Saarbrücken Airport

Saarbrücken Airport (IATA: SCN, ICAO: EDDR), or Flughafen Saarbrücken [ˌfluːkhaːfn̩ zaːɐ̯ˈbʁʏkŋ̍] or Ensheim Airport in German, is a minor international airport in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It features flights to major cities throughout Germany as well as some leisure routes.

Saarbrücken Airport

Flughafen Saarbrücken
Summary
Airport typePublic
ServesSaarbrücken, Germany
Focus city forTUI fly Deutschland
Elevation AMSL1,058 ft / 322 m
Coordinates49°12′52″N 07°06′34″E
Websiteflughafen-saarbruecken.de
Map
SCN is located in Saarland
SCN
SCN
Location of the airport in South Saarland
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
09/27 6,562 2,000 Asphalt
09L/27R 1,788 545 Grass
Statistics (2022)
Passengers300,034 Increase+99,7%
Aircraft movements006,882 Increase+16,6%
Cargo (metric tons)000,010 Decrease-36,3%
Sources: Statistics at ADV.[1]
AIP at German air traffic control.[2]

History

First years

The history of aviation in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German federal state Saarland, 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 flight from Frankfurt stopping en route to Paris. In 1929, routes to Frankfurt and on to Berlin and Karlsruhe and then to Munich, Vienna and Budapest 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 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, just approx. 40 km (25 mi) 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 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.[3] 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.[4]

After Hapagfly left, Air Berlin opened routes from Saarbrücken to Palma de Mallorca and Berlin–Tegel Airport, but it ceased flying in 2017. Additionally, Luxair has made Saarbrücken Airport its secondary hub due to its proximity to Luxembourg.

Saarbrücken Airport handled 452,314 passengers in 2011.

Due to Zweibrücken Airport's financial difficulties, TUIfly announced that their seasonal base would be relocated from there to Saarbrücken Airport from summer 2015.[5] 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.[6]

Facilities

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 bridges, 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.

Since 4 December 2018, air traffic control for the airport has been provided remotely from a remote tower centre in Leipzig (450 km away). The project had received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730195 and No 874470.[7] 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.[8] Despite the airport being controlled from a centre, with plans to control other airports (Erfurt in 2021 and Dresden later),[8] 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.[9]

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Saarbrücken Airport:[10]

AirlinesDestinations
Corendon Airlines Seasonal: Antalya[11]
DAT Berlin, Hamburg
Eurowings Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca
Freebird Airlines Seasonal charter: Hurghada (begins 1 November 2023)[12]
SmartLynx Airlines Seasonal charter: Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Kos, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes, Tenerife–South
SunExpress Antalya
Seasonal: İzmir[13]

Statistics
Aerial overview
Check-in hall interior
Maintenance facilities at Saarbrücken Airport
Apron view
Annual passenger traffic at SCN airport. See Wikidata query.
Passengers
2000 482,595
2001 Decrease 480,030
2002 Decrease 461,299
2003 Decrease 458,183
2004 Increase 459,853
2005 Increase 486,230
2006 Decrease 420,221
2007 Decrease 349,953
2008 Increase 518,283
2009 Decrease 469,933
2010 Increase 491,299
2011 Decrease 452,314
2012 Decrease 425,429
2013 Decrease 405,265
2014 Decrease 353,011
2015 Increase 467,092
2016 Decrease 427,566
2017 Decrease 396,849
2018 Decrease 358,868
2019 Increase 366,574
2020 Decrease 51,542
Source: ADV.;[14] 2020[15]

Ground transportation

Car

The airport is linked to the A1/A6 motorways (Exit Fechingen) which connect to Saarbrücken itself, to the cities of Trier and Mannheim and to Luxembourg. From France it can be reached via federal highway L108. Taxis and car hire agencies are available at the terminal building.[16]

Bus

Regional bus line R10 provides scheduled connections to Saarbrücken city center including Saarbrücken main station.[16]

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.[17][18]

See also

References
  1. "ADV Monthly Traffic Report 12/2022" (PDF; 919 KB). adv.aero (in German). Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen e.V. 2023-02-13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  2. "AIP VFR online". dfs.de. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH. Archived from the original on 2023-02-26. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  3. "Tuifly verlässt Anfang November den Flughafen Zweibrücken" (in German). Airliners. 2014-09-16. Archived from the original on 2014-09-22. Retrieved 2014-09-16.
  4. "Flughafen Zweibrücken stellt Insolvenzantrag" (in German). Airliners. 2014-07-24. Archived from the original on 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2014-07-24.
  5. "Einladung an den Counter". Euro Business Communication Verlag GmbH (in German). touristik aktuell. 10 June 2022. pp. Nr. 31-32. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  6. "Flughafen Saarbrücken GmbH - NewsDetail de". flughafen-saarbruecken.de. Archived from the original on 2015-02-19.
  7. "Remote Tower Control now operational at International Airport Saarbrücken in Germany". Remote Tower EU. 5 December 2018. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  8. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung, Saarbrücken Airport (17 June 2020). "More than one year of remote control at Saarbrücken". International Airport Review. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  9. Frequentis (March 2021). "Germany adopts advanced remote tower technology" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  10. "Flugpan" (in German). Airport Saarbrucken. Archived from the original on 2021-10-01. Retrieved 2021-10-01.
  11. "CORENDON AIRLINES NW22 SCHEDULED SERVICE ADJUSTMENT – 20OCT22". aeroroutes.com. 20 October 2022. Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  12. "Freebird will fly from Saarbrücken to Hurghada".
  13. "SUNEXPRESS NS23 ROUTES ADDITION SUMMARY – 22NOV22". 22 November 2022. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  14. "German Airport Statistics (German)" (in German). Archived from the original on 2016-01-24.
  15. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen (ADV) (2 February 2021). "ADV-Monatsstatistik / ADV Monthly Traffic Report 12/2020" (PDF) (in German). Berlin. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-06-20. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  16. "Flughafen Saarbrücken GmbH - By car". flughafen-saarbruecken.de. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08.
  17. "Luxair-Maschinn brécht Start of a kënnt um Bauch un d'Halen" (in Luxembourgish). RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg. 2015-10-01. Archived from the original on 2015-10-01. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  18. "Investigation report of an accident with a Bombardier DHC-8 at Saarbrücken airport". BFU. Archived from the original on 30 June 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2017.

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