Air transport in Gdansk
The air transport in Gdansk will be on since 1974 Lech Walesa airport in Gdansk handled (Gdańsk). In 1910 two airfields were established in Danzig. The first international airport, which opened in 1923, continued to operate near the center of Gdańsk until 1974. There were also two sea airfields for traffic to Sweden in the 1920s .
History 1910-1945
Airfield on the spar
An airfield was set up on the Holm for the Gdańsk Festival and Flight Week in 1910 , and this was used for flight operations until June 1913. From June 11th to 19th, 1910, the flight week took place where Hans Grade demonstrated his monoplane and Emil Jeannin a biplane. The train and an omnibus line carried the people of Gdańsk to this event every 15 minutes. From 1913 until the end of the First World War , the facility was used by German naval aviators .
Pilot station of Prince Friedrich Sigismund of Prussia
Also in 1910, Friedrich Sigismund von Prussia (1891–1927), who served in the Danzig Hussars , had an airfield built on the large parade ground in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (today Wrzeszcz). Two smaller hangars with attached workshops for the maintenance of the aircraft belonged to his "flying station". The station was also used for stopovers by military aircraft or the Schütte-Lanz airships . During the First World War , the facility was used for military purposes. It only became important in 1917 with the establishment of a naval flying school , which built another hangar.
Langfuhr airport
After the World War, the aviation station fell to the city of Danzig and in 1922 finally to the Free State . Since November 1919 there was a police squadron which was able to deploy three Albatros C.XII and one Fokker D.VII in early 1920 . In May 1920, the military governor issued a ban on the former military aircraft of the police aircraft, which had to hand over all aircraft to Poland six days after the Free City of Danzig was proclaimed (November 15, 1920) . The aircraft handed in included twin-engined Friedrichshafen G.IIIa aircraft that could carry 800 kg of bombs. In 1919 and 1920 there was no regular air traffic.
In December 1920, the Danziger Luftpost opened its operations with the Rumpler CI . Together with Lloyd Ostflug , airmail services were opened on March 1, 1921 on the Berlin - Schneidemühl - Danzig - Königsberg (Devau) route. Passenger operations with the Junkers F 13 followed a month later . The German air shipping company (DLR) operated with the Danziger Luftreederei the route Gdansk - Kaliningrad (Devau) - Memel , which in July to Riga and in September to Reval has been extended. The Fokker F.II and F.III were flown . The Danzig Airmail then flew to Riga via the Lithuanian capital Kovno . A special service for the Poznan Mass began on May 29, 1921, but was ended on June 8 by the French military mission and the Polish government. The Polish partner of Danziger Luftpost was Aero-Targ Poznań .
In 1922 Lloyd Ostflug was replaced by Lloyd Luftdienst / Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst. The routes were operated jointly with Junkers Luftverkehr and Danziger Luftpost. The Berlin – Danzig – Königsberg – Kowno – Riga route had the highest number of passengers (1614 passengers) on German scheduled services, while the Danzig – Königsberg – Memel – Riga route operated by the air shipping company had the best aircraft utilization on the German routes.
On September 1, 1922, the Polska Linja Lotnicza Aerolloyd , behind which the Junkers Luftverkehr stood, started traffic to Warsaw with the Danzig Airmail. About a week later, Lwów (Lemberg) was also flown to, and the connecting route to Krakow followed in July 1923 . The Polish Aerolloyd (from May 1925 PLL Aerolot) received its 19 Ju F 13 via Danzig to disguise the German participation. In 1928, PLL Aerolot was merged with the state-owned airline Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT , which still exists today . The route to Warsaw and Lviv was served all year round.
Gdansk Langfuhr Airport
Since air traffic to and from Gdansk increased steadily and the parade ground came into the possession of the Gdansk Free State, the airfield was relocated in a north-westerly direction and expanded to become the airport. The new airport was opened on June 17, 1923 and expanded several times until 1936. In 1923 it had an area of 25 hectares . In 1924 a large hangar was built, and in 1925 an extension with a shipyard was added. In 1926 an underground refueling system was built. In 1928 a representative terminal building was built, until then Aero-Lloyd had handled its passengers in the hangar. Further halls were built and the airport was recently expanded to a runway circle of 1000 meters in diameter. He also received a blind runway with appropriate lighting and navigation aids. The work was completed by 1936. Only a 270-meter-long approach route was concreted in order to protect passengers and onlookers from clouds of dust at the start. The runways, 1020 and 966 meters long, were made of grass.
The airport had the Gdansk Airport train station on the railway line from Gdansk to Sopot, later Gdańsk-Lotnisko , today Gdańsk-Zaspa . In addition to the Danzig airlines and their German partners, the Polish LOT and their predecessors, it was also served by Deruluft (German-Russian airline) . However, towards the mid-1920s, Königsberg Airport Devau increasingly ousted Danzig from the role of the most important aviation hub in the Scandinavian - Baltic region. For political reasons, LOT stopped its winter flights in 1934 and since 1937 has only flown to Rumia (Rahmel) airport near Gdynia .
