Hamburg-Lubeck Airport

Geschichte

Lübeck Airport is a minor German airport located 8km south of Lübeck, the second-largest city in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, and 54km northeast of Hamburg. Until all scheduled air traffic ceased on 15 April 2016, it was the secondary airport for the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, after the much bigger Hamburg Airport, and was used for low-cost and some occasional charter traffic. The airport was therefore sometimes called "Hamburg Lübeck" for marketing purposes.HistoryEarly yearsThe construction of the airport began in 1916 and was completed in 1917 when it started its operations as an airbase. At the end of World War I the airbase was shut down. In 1933, it was re-opened and extended by the Luftwaffe. During the Berlin Blockade after World War II, the Royal Air Force flew coal to Berlin and refugees to West Germany using Douglas DC-3 Dakota aircraft.Development into a low-cost airportAfter the re-unification of Germany, the airport started to grow slightly when several airlines started flying to Lübeck. In 1997, the arrival terminal was re-constructed and extended.Ryanair started to operate from the airport in 2000 with the first flights to London-Stansted. Ryanair's route system expanded over the years until 2009. Wizz Air started operations in 2006 with flights to Gdańsk, and later other eastern European destinations. Discussions about Ryanair opening a base at the airport were held since 2009 without results.