Leipzig-Altenburg Airport
Leipzig-Altenburg Airport |
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|---|---|
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | EDAC |
| IATA code | AOC |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 191 m (627 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 5 km southeast of Altenburg, 42 km south of Leipzig |
| Street |
 
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| Basic data | |
| opening | 1913 |
| operator | Altenburg-Nobitz GmbH airfield |
| Terminals | 1 |
| Flight movements |
9,700 ( 2013 ) |
| Capacity ( PAX per year) |
700,000 |
| Employees | 12 |
| Start-and runway | |
| 04/22 | 2435 m × 45 m concrete |
The Leipzig-Altenburg Airport is a regional airfield 42 kilometers south of Leipzig and 5 kilometers east-southeast of Altenburg on the premises of the municipality Nobitz in Thuringia . The larger cities of Gera , Zwickau and Chemnitz are also within 40 kilometers . Leipzig-Altenburg is one of the oldest airfields in Germany.
history
The first years
As early as the beginning of the 20th century, the airfield on the Leina in the area of the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg was used by Leipzig aircraft factories to station aircraft. Flight days took place on the parade ground .
After the official opening in 1913 as a "Flugstützpunkt" or "Fliegerstation Nobitz" , the refurbishment of the airfield began in 1916, during the First World War , when the aircraft replacement department 1 was relocated from Adlershof to Altenburg. An area of 110 hectares was cleared and leveled, barracks and airport hangars were built, a sewage treatment plant was built and a road to Klausa was built. An approximately 800 × 600 meter grass area served as the runway. A flying school was set up. Aircraft of the type Albatros , DFW , Rumpler and Fokker were assembled in a newly constructed shipyard building . After the First World War , aircraft, hangars and equipment of the airport were dismantled or destroyed by decision of the Allies. In the following years only air sports events, sightseeing flights and balloon rides took place.
reconstruction
After the Nazi takeover of power in 1933, an (initially secret) air force was set up as part of the armament of the Wehrmacht . A development plan for under the code name Alpendohle designed new building of the aviator Horst Leinawald was present already. On Göring's orders, the air base command was reorganized in 1936 and the expansion of the military airfield began. Runways, seven hangars, shipyards, test stands, tank systems, control and training buildings, radio, measurement and weather stations, accommodations for men and officers, casino and social building were built. The airfield was only briefly occupied by active flying units. In May 1939 the III. Group of Kampfgeschwader 3 with twin-engined Dornier Do 17 bombers here. In October / November 1943, Jagdgeschwader 301 and its I. Group, equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109s , were stationed here before parts of Kampfgeschwader 3 were disbanded here in June / July 1944. Finally, from February to April 1945, Junkers Ju 88 night fighters of Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 took off from here. From 1942 to 1945, apprentices were trained in aircraft construction at the airfield , including glider training. On April 14, 1945, the 6th US Armored Division under General Robert W. Grow occupied the city of Altenburg. The 69th Tank Battalion under Commander Lagrew reached the airfield. The airfield was made usable again by the 825th EAB (Engineer Aviation Battalion; Airfield Construction Battalion) and was used by the United States Army Air Forces from April 16 with the allied airfield code R-23 .
During the time of the Red Army / Soviet Army
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On July 1, 1945, the Red Army occupied the airfield. It was then occupied by the Soviet armed forces until 1992 . During this time the airfield got a completely new look. The remaining armaments of the Luftwaffe were destroyed. Five of the seven hangars were dismantled and taken to the Soviet Union. A first occupation took place by Jak-9-Jäger from 1946 to 1949. Then the 197th Guards Transport Regiment, equipped with Li-2 , used the place. In 1952 a first phase of expansion began in a northerly direction as a base for jet-powered fighter pilots, with the former German buildings being integrated into the infrastructure. The runway was extended to 1,800 meters in a north-easterly direction, large areas of forest were cut down, bunkers , barracks , hangars , flak positions and light anti-splinter coverings were built. Wooden screens were set up in the direction of the Nobitz community. In the neighboring Leinawald an extensive barracks and extensive vehicle halls were built. Then MiG-15 were stationed until 1954 . They were replaced by MiG-17 , later by MiG-21 and MiG-27 . A second phase of expansion followed in the 1960s. The runway was extended to 2,300 meters in 1960 and finally to 2,500 meters in 1969. A paved flight line was laid, a new control center built, three interception systems set up, anti- aircraft missiles of the type 2K11 Krug stationed - later replaced by Buk M1 - and a school for officers' children was built. To protect the aircraft, a total of 40 closed arched coverings of the type AU-11 were erected between 1968 and 1969 , this numerical designation indicating the approximate inner width of the aircraft shelter . Sometimes the airfield was also used by military units of allied states. a. from Poland and Czechoslovakia . NVA fighter squadrons were also temporarily located in Altenburg between 1967 and 1973. Last 1986 combat aircraft of the type were in MiG-23bn of hunting bombers Squadron 37 stationed.