In 1926 the German airlines merged to form Deutsche Luft Hansa (DLH) . The Danzig Aero-Lloyd still existed formally. A Danziger Luft Hansa was no longer founded because the “Paris Agreement” on air traffic came into force for the German Reich in May 1926. The approval of German aircraft in the Danzig aviation role no longer offered any advantages, the Danzig airlines were liquidated. As a result, only aircraft were permitted in Gdansk for training, sport and sightseeing flights.
In 1926, Luft Hansa set up a night line via Danzig to Königsberg. The Deruluft machine to Moscow started early in the morning in Devau. Moscow could be reached from Berlin in 15 hours, overnight stays were no longer necessary. Until it was dissolved, Deruluft also operated the route via Danzig to Berlin. Single-engine Fokker F.III, Dornier Merkur and later three-engine Tupolew ANT-9 were used . In autumn 1929, German aircraft were allowed to fly over Polish territory for the first time. Luft Hansa no longer had to fly around the Polish corridor over the Baltic Sea .
Danzig-Plehnendorf seaplane base
Since the jetty and an area at the Sopot South Bath had proven to be unsuitable, a seaplane base for flight destinations in Scandinavia was created on the Dead Vistula . The first test flights led in May 1925 via Stockholm to Helsingfors . The three seaworthy flying boats of the Dornier Wal type had an Italian license and belonged to the Swedish subsidiary Nordiska Flygrederiet of German Aero-Lloyds (DAL) . On June 5, 1925, the connection to Stockholm was officially opened, until operations ceased on September 30, 1925, 476 passengers were carried on 179 flights over the Baltic Sea.
Danzig-Ostlich-Neufähr water airport
Since there was strong interest in Sweden in a connection to Warsaw, a water airport was established on the Vistula near Ostlich Neufähr (today Górki Wschodnie) in 1928. The newly built terminal building later served, among other things, as a rural women’s school and today as an ornithological research station for the University of Danzig . Only one line to Kalmar was operated by Deutsche Luft Hansa in 1928. In July 1932 the Dornier Do X moored here for a week on her flight to Germany.
Gdańsk air routes
Airlines in Gdansk
- Danzig Airmail (1920-1925)
- Danziger Luftreederei (1921–1922) / Danziger Aero-Lloyd (1923–1926)
- Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst (1922) / Danziger Aero-Lloyd (1923–1926)
- German Air Shipping Company (DLR; 1921–1922)
- Lloyd Ostflug (1921) / Lloyd Luftdienst (1922) / Deutscher Aero-Lloyd (DAL; 1923–1925)
- Junkers air traffic (1922–1925)
- Air traffic Pomerania (1925)
- Deutsche Luft Hansa (DLH; 1926–1945)
- PLL Aerolloyd (1922-1925) / PLL Aerolot (1925-1927)
- PLL LOT (1928-1937)
- Deru flight (1925-1936)
- Aero O / Y (1938-1939)
- 1921
- Berlin - Schneidemühl - Danzig - Königsberg (Lloyd Ostflug / Danziger Luftpost)
- from July to Kovno and Riga
- Gdansk - Königsberg - Memel (DLR / Danziger Luftreederei)
- from July to Riga, from September to Reval
- Gdansk - Poznań - Warsaw (special trade fair service)
Winter break from November 1st
- 1922 (May-September)
- Berlin - Szczecin - Gdansk
- Hamburg - Szczecin - Gdansk
- Danzig - Königsberg - Kowno - Riga (Lloyd Luftdienst and Junkers)
- Gdansk - Königsberg - Memel - Riga - Reval (DLR / Danziger Luftreederei)
- Gdansk - Warszawa - Lwów (PLL Aerolloyd / Danzig Airmail)
- 1923-1925
- Berlin - Danzig - Königsberg (DAL / Danziger Aero-Lloyd and Junkers / Danziger Luftpost)
- Koenigsberg - Memel - Riga - Reval (Junkers)
- Gdansk - Warsaw (–Kraków) - Lwów (PLL Aerolloyd; all year round)
- Danzig - Marienburg (Danziger Aero-Lloyd, from June 1924)
- Hamburg - Stettin - Danzig (Pomeranian air traffic, Stettin with LFG V 130 Strela Land , 1925)
- Berlin - Gdansk - Koenigsberg - Moscow (DAL / Deruluft)
- Danzig-Plehnendorf - Stockholm (DAL / Nordiska Flygrederiet; 1925)
- 1926-1929
- Berlin - Gdansk - Koenigsberg - Memel (DLH)
- Berlin - Danzig - Koenigsberg (DLH night route) Koenigsberg - Kovno - Moscow (DLH with Deruluft)
- Gdansk - Marienburg - Elbing - Allenstein (DLH)
- Szczecin - Stolp - Gdansk (DLH)
- Danzig-Ostlich-Neufähr - Kalmar (DLH Flugbootlinie; only 1928)
- Gdansk - Warsaw - Lwów (PLL Aerolot; 1929 PLL LOT)
- Gdansk - Bydgoszcz - Poznań (LOT; 1929–1930)
- 1930-1936
- Berlin - Gdansk - Koenigsberg (DLH)
- Gdansk - Warsaw - Lwów (LOT)
- Danzig - Bydgoszcz - Poznań (LOT, discontinued in 1931)
