Enschede Airport Twente

Enschede Airport Twente
Characteristics
ICAO code	EHTW
IATA code	ENS
Coordinates	52 ° 16 '12 "  N , 6 ° 52' 27"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 16 '12 "  N , 6 ° 52' 27"  E
Height above MSL	35 m (115  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	6 km north of Enschede
Basic data
operator	Enschede airport Twente BV
Runways
05/23	2987 m × 45 m asphalt
11/29	1999 m × 25 m asphalt

Enschede Airport Twente ( IATA code: ENS, ICAO code: EHTW; formerly Vliegbasis Twente ) is a Dutch airport near Enschede , which serves civil air traffic and also functioned as a military base . The military part was closed on December 7, 2007.

history

Military use

The airport was officially opened on August 29, 1931. On June 18, 1932 the airship " Graf Zeppelin " visited him and in the same year the KLM opened a regular flight connection to Schiphol .

During the Second World War, the airfield was occupied by the German military from 1940 to 1944.

After the liberation of the Netherlands towards the end of the Second World War, squadrons of the Royal Air Force were stationed at Airfield B.106 , the Allied code name Twentes. At the end of the war, the two mosquito squadrons of the 148th Wing were stationed here, and they remained here until August 1945.

Twenthe-Nord in the early 1960s; Starfighters and Sabers

After the Allies withdrew, the airfield was taken over by the Koninklijke Luchtmacht . The Twente Air Base became the home of fighter planes, some of which were deployed and some of which were used by school squadrons. First, here were Supermarine Spitfires , and later jet fighter of the types Gloster Meteor , Hawker Hunter , Lockheed T-33 , F-86K (1956-1964), F-104G (1962-1969) and NF-5A (1970 until 1988). In the last almost three decades of its military use, the base was home to two squadrons of the F-16A / B from 1986 onwards . The flight operations with the F-16AM / BM ended on December 1, 2005 and on December 7, 2007 the military use of the airport was ended.

Civil use

Until 2008, the airport was served by charter planes such as Transavia or Thomas Cook . The main destinations were Las Palmas , Dalaman , Antalya , Mallorca and Lourdes .

The chances of expansion to become a regional airport are assessed contradictingly. There is a study according to which the airport could be expanded into a successful regional airport despite its proximity to Münster / Osnabrück Airport, which is about 60 kilometers away . Around five million people live within a radius of 70 kilometers. The Enscheder newspaper De Twentsche Courant Tubantia , on the other hand, reported that experts at Schiphol Airport, headed by Joop Krul, the former Head of Strategy at Schiphol Airport, had already found a regional airport in Enschede lacking economic viability due to its proximity to the Münster / Osnabrück airports and Weeze and too low a number of potential passengers. These results were intended for internal use only by the airport operators in Twente.

At the end of June 2009 it was announced that there were plans for a compact, regional civil airport that should offer new development opportunities for Twente and the entire region. According to the study by “Vliegwiel Twente Maatschappij” (VTM), the aim of expanding the previous military airfield into a civilian airport is to be concretely addressed. The city of Enschede, the province of Overijssel and the Hague government have joined forces in the VTM to investigate the airport's development potential . From July 3 to September 11, 2009, citizens could raise objections. On December 17, 2009 it was announced that the regional parliament of the Overijssel province had voted with a narrow majority against the expansion of the airport. The expansion was therefore extremely unlikely at first. However, later developments have led to an expansion with a private investor being considered. These plans came to nothing in December 2012 after the end of a four-month tender phase due to a lack of interested investors, as the development company "Area Development Twente" (ADT) announced. This development was rated positively by local politics in Münster and the operators of Münster / Osnabrück Airport.

At the beginning of January 2013, Area Development Twente was forced by a court in Almelo to reveal the names of the three original interested parties, which ADT has refused until then. According to other sources, the court ruling was made at the end of December 2012. In mid-January, ADT complied with the court order and named the three interested parties NV Luchthaven Schiphol from Amsterdam , a community consisting of the French company Egis, the Dutch company Imtech and the Turkish airport operator İçtaş.

On January 21, 2013 ADT announced that a group of entrepreneurs led by the “Reggeborgh Groep” from Rijssen had a new interest in the operation of the civil regional airport of Twente. On May 28, 2013 the development company “Area Development Twente” signed a contract with the financial investor and multi-billionaire Dik Wessels from the Reggeborgh Groep and with Aviapartner for the construction and operation of a civil airport and an affiliated industrial park in Enschede. On September 26, 2013 ADT, Reggeborgh Groep and Aviapartner signed a concession agreement that enables the operation of a civil regional airport for 49 years. When the aircraft take off and land at the airport near the border, the German border should only be flown over at an altitude of 6000 feet in order to avoid noise pollution on the German side. The feasibility of such an approach or departure is doubted by critics.

In September 2016, a test site for drones named "Space53" opened at the airfield, where, among other things, Nokia develops and tests traffic management systems for drones.

In November 2016 it was announced that Aircraft End-of-Life Solutions (AELS) had received a license to dismantle aircraft on the airfield.

literature

• Mark Hendriks (Ed.): Vliegwiel. De transformatie van vliegbasis Twente. Wageningen: Blauwdruk, 2019, ISBN 978-94-9247426-1

Web links

Commons : Enschede Airport Twente  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website Twente Airport

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Westfälische Nachrichten : Analysis: Twente chancedless , Gronau / Enschede, mb, January 14, 2013
2. ↑ Vliegwiel Twente Maatschappij - Twente Airport: compact airport in the country June 30, 2009.
3. ↑ Peter Henrichmann: Province of Overijssel says no to Twente Airport. Münstersche Zeitung , December 17, 2009, accessed on December 17, 2009 . 
4. ↑ derwesten.de : Green light for Enschede Airport , June 17, 2010
5. ↑ derwesten.de : Dutch airport plans worry NRW neighbors , March 12, 2012
6. ↑ Münstersche Zeitung : Twente Airport is about to be closed: The invitation to tender remains unsuccessful: There is no operator in sight in Enschede, front page, Enschede / Greven, Michael Hagel, December 5, 2012
7. ↑ Michael Hagel: Nobody wants to put millions in the airport: Disillusionment in the Twente region , in: Münstersche Zeitung , Wirtschaft und Konsument, Enschede, December 5, 2012.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Münstersche Zeitung : Politics happy about end for Enschede , Münster / Politik, Münster, December 12, 2012
9. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten : No more silence: Twente Airport: Planning company must name the interested parties , Westphalia, Twente, er, January 5, 2013
10. ↑ ^{a b} Münstersche Zeitung : Twente-Flughafen: Three consortia were interested - the ADT company finally names names , business and consumers, Enschede, mha, January 12, 2013
11. ^ Er : New prospect for Twente In: Westfälische Nachrichten , Westfalen, Twente, er, January 22, 2013.
12. ^ Münstersche Zeitung : Entrepreneurs want to save Twente Airport after all: Initiative talks to development team , Economy, Twente, mha, January 22, 2013
13. ^ Westfälische Nachrichten : Twente now wants to take off after all , Westfalen, Nachrichten, May 29, 2013
14. ↑ ^{a b c} Westfälische Nachrichten : Twente Airport can come ( online ), Westfalen, Twente, er, 27 September 2013
15. ↑ Homepage Space 53 [1]
16. ↑ Test site for drones opened near Enschede [2]
17. ↑ RTV Oost - Niet AeroNextLife maar AELS wil fly slopen in Twente , article retrieved November 6, 2016.