LTU Airbus A330-200 aircraft at DUS

Düsseldorf International Airport (German: Flughafen Düsseldorf International) (IATA: DUS, ICAO: EDDL), is the third largest airport in Germany, located in Düsseldorf, the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

With 17.8 million passengers passing through in 2007, only Frankfurt International Airport and Munich International Airport served more passengers in Germany. The airport serves as the main hub for the airline LTU and as an important secondary hub for Lufthansa. Lufthansa offers about 300 flights per day (53 destinations) from or to Düsseldorf. Starting in May 2008, Lufthansa will also re-launch long-haul operations from the airport. The airport's 70 hosted airlines support flights to 186 non-stop-destinations on all continents. The airport has up to 750 takeoffs and landings per day.

Düsseldorf International Airport is located about 9 km (5.6 mi) from the center of Düsseldorf, Germany, and is the primary airport for the Rhein-Ruhr region -- the largest urban area in Germany and among the largest metropolitan areas of the world.^[1]

Düsseldorf International has two runways, which are 3,000 m and 2,700 m long. There are plans to extend the 3,000 m runway to 3,600 m, but the city of Ratingen, which lies in the approach path of the runway, is blocking them.

107 airplane parking positions are available. The current terminal building is capable of handling up to 22 million passengers per year. However, due to an agreement with residents in nearby Ratingen (the so called Angerlandvergleich), this capacity may not be reached within the next few years, as aircraft movements are restricted. Düsseldorf International Airport is able to handle the new superjumbo Airbus A380 aircraft. On November 12, 2006 the first A380 landed in Düsseldorf as part of a Lufthansa promotion flight. Lufthansa is planning to use Düsseldorf International as the diversion airport for A380 in case of bad weather in Frankfurt.

Owners of the airport are:

• 50% Landeshauptstadt (state capital) Düsseldorf
• 50% Airport Partners GmbH (Ownership of Airport Partners GmbH: 40% Hochtief AirPort GmbH, 20% Hochtief AirPort Capital KGaA, 40% Dublin Airport Authority plc (through its wholly owned subsidiary Aer Rianta International cpt))

Passengers:

• 2002 14.75 million
• 2003 14.30 million
• 2004 15.20 million
• 2005 15.51 million
• 2006 16.60 million
• 2007 17.83 million

[edit] History

Monorail "Sky Train" and Tower

Sky Train

Fernbahnhof Düsseldorf Flughafen - Train station

• The airport was opened on 19 April 1927, after two years of construction. However, the first aircraft to land in northern Düsseldorf was the Zeppelin LZ-III in 1909.
• 1950: the main runway is extended to 2475 metres.
• 1964: planning begins for the construction of a new terminal, with the capacity for 1.4 million passengers
• 1969: main runway is lengthened to 3000 metres.
• 1972: to decrease noise pollution, a complete prohibition on landings for jet aircraft between the hours of 23:00 and 6:00 comes into effect. The night-time airmail traffic had been already banned since 1970.
• 1973: the new central building and the Terminal B are opened.
• 1975: the railroad connection between the Düsseldorf central station and the airport starts operation.
• 1977: construction of Terminal A is completed.
• 1986: 8.22 million passengers use the airport - making it number two in Germany. Terminal C is opened.
• 1992: 12.3 million passengers use the airport. A second runway, 2700 metres in length, is constructed.
• 1996, April 11: fire breaks out on the roof of the terminal A, caused by welding work and insufficient structural fire protection. 17 people die, mostly due to smoke inhalation, with many more hospitalized. Damage to the airport is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. At the time, the fire is the biggest public disaster in the history of North Rhine-Westphalia. While repairs are ongoing, passengers are being housed in big tents. In November Terminal C is completely redeveloped, with three lightweight construction halls serving as departure areas.
• 1997: construction begins on the new inter-city railway station at the eastern edge of the airport.
• 1998: the rebuilt Terminal A is reopened. The airport changes its name from "Rhine Ruhr airport" to "Düsseldorf International". Reconstruction of the central building and Terminal B begins.
• 1999: foundation laid for an underground parking garage under the new terminal, as part of the "Airport 2000+" programme
• 2000: in May, the new Düsseldorf Airport railway station is opened, with the capacity of 300 train departures daily. 16 million passengers use the airport this year; Düsseldorf is the third biggest airport in Germany.
• 2001: in July, the new departures hall and Terminal B are opened after 2 1/2 years of construction time; the rebuilt Gebäude Ost is reopened.
• 2002: shuttle bus service is replaced by the suspended monorail called the SkyTrain connects the terminal building with the InterCity train station. The monorail travels the 2.5 kilometres between the terminal and station at a maximum speed of 50 km/h. The system was developed by Siemens and is based on the similar H-Bahn operating with two lines on Dortmund university campus. A variety of tickets are valid for travel, including a VRR, Flight ticket, DB, or parking garage ticket.
• 2006: 12 November: Airbus A380 lands in Düsseldorf.