- Danzig - Warsaw - Lwów - Galați - Bucharest - Sofia - Saloniki (LOT; from 1931)
- from 1934 introduction of a winter break
- Berlin - Danzig - Königsberg (Reichsbahn freight route; Dornier Do F freight aircraft ; from 1936)
- 1937
- Berlin - Danzig - Königsberg - Kaunas - Riga - Tallinn - Helsingfors (DLH; from 1938 without landing in Danzig)
- Berlin - Gdansk - Königsberg (Reichsbahn freight route)
- 1938-1939
- Berlin - Gdansk - Koenigsberg (DLH)
- Berlin - Danzig - Königsberg (DLH, mail and freight route)
- Berlin - Gdansk - Königsberg (Reichsbahn freight route)
- Berlin - Danzig - Helsingfors (Aero O / Y and DLH; 1939)
- Hamburg - Stettin - Danzig (DLH, 1939)
Second World War
The invasion of Poland meant the closure of civil aviation. On September 21, 1939, Danzig was again approached from the alternative airfield Rangsdorf near Berlin. The commercial flights of Lufthansa were only stopped in early 1945.
When the war broke out, Stukas from carrier group 186 were stationed in Danzig-Langfuhr. These bombed ships of the Polish Navy and the Westerplatte . The place then housed the pilot school A / B 6 and later the FFS A / B 52. It had to make room for combat units in January 1945. This included parts of air target and night fighter squadrons , a minesweeping squadron, close-up reconnaissance aircraft and the IV. Group of Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51) . At the end of March 1945 Danzig was enclosed and conquered by the Red Army in the course of the Battle of East Pomerania . The Jagdgeschwader 51 moved to Anklam on March 20 . Ten days later, Gdansk Airport was in Russian hands. It had suffered damage from the fighting, but it was reopened on April 18, 1945 for a Warsaw – Allenstein – Danzig – Bydgoszcz – Warsaw ring line. Civilians could use these with special ID cards.
Group I of JG 51 was deployed in April 1945 at the Junkertroylhof field airfield near Danzig. On April 23, 1945, the group no longer had any operational machines.
History 1945–1974
Gdańsk-Zaspa Airport
After the Second World War , the first line connection to Warsaw was established on February 20, 1946. The airport received two runways from concrete : 03/21 1800 x 80 meters and 10/28 with 400 x 40 meters. The airport was given the new name Gdańsk-Zaspa Airport, named after the village of Zaspa (German Saspe ). The square was officially opened on April 21, 1947, in addition to direct connections to Bydgoszcz, Katowice , Kraków, Łódź , Rzeszów , Szczecin and Wrocław , the most important flight destinations were Copenhagen , Stockholm, East Berlin , Budapest , Varna and Burgas . From 1953 to 1957 the 30th regiment of naval aviation was stationed in Zaspa.
The airport and runways could be expanded a bit, but the inner-city location made further expansion for jet planes impossible. The military sites in Rumia and Pruszcz Gdański were discussed as alternatives to a new building near Rębiechowo . In August 1971 the government decided in favor of Rębiechowo, on March 30, 1974 Gdańsk-Zaspa was closed and on May 2, 1974 the Gdańsk-Rębiechowo Airport started operations.
The square in Gdańsk-Zaspa was built over with the two Zaspa-Młyniec and Zaspa-Rozstaje housing developments. One hall of the pre-war area is used by the Gdańsk brewery, while two more halls were demolished in 2006 and a shopping center with an area of 12,000 m² was opened in the largest aircraft hangar in 1994. The northern part of the former runway is still there today.
Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport
Gdańsk-Rębiechowo Airport is currently the third largest airport in Poland with 4,611,714 passengers (2017). It was named in 2003 after the former Solidarność leader and President Lech Wałęsa . On August 30, 1978, a Tupolev was kidnapped here to West Berlin .
General aviation
The former military bases in Rumia and Pruszcz Gdański now serve as non-commercial civil aviation (general aviation) sites for the Tri- City region (Trójmiasto Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot).
Web links
- Maciej Bakun: LOTNISKA In: Gedanopedia (Polish)
Footnotes
- ↑ Marked with AP for Aero-Targ Poznań
- ↑ Spelling from 1933: Deutsche Lufthansa
- ^ Günther Frost (ADL): The time from 1921 to 1939 . (Part 2) In: Excerpts from the aviation history of the Free City of Danzig 1920 - 1939. P. 16f. (PDF, accessed May 23, 2018)
- ↑ Winter breaks were also common in the following years.