Antwerp International Airport, french: Aéroport International d'Anvers, german: Flughafen Antwerpen is a small

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 ...

serving the City of Antwerp in the Province of Antwerp 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 ...

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 ...

. Located south of the city, it is used for some scheduled and charter flights as well as business and general aviation and served 273,130 passengers in 2017.

History

20190224 Antwerp Airport IMG 5561 by sebaso

After the first flying events at the ''Wilrijkse Plein'', work on a proper airport for the city started in 1921, under the impulse of pioneer aviator Jan Olieslagers and others.

Sabena The ''Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne'' (French; ), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its b ...

operated passenger services from 1924 from an old railway carriage as the only passenger infrastructure. A proper airport terminal was ordered by minister Maurice Lippens and inaugurated in 1930. The airport was home to the aircraft factory

Stampe et Vertongen Stampe et Vertongen was a Belgian aircraft manufacturer formed in 1922 and based at Antwerp. The company specialised in design and construction of primary trainers/tourers and advanced trainers. One of their products - the Stampe-Vertongen SV.4 - ...

until its demise after World War II. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the airport was used by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

, and also served the nearby Erla aircraft factory. After the German retreat in 1944, it saw brief use by Allied air forces, who called it Advanced Landing Ground B-70. Antwerp Airport was home to

VLM Airlines VLM Airlines was a Belgian airline offering scheduled, charter and ACMI services. It was headquartered at Antwerp International Airport in Deurne. It ceased operations on 31 August 2018. It is not to be confused with its Belgian sister airline ...

from end 2014, since independence from CityJet. VLM was offering flights from Antwerp to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

and

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...

and was flying on behalf of CityJet on the route Antwerp - London City. However the airline declared bankruptcy on 22 June 2016 due to cancellations of ACMI contracts by

People's People's, branded as ''People's Viennaline'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. Gallen-Altenr ...

. Due to VLM's demise, their ACMI customer CityJet handed over the operations of VLM's former service from

London City Airport London City Airport is a regional airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the Borough of Newham, approximately east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial ...

to Antwerp to Danish Air Transport. The Antwerp to

service was taken over by

Chalair Aviation Chalair Aviation is a French regional airline with its head office and base on the grounds of Caen – Carpiquet Airport in Carpiquet. It operates scheduled regional services as well as charter flights for various occasions. History The airline ...

but has been discontinued. On 6 August 2018, the revived VLM Airlines announced the termination of five scheduled routes with another new one not commencing in the coming weeks and that instead it would focus on charter operations. On 31 August 2018 however, VLM Airlines announced the immediate stop of all of their operations from Antwerp. After the demise of VLM, Air Antwerp was created. It announced a thrice-daily service to

from September 2019. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline announced the suspension of the route as of May 2021aerotelegraph.com
(German) 10 May 2021 before shutting down altogether in June 2021.

Infrastructure

Facilities

The airport consists of one small passenger terminal with basic facilities including service desks, a small bar/coffeeshop in the entrance hall and at the gate, and a bar/restaurant with a terrace. The apron features ten stands for smaller airliners such as the

Fokker 50 The Fokker 50 is a turboprop-powered airliner, designed as an improved version of the successful Fokker F27 Friendship. The Fokker 60 is a stretched freighter version of the Fokker 50. Both aircraft were manufactured and supported by Dutch airc ...

. As there are no

jet bridges 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, ...

, walk-boarding is used. Due to its short

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 ...

length only just over , it is not possible to operate aircraft larger than the

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maid ...

at the airport.

Operator

The airport was operated by the Department of Mobility and Public Works of the

Flemish Government The Flemish Government ( nl, Vlaamse regering ) is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region of Belgium. It consists of a government cabinet, headed by the Minister-President and accountable to the Flemish Parliament, ...

which made an agreement with the French engineering group Egis Group to operate it for 25 years, starting in 2014.

Airlines and destinations

The following airline operates regular scheduled and seasonal flights at Antwerp International Airport: The nearest larger international airports are

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport, nl, Luchthaven Brussel, vls, Vliegpling Brussel, german: Flughafen Brüssel is an international airport northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In 2019, more than 26 million passengers arrived or departed at Bruss ...

, approximately to the south, and

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 ...

, approximately to the northeast.

Statistics

Source numbers 2004-2014: Antwerp Airport ″Annual report 2014″
Source numbers 2014-present:

Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport (french: Service public fédéral Mobilité et Transports, nl, Federale Overheidsdienst Mobiliteit en Vervoer, german: Föderaler Öffentlicher Dienst Mobilität und Transportwesen), is a Federal Publi ...

: ″Airport statistics″

Ground transportation

By bus

Buses 51, 52 and 53 connect the airport with the

Antwerpen-Berchem railway station Antwerpen-Berchem is a railway station in the south of the city of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. The station opened on 1 March 1865 and currently serves railway lines 25, 27, 27A and 59. History From opening until 1975, the station was simpl ...

which operates local, intercity and international trains. These buses are 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 ...

Other uses

The airport is home to several flying schools, aircraft maintenance and repair workshops, operators of

business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people. Business jets may be adapted for other roles, such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and some are used by pu ...

s, to several hangars for private aircraft, and to the

Museum Stampe-Vertongen 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 ...

Accidents & Incidents

*On September 8, 2022, a

Cessna Citation The Cessna Citation is a family of business jets by Cessna that started in 1972 with the entry into service of the first model. In the fifty years following the 1969 first flight, more than 7,500 Citations were delivered, forming the largest ...

business jet operated by GlobeAir overshot runway 11 while landing at Antwerp. Nobody onboard, including Dutch DJ

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the World' ...

, was injured, and the aircraft reportedly did not sustain damage. As of September 2022, the incident is under investigation.

References

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Airports in Antwerp Province Buildings and structures in Antwerp Airports established in 1924 1924 establishments in Belgium