Saarbrücken Airport , or ''Flughafen Saarbrücken'' or ''Ensheim Airport'' in

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, is a minor

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

, the capital of the

state of

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

. It features flights to major cities throughout Germany as well as some leisure routes.

History

Foundation and early years

The history of aviation in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German federal state

, began on 17 September 1928 in the district of St. Arnual. Flights operated from Saarbrücken-St. Arnual Airport until 1939. The first plane to use the airport was a

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

flight from

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

stopping en route to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1929, routes to Frankfurt and on to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

and then to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

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were opened. The airport's suboptimal location meant winter flights were not possible and bad weather and poor flying conditions caused frequent problems. Because of this, Saarbrücken-St. Arnual was closed in 1939. A new airport was built in the district of Ensheim. However, the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

made opening the airport impossible. The airport in Ensheim finally opened in 1964 after several years of reconstruction. In 1972, Saarbrücken Airport became one of 17 airports in Germany to offer international flights.

Development in the 2000s

In 2005, a record year, nearly 500,000 passengers used Saarbrücken Airport. In 2006, Saarbrücken Airport suffered difficulties caused by the opening of a converted former military airport,

Zweibrücken Airport Zweibrücken Airport , or ''Flughafen Zweibrücken'' in German, is a regional airport and former minor international airport in Zweibrücken, Germany. It was the smaller of the two passenger airports in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the oth ...

, just approx. away. German leisure airline Hapagfly relocated from Saarbrücken and opened domestic routes in direct competition with Saarbrücken. In 2006, one day when Hapagfly flew from

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

to Saarbrücken, there were bad weather conditions at the airport. Pilots tried twice to land at Saarbrücken on a wet runway. They went on to land at Zweibrücken Airport. Following this incident, Hapagfly decided to relocate all their flights from Saarbrücken to Zweibrücken as Zweibrücken has a longer runway. In July 2014, it was reported that Zweibrücken Airport had filed for bankruptcy due to illegal subsidies as it is too close to Saarbrücken Airport, which has been in existence for much longer. After Hapagfly left,

Air Berlin Air Berlin plc & Co. Luftverkehrs KG (), branded as airberlin or airberlin.com, was a major German airline. At its peak, it was Germany's second-largest airline after Lufthansa, as well as Europe's tenth-largest airline in terms of passengers c ...

opened routes from Saarbrücken to

Palma de Mallorca Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

and

Berlin–Tegel Airport Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport () was the primary international airport of Berlin, the capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal and was the fourth busiest airport in Germany, with over 24 millio ...

, but it ceased flying in 2017. Additionally,

Luxair Luxair, legally , is a flag carrier of Luxembourg with its headquarters in Munsbach, Luxembourg, and Airline hub, hub at Luxembourg Airport. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle ...

has made Saarbrücken Airport its secondary hub due to its proximity to

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. Saarbrücken Airport handled 452,314 passengers in 2011. Due to Zweibrücken Airport's financial difficulties,

TUIfly TUI fly Deutschland (legally TUIfly GmbH), formerly ''TUIfly'', is a German leisure airline owned by the travel and tourism company TUI Group. It is headquartered at Hannover Airport with bases at several other German airports. TUI fly Deutsch ...

announced that their seasonal base would be relocated from there to Saarbrücken Airport from summer 2015. Other airlines also moved their leisure flights from Zweibrücken to Saarbrücken for the 2015 summer season. As a result, the airport saw a significant increase in traffic compared to previous seasons.

Facilities

Terminal

Saarbrücken Airport consists of one passenger terminal building which features check-in-facilities as well as some shops and restaurants and a covered observation deck. The building is not equipped with

jet bridge A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

s, therefore walk-boarding and bus-boarding is used. The apron right in front of the terminal features five aircraft stands which can accommodate mid-sized aircraft such as the

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, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

Remote air traffic control

Since 4 December 2018,

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

for the airport has been provided remotely from a remote tower centre in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

(450 km away). The project had received funding from the

SESAR Joint Undertaking The Single European Sky ATM Research 3 Joint Undertaking is an institutionalised European public-private partnership, established in 2021, to accelerate through research and development the delivery of the Digital European Sky, as part of the ...

under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730195 and No 874470. The standard ATC systems are complemented with out-of-the-window 360° and 190° view, with pan-tilt-zoom cameras which can track objects like automatic binoculars, and infrared cameras which give more details during darkness. Sensors can track up to 256 objects in parallel. Despite the airport being controlled from a centre, with plans to control other airports (

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in 2021 and

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

later), one air traffic controller will provide service to one airport at a time, however the controllers will be cross-trained for the other airports as well.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Saarbrücken Airport:

Statistics

Ground transportation

Car

The airport is linked to the ''A1''/''A6'' motorways (Exit ''Fechingen'') which connect to Saarbrücken itself, to the cities of

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

and

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

and to

. From

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

it can be reached via federal highway ''L108''. Taxis and car hire agencies are available at the terminal building.

Bus

Regional bus line ''R10'' provides scheduled connections to Saarbrücken city center including Saarbrücken main station.

Accidents and incidents

*On 30 September 2015, Luxair Flight 9562, operated by Bombardier Q400 ''LX-LGH'', accidentally retracted the landing gear early during the takeoff roll, before the aircraft gained enough airspeed to take off, resulting in the plane landing on its belly. The aircraft was severely damaged.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saarbrucken Airport Airports in Saarland

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

Transport in Saarland