Airport type Public Serves Antwerp, Belgium Website antwerp-airport.be Code ANR Owner Flemish Region | Operator Egis Group Elevation AMSL 39 ft / 12 m 11/29 1,510 Elevation 12 m Phone +32 3 285 65 00 | |
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Address Luchthavenlei, B-2100 Antwerpen, Belgium | ||
Antwerp International Airport (IATA: ANR, ICAO: EBAW) is a small international airport serving Antwerp, the second most populous city of Belgium. Located 2.9 nautical miles (5.4 km; 3.3 mi) south of the city, it is used for some scheduled and charter flights as well as business and general aviation and served 110,320 passengers in 2012. The airport is also home to a maintenance hangar of CityJet.
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History
After the first flying events at the Wilrijkse Plein, work on a proper airport for the city started in 1921, under the impulse of pioneer aviator Jan Olieslagers and others. Sabena operated passenger services from 1924 from an old railway carriage as the only passenger infrastructure. A proper airport terminal was ordered by minister Maurice Lippens and inaugurated in 1930.
The airport was home to the aircraft factory Stampe et Vertongen until its demise after WW2.
During World War II the airport was used by the Luftwaffe, and also served the nearby Erla aircraft factory. After the German retreat in 1944, it saw brief use by Allied air forces, who called it Advanced Landing Ground B-70.
BMI Regional announced the termination of their route to Manchester for 29 November 2013. The scheduled routes to London-City and Manchester accounted for 63% of the passenger traffic in 2011.
Antwerp Airport was home to VLM Airlines from end 2014, since independency from CityJet. VLM was offering flights from Antwerp to Hamburg and Friedrichshafen and was flying in behalf of CityJet on the route Antwerp - London City. However the airline declared bankruptcy on 22 June 2016 due to cancellations of ACMI contracts by People's Viennaline. Due to VLM's demise, their ACMI customer CityJet handed over the operations of VLM's former service from London City Airport to Antwerp to Danish Air Transport. The Antwerp to Hamburg service was taken over by Chalair Aviation.
Facilities
The airport consists of one small passenger terminal with basic facilities including service desks and a restaurant. The apron features ten stands for smaller aircraft such as the Fokker 50. As there are no jet bridges, walk-boarding is used. Due to its short runway length only just over 1,500 m (4,900 ft), it is not possible to operate larger aircraft than the Boeing 737 at the airport.
Operator
The airport was operated by the Department of Mobility and Public Works of the Flemish Government which made an agreement with the French engineering group Egis Group to operate it starting 2014 for a duration of 25 years.
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Antwerp International Airport:
The nearest major international airport is Brussels Airport approximately 40 km (25 mi) to the south.
Other uses
The airport is home to several flying schools, aircraft maintenance and repair workshops, operators of business jets, to several hangars for private aircraft, and to the Museum Stampe-Vertongen.