In the 1970s, the square was expanded again. This created parking spaces for helicopters, which were located in Altenburg from 1982 to 1988 in the form of the 312nd OWE OP (Independent Helicopter Squadron for Fire Support). In 1981/82 there was a general renovation of the flight operations areas, the flight line was renewed and equipped with an underfloor tank system and new residential buildings were built. From 1989 the 968th IAP (Fighter Pilot Regiment) equipped with MiG-29 moved to the site.
The Altenburg-Nobitz airfield was used by the western group of troops until May 1992 . The last flight of a MiG-29 took place on April 8th. In the same month the last material shipment flights carried out by Il-76 took place to Russia and on June 15 the handover to the German authorities took place.
Conversion to a civil airfield
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Flugplatz Altenburg-Nobitz GmbH was founded on January 24, 1992. It was used as a regional airport. Since then there has been a steady expansion of the flight technology systems. A new tower and a new terminal building were built. In the summer of 1996 a charter flight of the company ( Air Malta ) started for the first time .
In 2002, the cargo airline Air Omega was founded with headquarters in Nobitz. The airline stationed two Embraer EMB 120 aircraft on the airfield . The company went bankrupt again in 2003.
While charter planes took off from Altenburg-Nobitz airfield every year, the airfield's efforts to set up scheduled air traffic in the late 1990s failed. It was not until 2003 that the first scheduled flight with the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair took place from the airport.
On December 17, 2004, the Thuringian Ministry of Transport closed the airfield to machines over 14 tons. The reason were trees that were too tall in the approach lane. According to the Thuringian Ministry of Transport, these trees were in a nature reserve on the Saxon side and were therefore not allowed to be felled. As a result, the Ryanair flights had to be diverted to Erfurt Airport. This closure caused the employees of the airfield to demonstrate and signatures, which should ensure further air traffic in Altenburg. The demonstrators were of the opinion that the lockdown was primarily a calculation of Erfurt politicians and not the safety of the passengers, as the airline Ryanair announced shortly before the lockdown that it would withdraw from the airport of the Thuringian capital Erfurt. After a new survey in January 2005 it was found that the trees were on the Thuringian side, they were felled shortly afterwards. On January 11th, the airfield was opened for large aircraft again. The Association of Taxpayers listed this block in its 2005 Black Book because the avoidable block resulted in unnecessary costs, such as the bus transfer of passengers to Erfurt. The airport museum was opened in March 2005.
From March 1, 2007 to October 2010, Ryanair flew to Girona Airport in Spain , which is around 75 kilometers from the Catalan capital of Barcelona .
On February 15, 2008, the airfield was renamed Leipzig-Altenburg Airport. In order to improve the marketing of its flights, Ryanair has been calling the airport Altenburg (Leipzig) since the start of the London route in 2003. The Leipzig / Halle Airport saw by his rights violated and obtained before the District Court of Cologne an injunction after the use of this new name was provisionally prohibited. However, the court overturned this order on May 2, 2008. Leipzig / Halle Airport then appealed, but withdrew it at the beginning of November 2008. Another connection to Edinburgh , Scotland , was set up by Ryanair on March 31, 2009, but was discontinued at the end of the summer flight schedule.
On June 29, 2009 the runway was extended from 2235 to 2435 meters, preceded by the rehabilitation of a disused section of the runway. In autumn, work began on a 640 m² terminal extension, which went into operation on April 14, 2010 after its completion.
Ryanair started its last flight on March 26, 2011 and relocated its flight operations for passengers from Central Germany to Magdeburg-Cochstedt Airport . Ryanair was dissatisfied with the number of bookings and an unsuccessful increase in marketing allowances. There were no more scheduled flights from the airport.
In 2012 Classicflug built a new 600 m² hangar on the site. Since then, historical aircraft have been in airworthy condition, including a Focke-Wulf Fw 44 .
