Bremen Airport (German: Flughafen Bremen, ) is the international airport of the city and state of Bremen in Northern Germany. It is located south of the city It mainly features flights to European metropolitan and leisure destinations.
History
thumb|Terminal exterior
thumb|Terminal interior
Early years
The beginnings of the airport date back to the early 20th century. The Bremer Verein für Luftschiffahrt, a local aerospace club, conducted the first experimental flights at the present site in the summer of 1910, on what was then the parade ground of the local garrison. The Senate of Bremen supported the establishment of an airfield to connect Bremen to the growing airship route network. Official permission for the opening of an airport was granted on 16 May 1913. The initial infrastructure was geared towards aircraft operations instead of the initially envisaged airships. Several wooden hangars were erected.
During World War I, the airport was taken into military administration, and civilian operations ceased. The military erected a wooden hangar, but conducted only a small number of operations from the airfield. In 1923, the aeroplane manufacturer Focke-Wulf was founded on a site adjacent to the airfield.
World War II
In the 1930s, several new terminal buildings and hangars were constructed, with the largest to date being completed in 1937. In the same year, four new runways were built. These were arranged in a star-like pattern. The increasing military buildup under the rule of the Nazis also began to show itself at the airport, with the Luftwaffe establishing a flight training base there. Civilian operations again came to a standstill with the beginning of World War II. For a short period between November 1939 and June 1940, the airport served as the base for a squadron of Focke-Wulf Fw 200 bombers. In the later stages of the war, the airport came under repeated bombardment due to co-location with the Focke-Wulf plant. This left most of the infrastructure destroyed or severely damaged by the end of the war. Runway 09-27 was extended to 2,000 m. In May 2016 the airport introduced its new brand with BRE Bremen Airport replacing City Airport Bremen .
In February 2017 British Airways announced it would end its flights from Bremen to London and Manchester, which were both operated by SUN-AIR. SUN-AIR maintained a base for the routes at Bremen Airport. In April 2017 the airport announced it was changing its name to Bremen Airport Hans Koschnick, after the former mayor and honorable citizen of Bremen.
In October 2018, Ryanair announced it would be closing its base at the airport on 5 November 2018. In February 2021, Lufthansa Aviation Training announced it would relocate its entire German practical training from Bremen Airport to Rostock Airport. In 2023 and 2024, Bremen Airport gained two important additional hub connections when Lufthansa Group Airlines SWISS and Austrian Airlines began scheduled routes to their hubs in Zürich and Vienna, respectively.
Facilities
The airport consists of one main passenger terminal building, split into sections Terminal 1, 2 and 3
The Bremenhalle inside the airport hosts a small aviation and space exploration museum, displaying the Junkers W33 Bremen and the first Spacelab module.
Bremen airport is the home airport of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) two Basler BT-67 research aircraft Polar 5 and Polar 6. The AWI fleet was relocated to Bremen after Bremerhaven Airport was closed in 2016.
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines offer regular scheduled and charter flights at Bremen Airport:
<!--DO NOT ADD OR REMOVE ROUTES WITHOUT GIVING A VALID INDEPENDENT SOURCE. EXACT DATES ARE MANDATORY FOR NEW ROUTES TO BE ADDED HERE. ALSO ADD INLINE CITATIONS IF POSSIBLE. Aeroroutes is not a reliable source and should not be used. -->
Statistics
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right; width:250px;" align=
|+
|-
! style="width:75px"| !! style="width:200px"|Passengers !! style="width:200px"|Movements !! style="width:200px"|
|-
!2000
| 1,918,064 || – || –
|-
!2008
| 2,486,337 || 46,876 || 723
|-
!2009
| 2,448,851 || 43,650 || 731
|-
!2010
| 2,676,297 || 46,409 || 539
|-
!2011
| 2,560,023 || 45,412 || 612
|-
!2012
| 2,447,007 || 44,737 || 643
|-
!2013
| 2,612,627 || 44,263 || 567
|-
!2014
| 2,773,129 || 45,987 || 721
|-
!2015
| 2,660,754 || 42,263 || 608
|-
!2016
| 2,573,501 || 40,687 || 731
|-
!2017
| 2,540,084 || 37,233 || 647
|-
!2018
| 2,561,535 || 38,574 || 626
|-
!2019
| 2,308,338 || 36,308 || 525
|-
!2020
| 594,680 || 20,173|| 1,151
|-
!2021
| 630,062 || 18,949 || 230
|-
!2022
| 1,493,007 || 25,083 || 319
|-
!2023
| 1,887,017 || 28,429 || 287
|-
| colspan="5" style="text-align:right;"| <sup>Source: ADV</sup>
|}
Ground transportation
Tram
Tram line 6 departs every 6 to 10 minutes (on Sunday evenings up to 20 min) to Universität Bremen via Domsheide and Hauptbahnhof. The ride takes 11 minutes to the city center, 16 minutes to the central station and 30 minutes to the university.
Car
The airport can be reached via motorway A1 (Baltic Sea – Ruhr area; Exit Arsten) and the yet only partly completed city motorway A281 which crosses the city of Bremen.
See also
- List of airports in Germany
- Transport in Germany
References
External links
- Accident history for BRE at Aviation Safety Network