[edit] Magazine of the airport

Das Magazin is a magazine available for visitors and passengers travelling through Düsseldorf airport. It contains information about new airlines serving Düsseldorf, new destinations and routes, and other information about the airport itself and surrounding facilities. Das Magazin is available at many shops and newsstands at the airport for free or via a subscription for three issues at a current price of €19.00.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

[edit] Terminal A (Star Alliance/Lufthansa Partners)

• Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
  • operated by Austrian Arrows (Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Vienna)
• Condor (Antalya, Arrecife, Chania, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Izmir, Jerez de la Frontera, Kerkyra, Las Palmas, Linz, Mahon, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodos, Santa Cruz, Santorin, Tanger, Tenerife-South) + Terminal B
• Croatia Airlines (Dubrovnik, Split, Zagreb)
• LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
• Lufthansa (Barcelona, Berlin-Tegel, Birmingham, Chicago-O'Hare, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ibiza [seasonal], London-Heathrow, Malaga, Miami [seasonal], Moscow-Domodedovo, Munich, Newark, Olbia [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Toronto-Pearson [seasonal], Valencia, Vienna, Wroclaw)
  • Lufthansa Regional operated by Contact Air (Basel, Balaton [seasonal], Geneva, Jersey [seasonal], London-City, Nürnberg, Stuttgart)
  • Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings (Berlin-Tegel, Bilbao, Birmingham, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Dresden, Geneva, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Hamburg, Heringsdorf, Katowice, Lyon, Madrid, Manchester, Marseille, Milan-Malpensa, Newcastle, Newquay, Nice, Nürnberg, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Prague, Rome-Fiumicino, Sofia, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Turin, Warsaw, Westerland/Sylt [seasonal], Valencia, Vienna, Zürich)
  • Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine (Barcelona, Bastia, Dresden, Hamburg, Kiev-Boryspil, Leipzig/Halle, Madrid, Milan-Malpensa, Oslo, Reykjavik [begins June 6, 2009], Rome-Fiumicino, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Vienna)
• Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Stockholm-Arlanda, Oslo)
• Swiss International Air Lines (Zürich)

[edit] Terminal B

• Aegean Airlines (Athens, Thessaloniki)
• Aer Lingus (Dublin)
• Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)
• airBaltic (Riga, Vilnius)
• airberlin (Alicante, Antalya, Arrecife, Barcelona, Berlin-Tegel, Copenhagen, Dresden, Fuerteventura, Hamburg, Helsinki, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Karpathos, Las Palmas, London-Stansted, Luxor, Mahon, Málaga, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Domodedovo, Munich, Nice, Nuremberg, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Orly, Preveza [seasonal], Pristina, Rhodos, Rome-Fiumicino, Samos, Seville [seasonal], Stuttgart, Tenerife-South, Thessoloniki, Trabzon, Vienna, Westerland/Sylt, Zakynthos, Zürich, Vancouver [seasonal])
  • airberlin operated by Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (Westerland/Sylt)
• Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
  • Air France operated by Brit Air (Lyon)
• Air Malta (Malta)
• Air Via (Bourgas, Varna) [seasonal]
• Alitalia
  • Alitalia operated by Alitalia Express (Milan-Malpensa)
• British Airways (London-Heathrow)
  • British Airways operated by Sun Air of Scandinavia (Billund)
• Bulgarian Air Charter (Bourgas, Varna) seasonal
• Czech Airlines (Prague)
• Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
• Emirates (Dubai)

Emirates A330-200 departing

• Finnair (Helsinki)
• Flybe (Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton)
• Iberia Airlines (Madrid)
• Icelandair (Reykjavik [begins June 4, 2009])
• Jet2.com (Leeds/Bradford, Edinburgh [starts 29 March])
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
  • KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam)
• Norwegian Air Shuttle (Oslo)
• Olympic Airlines (Athens, Thessaloniki)
• Pegasus Airlines (Antalya, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen)
• Rossiya (St. Petersburg)
• Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca, Nador)
• Sky Airlines (Antalya)
• Tunisair (Djerba, Monastir, Tunis)
• Turkish Airlines (Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Istanbul-Atatürk, Izmir, Kayseri, Samsun, Trabzon)

[edit] Terminal C

• Afriqiyah Airways (Tripoli)
• Aurora Airlines (Pristina)
• Bestair (Istanbul-Atatürk)
• Blue Wings (Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Gaziantep, Istanbul-Atatürk, Kayseri, Malatya, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Samsun, St. Petersburg)
• Carpatair (Timişoara)
• EgyptAir (Cairo)
• Euroline (Kutaisi)
• Free Bird Airlines (Antalya)
• Germania (Pristina)
• Ghana International Airlines (Accra, London Gatwick) starts 29 November 2008
• Jat Airways (Belgrade)
• KD Avia (Kaliningrad)
• LTU (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Cancún, Fort Myers, La Romana, Male, Miami, Mombasa, Montego Bay, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Varadero)
• MAT Macedonian Airlines (Skopje)
• Nouvelair (Monastir)
• Onur Air (Adana, Ankara, Istanbul-Atatürk, Izmir, Kayseri)
• S7 Airlines (Moscow-Domodedovo)
• SunExpress (Antalya, Bodrum, Izmir)
• TUIfly (Agadir, Antalya, Arrecife, Bodrum, Catania, Chania, Dalaman, Djerba, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Heraklion, Hurghada, Jerez de la Frontera, Kos, Lamezia, Las Palmas, Mahon, Málaga, Monastir, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Patras, Rhodos, Sal, Santorini, Tel Aviv, Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki)
• Ural Airlines (Ekaterinburg [seasonal])
• XL Airways Germany (Antalya, Fuerteventura, Pristina)

[edit] Cargo airlines

• Atlas Air (Dubai, Sharjah)
• Emirates SkyCargo (Dubai)
• Polar Air Cargo
• Volga-Dnepr

[edit] See also

• Airport Weeze, an airport 80 km (50 mi) away from Düsseldorf, that is advertised by budget airlines as "Airport Düsseldorf Weeze", or "Airport Düsseldorf Niederrhein". A German court decided that naming the airport after Düsseldorf would be misleading to passengers, however some budget airlines still use that name in advertisements outside of Germany.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=&men=gcis&lng=en&dat=32&geo=-4&srt=npan&col=aohdq&pt=a&va=&srt=pnan

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Düsseldorf International Airport

• Düsseldorf International Airport Homepage
• Sky-Train Düsseldorf