The airfield currently has an ILS in the main approach direction with all-weather flight operation level CAT I.
terrain
The former site of the military airfield had a size of several hundred hectares, of which today's airfield only takes up a small part. This is located with the apron and the runway on the western part of the site.
The total length of the runway is 2,435 meters. At the end of runway 22 there were two aircraft interception systems during military service . Usually only one such system was installed. Nevertheless, it happened that aircraft broke through the fence, glided over the trunk road 180 (today federal highway 180) and only came to a stop in the next field.
The expansions of the runway during the time as a military airfield are easily recognizable due to the fact that the width becomes smaller with each expansion. On the first 1810 meters the width is 80 meters, the following 350 meters long section is 60 meters wide, and on the last stretch of 240 meters the width is only 44 meters. In 2006 about half of the runway was renovated, with the old concrete slabs being replaced with an asphalt layer. The Gumpert sports car manufacturer used the runway and the apron as a test track for their up to 860 hp Apollo sports car . Apollo's presentations for journalists and customers mostly took place on the airfield.
Parts of the apron were also shut down, demolished or used as a parking lot. The image of the airfield is bordered by the aircraft bunkers, which initially housed MiG-21 aircraft . The successor, the MiG-27 , could just use these aircraft covers. The last MiG-29 operated only for a short time, on the other hand, was parked on the respective taxiway to these coverings because this type was too big. Also on the opposite side of the runway, in the northwest, there were aircraft bunkers in which aircraft were fully fueled and armed for an alarm start. However, these were torn down in 2012 to make room for a solar system. The steel gates of the bunkers, which weighed several tons, were filled with sand to protect the planes from splinters from bombs and debris. However, the gates would not have withstood a direct hit by a bomb. In order to still be able to open the gates in the event of a power failure, the rails on which the gates roll have a slight gradient. Only one person needed to release the lever and the gate rolled open by itself.
To the east of the site, hidden in the Leinawald, there are four ammunition storage bunkers, which were built in pairs at the beginning of the 1970s and 1980s. The first two prism-shaped bunkers housed Ch-66 air-to-surface missiles . In the other two bunkers, modified AU-13 arched covers, were atom bombs and their detonators. These two-story bunkers are about 36 meters long and 13 meters wide. Most of the buildings on the site have since been demolished. The site has been renatured or is used as a commercial area. In addition to the Airbus supplier KTN, which belongs to the French Hutchinson group, the aircraft engine manufacturer Technify has also settled in the industrial park . The site had a siding, which at Klausa met the track of the Altenburg – Langenleuba-Oberhain railway line, which has now also been dismantled .
Outside the site near Greipzig there was an anti-aircraft missile position that was supposed to protect the airfield from attacks. The command post of this facility is still well preserved.
Airport fire brigade
The airport fire brigade's fleet consists of five vehicles. To Erstbekämpfung the Airport, two airport fire engines of the type Rosenbauer Panther and Ziegler Z8 available. Two other fire engines, a Mercedes-Benz with 9000 liters of extinguishing agent and a Kronenburg, are available as a reserve. The fifth vehicle is a VW bus as a crew transport vehicle . The vehicles are housed in one of the former aircraft bunkers.
Airfield shareholder
The majority shareholder of the airport with 60 percent is the district of Altenburger Land . Further shareholders are the municipality of Nobitz with 5% and ThüSac Personennahverkehrsgesellschaft mbH with 3%. The remaining 32% belong to the airfield itself.
Airport Museum
In March 2005 the association of the same name opened a small exhibition on the history of the airfield under the name Flugwelt Altenburg-Nobitz . You can see many photos of the airfield, equipment and models of aircraft that were stationed on the airfield. The highlight of the exhibition is the MiG-21 SPS , which can be viewed on the open-air site. She was in the service of the NVA until the fall of the Wall and then spent 15 years in a parking lot in Zwickau. Another MiG-21 of the type SMT was owned by the airfield for a long time. In 2014, this was also brought to the museum. This MiG was used by the Soviet Army and was stationed at Altenburg-Nobitz airfield. After damage to the aircraft, it was decommissioned and then stood on a pedestal on the premises until 2001. Then the MiG was removed from the base and restored.
On April 11, 2007, a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft of the type Breguet Atlantic was handed over to the museum by the German Navy . The aircraft was transported to the museum premises on July 7, 2007 in a ten-hour campaign financed by donations. Since then, the Breguet Atlantic can also be viewed from the inside.
