Weeze Airport , less commonly known as ''Niederrhein Airport'', is a minor
international airport
An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...
in the
Lower Rhine region
The Lower Rhine region or Niederrhein is a region around the Lower Rhine section of the river Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany between approximately Oberhausen and Krefeld in the East and the Dutch border around Kleve in the West. A ...
of
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
. It is used by
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...
. The airport is situated southwest
of the municipality of
Weeze
Weeze (, Dutch: ''Wees'') is a municipality in the Lower Rhine (Niederrhein) region, in the northwestern part of North Rhine-Westphalia in the district of Kleve in the region of Düsseldorf.
The municipality consists of the town of Weeze and t ...
() and northwest
of
Kevelaer, about southeast of the
Dutch city of
Nijmegen
Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...
, and northwest of the German city of
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
. Between 2008 and 2013, this was one of Germany's fastest-growing airports; however, the airport handled only 1.23 million passengers in 2019, reflecting a decline in throughput triggered by
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...
reducing its route network.
History
The airport uses the facilities of the former military airbase
RAF Laarbruch
Royal Air Force , more commonly known as RAF ICAO EDUL (from 1 January 1995 ETUL) was a Royal Air Force station, a military airfield, located in Germany on its border with the Netherlands. The Station's motto was ().
The site now operates a ...
, and began operating as a civil airport in 2003. There is also a large
fire department
A fire department (American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in th ...
training facility on the airport grounds. Its
IATA code is ''NRN'' because of its official name ''Flughafen Niederrhein''. The airport has had several different names in its history as a civil airport. The operators originally wanted to name it after the city of
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...
, but the significant distance of to that city, which already had two closer international airports (
Düsseldorf Airport
Düsseldorf Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Düsseldorf, ; until March 2013 ''Düsseldorf International Airport''; ) is the international airport of Düsseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about north ...
as well as
Cologne Bonn Airport
Cologne Bonn Airport (german: Flughafen Köln/Bonn 'Konrad Adenauer') is the international airport of Germany's fourth-largest city Cologne, and also serves Bonn, former capital of West Germany. With around 12.4 million passengers passing throu ...
), resulted in the name being blocked by a court ruling that such a description would be likely to mislead passengers. However, Ryanair still refers to it as "''Düsseldorf-Weeze"''. The airport is actually closer to the Dutch cities of
Venlo
Venlo () is a city and municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg, about 50 km east of the city of Eindhoven, 65 km north east of the provincial capital Maastricht, a ...
,
Nijmegen
Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...
and
Arnhem
Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It i ...
, the German cities of
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
and
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and ...
, and the immediate Weeze area than Düsseldorf.
Weeze was served by the short-lived, Dutch low-cost carrier
V Bird, which opened a base here and operated flights to
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
and several international destinations, from its inception in 2003 until bankruptcy in 2004. During this time, passenger numbers doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 within a year. In February 2014,
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...
announced the cancellation of 18 routes from Weeze for the 2014 summer season citing a lack of aircraft.
In 2019, the airport faced severe financial difficulties due to a fall in passenger numbers by 30 percent over the previous year as a result of the cancellation of several Ryanair routes.
Facilities
Weeze Airport has one passenger terminal building with restaurants, shops, and check-in facilities. The apron, which is to the west of the terminal building, features nine aircraft stands for mid-sized aircraft such as the
Boeing 737-800
The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boeing ...
. As there are no
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 due to the location of the apron to the west side of the terminal building instead in front of it, bus-boarding is used for six stands. Only three stands are close enough to the terminal to be accessed on foot.
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and seasonal flights at Weeze Airport:
Statistics
Ground transportation
Coach
Direct buses serve
Düsseldorf Main Station up to 7 times a day; the journey taking 1h 15min. ''Airexpressbus'' offered from June 2007 until spring 2017 a service between Weeze Airport and Amsterdam with stops at
Eindhoven Airport
Eindhoven Airport is an airport located west of Eindhoven, Netherlands. In terms of the number of served passengers it is the second largest airport in the Netherlands, with 6.2 million passengers in 2018 (well behind Schiphol, which serves m ...
,
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...
and
's-Hertogenbosch
s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...
.
Train
Bus shuttles serve the railway stations of
Weeze
Weeze (, Dutch: ''Wees'') is a municipality in the Lower Rhine (Niederrhein) region, in the northwestern part of North Rhine-Westphalia in the district of Kleve in the region of Düsseldorf.
The municipality consists of the town of Weeze and t ...
,
Kevelaer and
Goch
Goch (; archaic spelling: Gog, Dutch: Gogh) is a town in the district of Kleve, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated close to the border with the Siebengewald in Netherlands, approx. south of Kleve, and southeast of Nijmegen.
His ...
on a frequent basis. Travellers for
Düsseldorf Main Station will need to catch a bus or taxi to either Weeze or Kevelaer railway stations.
See also
*
Transport in Germany
*
List of airports in Germany
This is a list of airports in Germany, sorted by location.
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east b ...
References
External links
Official website*
*
{{authority control
Weeze
Weeze (, Dutch: ''Wees'') is a municipality in the Lower Rhine (Niederrhein) region, in the northwestern part of North Rhine-Westphalia in the district of Kleve in the region of Düsseldorf.
The municipality consists of the town of Weeze and t ...
Buildings and structures in Kleve (district)