Friedrichshafen Airport

Friedrichshafen Airport (German: Flughafen Friedrichshafen, IATA: FDH, ICAO: EDNY; also known as Bodensee Airport Friedrichshafen) is a minor international airport 1.9 miles (3 km) north of Friedrichshafen, Germany, on the banks of Lake Constance (German: Bodensee). It is the third biggest airport in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden and served 559,985 passengers in 2015. Friedrichshafen features flights to European metropolitan and leisure destinations. Due to its proximity to the Austrian Alps it is also heavily used during the winter by skiing tourists.

Friedrichshafen Airport

Flughafen Friedrichshafen
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorFlughafen Friedrichshafen GmbH
ServesFriedrichshafen, Germany and Lake Constance
Elevation AMSL1,358 ft / 414 m
Coordinates47°40′17″N 009°30′41″E
Websitebodensee-airport.eu
Map
FDH
Location of airport in Baden-Württemberg
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 2,356 7,729 Asphalt
Sources:[1][2]

The Messe Friedrichshafen convention center is just north of the airport's runway. The center hosts an annual European general aviation conference AERO Friedrichshafen and other conferences.[3]

History

This airport was established in 1915 when the first hangars were constructed.[4] The first scheduled passenger flights with the Zeppelin started from here, long before they were relocated to Frankfurt/Zeppelinheim.

Friedrichshafen saw its first scheduled passenger flights in 1929 with Deutsche Luft Hansa services to Stuttgart. Delta Air established the first successful post-war regional flights in 1978, flying to Stuttgart and Zürich.[4]

A new terminal building and runway were built between 1988 and 1994. Another new terminal was opened in 2010.[4]

InterSky, based at the airport, shut down its key route to Cologne Bonn Airport, which it had operated for seven years, in October 2010 due to tough competition from Germanwings which started flying the same route in spring 2010.[5] Germanwings closed the route on 14 June 2015.[6]

On 5 November 2015, InterSky ceased all operations due to financial difficulties, leading to the termination of domestic connections to Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Düsseldorf.[7] In December 2015, it was announced that the airport might need financial support from its majority owners—the city of Friedrichshafen and the surrounding county—as the shutdown of InterSky—one of the airport's largest customers—led to financial difficulties.[8]

Also in December 2015, VLM Airlines announced it would base three aircraft in Friedrichshafen to take over the domestic routes to Berlin, Düsseldorf and Hamburg previously provided by InterSky.[9] However, VLM went bankrupt in June 2016, leaving these routes abandoned again.[10] In 2019, Sun-Air of Scandinavia, a franchisee of British Airways announced routes from Friedrichshafen to Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Toulouse with only the Düsseldorf service remaining in 2021, partly due to the Coronavirus pandemic.[11]

Facilities

The airport consists of one passenger terminal building with seven departure gates (A-G) as well as some shops and restaurants. The apron consists of seven aircraft stands; there are no jet bridges. The terminal building also features office space and an observation deck called the ON TOP terrace. The airport also features an airship hangar as well as general aviation facilities.

The airport also was previously the base of InterSky, an Austrian regional airline which is now defunct. A museum dedicated to Dornier Flugzeugwerke, a German aircraft manufacturer, is also located next to the terminal.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled, seasonal, and charter flights at Friedrichshafen Airport:[12]

AirlinesDestinations
British Airways Düsseldorf
Corendon Airlines Antalya, Hurghada
Seasonal: Heraklion, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Kayseri, Rhodes
easyJet Seasonal: London–Gatwick
Freebird Airlines Seasonal charter: Antalya
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Ryanair Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca
Turkish Airlines Seasonal: Istanbul
Wizz Air Skopje, Tuzla

Statistics
Aerial view of Friedrichshafen Airport with Lake Constance in the background
Airship hangar at the airport
YearPassengers
2008 649,646
2009 578,484
2010 590,640
2011 571,709
2012 545,121
2013 536,029
2014 596,000
2015 559,985
2016 520,000[13]
2017 517,299[14]
2018 539,698[15]
2019 489,921
Source: ADV[16][17]

Ground transportation

Car

Friedrichshafen can be reached from all directions via federal highways B30 and B31 which are connected to several motorways such as the A96 from Munich or the A13/A14 from Austria and Switzerland. The airport is signposted throughout the city. Taxis and rental car agencies are available at the terminal building.[18]

Train

Friedrichshafen Airport has its own small railway station named Friedrichshafen Flughafen directly across from the terminal building. It is regularly served by local DB Regio and Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn trains, which continue to the city center of Friedrichshafen or the nearest major city, Ulm.[18]

See also

References
  1. Airport information for EDNY from DAFIF (effective October 2006)
  2. Airport information for FDH at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
  3. Sport Aviation, issue June 2012, page 14
  4. GmbH, Flughafen Friedrichshafen. "Bodensee-Airport Friedrichshafen (FDH-Airport)" (PDF). www.Fly-Away.de. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  5. "Intersky: Düsseldorf statt Köln". Aero.de. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  6. "Friedrichshafen: Germanwings streicht Flüge nach Köln-Bonn schon ab Juni - Intersky macht Ersatz-Angebot - SÜDKURIER Online". Südkurier. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  7. austrianaviation.net - "InterSky is grounded" Archived 8 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine (German) 6 November 2015
  8. airliners.de - Gesellschafter planen Finanzspritze für Flughafen Friedrichshafen (German) 8 December 2015
  9. austrianaviation.net - FDH: VLM tritt InterSky-Erbe an 18 December 2015
  10. flightglobal.com - VLM files for bankruptcy 22 June 2016
  11. aerotelegraph.com (German) 11 November 2020
  12. bodensee-airport.eu - Schedule & Destination map retrieved 14 November 2020
  13. Medienhaus, Südkurier (24 January 2017). "Friedrichshafen: Bodensee-Airport: Rund 30 000 Passagiere weniger hoben 2016 ab - SÜDKURIER Online". Suedkurier.de. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  14. "Flughafen meldet ein Prozent weniger Passagiere".
  15. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. adv.aero
  17. "Friedrichshafen: Bodensee Airport legt bei Passagierzahlen zweistellig zu - traveLink". www.TraveLink.de. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  18. fly-away.de – Ground transportation

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