In the following years, the outdoor area was supplemented by a Let Z-37 agricultural aircraft , a Mil Mi-2 police helicopter , a glider and the Fiat G.91 , Canadair Saber MK 6 and Lockheed F-104 “Starfighter” aircraft.
On October 7, 2014 the Transall C-160 51 + 02 was transferred from Lufttransportgeschwader 61 to Altenburg airfield and can now be viewed in the museum.
Trivia
In the Nevada desert, not far from Area 51 , the US armed forces were conspicuously reconstructing both the runway and the taxiways of the airfield in order to practice attacks on the airfield. The aircraft bunkers are only indicated by open positions.
The landing site used a Trabant as a follow-me car until August 2006 . This was then handed over to Volkswagen Sachsen to recondition the vehicle and then display it in a museum.
statistics
| year | Flight movements | Passenger volume (scheduled flight) |
Passenger volume (total) |
Air freight (in t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 920 | 0 | 1,983 | k. A. |
| 1993 | 4,962 | 0 | 3,573 | k. A. |
| 1994 | 17,479 | 0 | 16,516 | k. A. |
| 1995 | 18,462 | 0 | 19,788 | k. A. |
| 1996 | 17,682 | 0 | 23,322 | 9.64 |
| 1997 | 17,866 | 0 | 24,232 | 31.4 |
| 1998 | 17,720 | 0 | 27,016 | 180.2 |
| 1999 | 17,693 | 0 | 30,044 | 66.2 |
| 2000 | 17,997 | 0 | 27,764 | 131.9 |
| 2001 | 16,127 | 0 | 26,868 | 27.9 |
| 2002 | 19,543 | 0 | 26,811 | 32.1 |
| 2003 | 16,116 | 51,419 | 71,124 | 20.7 |
| 2004 | 13,978 | 76,606 | 93,870 | 12.4 |
| 2005 | 12,601 | 100,956 | 118.252 | 102.7 |
| 2006 | 12,934 | 90,551 | 105.213 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 14,232 | 124.411 | 139,593 | 20.3 |
| 2008 | 13,485 | 134,519 | 138.140 | k. A. |
| 2009 | 11,393 | 134,558 | 140.765 | k. A. |
| 2010 | 10,072 | 114,525 | 115,000 | n / a |
| 2011 | 10,705 | n / a | 15,034 | k. A. |
| 2012 | 9,728 | 0 | 5,422 | k. A. |
| 2013 | 9,449 | 0 | 4,679 | k. A. |
| 2014 | k. A. | 0 | k. A. | k. A. |
| 2015 | 9,568 | 0 | k. A. | k. A. |
literature
- Stefan Büttner; Lutz Freundt (Ed.): Red places. Russian military airfields, Germany 1945–1994. Air bases - aerodromes - military fallow. AeroLit-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 .
- Jürgen Zapf: Airfields of the Air Force 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. (Vol. 3, Thuringia) VDM Nickel , Zweibrücken 2003, ISBN 3-925480-80-3 .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Aviator replacement division 1
- ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp 12-13 , accessed on January 12 of 2019.
- ↑ Stefan Büttner: Red places - Russian military airfields Germany 1945–1994 , AeroLit, Berlin, 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 , p. 183.
- ↑ Leipzig / Halle Airport is subject to the name dispute ( memento of the original from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. May 2, 2008.
- ^ Report in the Leipziger Volkszeitung about Altenburg Airport from March 25, 2011.
- ↑ Leipzig: Ryanair withdraws completely from January 7, 2011.
- ↑ Airfield data . May 28, 2018, accessed April 3, 2020 (German).
- ^ Stefan Büttner: Red places - Russian military airfields Germany 1945–1994 , AeroLit, Berlin, 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 , pp. 50–52.
- ↑ http://www.aerolit.de/fileadmin/pdf/RP_Update5_022010.pdf Update 5 - 02/2010 Access: June 22, 2013.
- ↑ http://altenburg.otz.de/web/altenburg/startseite/detail/-/specific/Riesiges-Interesse-Transall-landet-fuer-das-Museum-Flugwelt-Altenburg-Nobitz-1692553324
- ↑ 37 ° 24 ′ 15 ″ N , 116 ° 14 ′ 20 ″ W , replica of Altenburg-Nobitz airfield.
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