Saarbrücken Airport

Saarbrücken Airport Flughafen Saarbrücken
IATA: SCN – ICAO: EDDR SCN Location of the airport in South Saarland
Summary
Airport type	Public
Serves	Saarbrücken, Germany
Focus city for	Luxair
Elevation AMSL	1,058 ft / 322 m
Coordinates
Website	flughafen-saarbruecken.de
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 09/27 6,562 2,000 Asphalt 09L/27R 1,788 545 Grass

Saarbrücken Airport (IATA: SCN, ICAO: EDDR), or Flughafen Saarbrücken 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.

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 for Paris. In 1929 routes to Frankfurt and onto 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. Thus Saarbrücken-St. Arnual was closed in 1939. A new airport was built in the district of Ensheim, where Saarbrücken Airport has been located since. However, the outbreak of the Second World War made opening the airport impossible.

It wasn't until 1964 and several years of reconstruction work that the airport in Ensheim could finally open. In 1972, Saarbrücken Airport became one of 17 airports in Germany to offer international flights. Since 1975 Lufthansa and many other airlines have resumed flights out of Saarbrücken.

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. After this, they went to land at Zweibrücken Airport. Following this incident, Hapagfly decided to relocate all their flights from Saarbrücken to Zweibrücken for safety reasons due to the longer runway. In July 2014 it has been reported that Zweibrücken Airport filed for bankruptcy due to illegal subsidies as it is to close located to the much longer existing Saarbrücken Airport.

Since Hapagfly left, Air Berlin, Germany's second largest airline, has opened routes from Saarbrücken to Palma de Mallorca and Berlin-Tegel. Additionally, Luxair has made Saarbrücken Airport its secondary hub due to its proximity to Luxembourg.

In June 2011, 46,189 passengers used Saarbrücken Airport and it handled 452,314 passengers in the same entire year.

Due to the ongoing financial struggle of nearby Zweibrücken Airport, TUIfly announced the relocation of their seasonal base operations from there to Saarbrücken Airport from summer 2015. Other airlines moved their leisure flights from Zweibrücken to Saarbrücken as well for the 2015 summer season. Therefore, the airport is expecting 30 percent more traffic then in previous seasons.

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.

Airlines and destinations

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

Airlines	Destinations
Air Berlin	Berlin-Tegel, Palma de Mallorca
Freebird Airlines	Seasonal charter: Antalya
Luxair	Hamburg, Luxembourg
SunExpress	Antalya
TUIfly	Seasonal: Ankara, Antalya, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Kos, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes

Statistics

Check-in area

Maintenance facilities at Saarbrücken Airport

	Passengers
2000	482,595
2001	480,030
2002	461,299
2003	458,183
2004	459,853
2005	486,230
2006	420,221
2007	349,953
2008	518,283
2009	469,933
2010	491,299
2011	452,314
2012	425,429
2013	405,265
2014	353,011
Source: ADV

Ground transportation

Car

The airport is linked to motorways A1/A6 (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.

Bus

Regional bus 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, made a wheels-up landing. The aircraft was severely damaged.

See also

• Transport in Germany
• List of airports in Germany

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Current weather for EDDR at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for SCN at Aviation Safety Network