

For all scheduled and most charter flights, a direct bus connection to

Rostock Hauptbahnhof Rostock Hauptbahnhof, also Rostock Central Station (from 1896 until the turn of the 20th century called ''Rostock Central-Bahnhof''), is the main railway station in the German city of Rostock. It is situated well to the south of the city centre, t ...

(25 km distance) is provided by the regional public transport company (Rebus). A special fare ("Flughafenticket") is introduced, allowing passengers to use suburban trains and street cars within the City of Rostock for one connecting trip. The same applies for one additional trip on regional busses from Rostock within the integrated fare region of Rostock. The motorways A19 (Rostock–

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) and A20 (

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

–

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

) are nearby. There are 4 parking areas at the airport with more than 1,000 parking spots in total. Several international as well as local car rental agencies are located at the airport.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rostock-Laage Airport

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 ...

Buildings and structures in Rostock (district) Transport in Rostock Luftstreitkräfte airbases Bases of the German Air Force