Kassel Airport

Kassel Airport
Flughafen Kassel
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Flughafen Kassel GmbH
Serves Kassel, Germany
Elevation AMSL 820 ft / 250 m
Coordinates 51°25′15″N 009°23′32″E / 51.42083°N 9.39222°E / 51.42083; 9.39222 (Kassel–Calden Airport)Coordinates: 51°25′15″N 009°23′32″E / 51.42083°N 9.39222°E / 51.42083; 9.39222 (Kassel–Calden Airport)
Website flughafenkassel.de
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
04/22 1,500 4,921 Asphalt
04L/22R 700 2,297 Grass
09/27 2,500 8,200 Asphalt
Source: German AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

Kassel Airport (formerly Kassel-Calden Airport,[2] German Flughafen Kassel) (IATA: KSF, ICAO: EDVK) is a minor international airport serving the German city of Kassel in the state of Hesse. It is located 1.9 km (1.2 mi) west[1] of Calden, 16.7 km (10.4 mi) northwest of Kassel and is mainly used for business and general aviation. There is also a flight school,[3] an ultralight flying school, and a parachuting school based on site.

History

First airfield

Built on farmland, 908 ft (277 m) ASL lying NNE of the Hoher Dörnberg, the airport was opened on 11 July 1970. It has been operated as a public–private partnership since 1991.

New regional airport

A completely new regional airport has been built next to the old airport to accommodate commercial chartered and scheduled carriers as well as the business and general aviation from the old airport. The new airport has officially opened on 4 April 2013 with the arrival of a Germania flight from Frankfurt Airport.

The new airport faced several struggles when opened. The most important customer at first was the travel agency branch of REWE Group, with charter flights to the Mediterranean region. Originally, these were planned to be operated by XL Airways Germany. Following the bankruptcy of that airline, Enter Air was contracted instead, but also pulled out on 20 March 2013.[4] The flights to Tenerife operated by Germania where scheduled to end in October 2013 but already terminated on 22 August 2013 due to low demand. Additionally, the flights to Antalya offered by Tailwind Airlines were reduced in frequency and served less than once a week.[5]

Germania as the airports main user announced that their service to Palma de Mallorca would resume in the 2014 summer season. They also took over the flights to Antalya which had been offered by Tailwind Airlines during the 2013 summer season. While no airline or tour operator offered flights out of Kassel Airport during the 2013/14 winter season, Germania operated two flights per week to Palma de Mallorca and also two flights per week to Antalya in the following 2014 summer season. In the winter season 2014/2015 Germania operated flights to Antalya and Fuerteventura once a week.[6] The airline also announced flights to Palma de Mallorca, Antalya, Heraklion and Hurghada for summer season 2015 and therefore increasing their presence at Kassel Airport.[7]

On 15 March 2014 the airports' chief executive was fired with immediate effect.[8] In January 2015, the airport was renamed Kassel Airport.[2]

In December 2015, Germania announced it would reduce flights to and from Kassel due to low demand, the route to Hurghada ceased entirely by 30 December 2015.[9]

In May 2016, it has been reported that the airport's construction phase is under investigation for violating rules regarding competition and transparency during its procurement.[10] In June 2016, criticism has been made public that there won't be any scheduled flights during the entire winter 2016/2017 schedule. The state government of Hesse will review the airport's financial prospect in 2017 and might vote for the airport to be shut down.[11]

In September 2016, Germania announced that they will not return to the airport for the 2017 summer season leading to the cancellation of all three seasonal services to Antalya, Heraklion and Palma de Mallorca and leaving the airport with barely any scheduled flights.[12] Shortly after, newly founded German leisure charter airline Sundair announced to base an aircraft at Kassel Airport during the 2017 summer season serving up to 13 weekly flights to destinations around the Mediterranean.[13] The finance minister of Hesse stated that this would be the airport's final chance to establish sustainable operations before being legally downgraded to an airfield due to a lack of consistent commercial services.[14]

In May 2017, Amazon.com announced to end its cargo flights from Kassel to Doncaster Sheffield Airport which led to the reduction of freight operations at the airport by half as Amazon was the largest customer.[15] Amazon maintains a major logistics and delivery facility in nearby Bad Hersfeld.

In December 2017, the state government of Hesse announced not to downgrade the airport to an airfield as previously proposed due to an expected positive outlook regarding the negative financial and operational situation.[16]

Facilities

Main hall

Terminal

Kassel features one single small passenger terminal building with basic facilities such as car rental desks and some shops. As there are no jet bridges, buses and walk-boarding are in use.

Runway

The old airport used to have a single asphalt runway, 04/22 (040°/220°), which is 1,500 by 30 m (4,921 by 98 ft). There was a parallel grass strip north of the main runway, which is 700 by 30 m (2,297 by 98 ft).[1] The new runway 09/27 has a length of 8,200 ft (2,500 m) and width of 147 ft (45 m).[17]

The airport features two aprons, one in front of the passenger terminal for two mid-sized aircraft such as the Airbus A320 family and a separate one for general aviation aircraft.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Kassel Airport:[18]

AirlinesDestinations
Sundair[18] Charter: Fuerteventura (begins 2 November 2018),[18] Hurghada
Seasonal charter: Antalya (begins 4 May 2019),[18] Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Kos (ends 30 October 2018),[18] Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes (ends 27 October 2018),[18] Tenerife–South

The nearest other minor international airport is Paderborn Lippstadt Airport approx. 70 kilometres (43 mi) to the northwest.

Statistics

Apron overview
Passengers
2013 49,557
2014 Decrease 45,587
2015 Increase 64,926[19]
2016 Decrease 54,822[20]
2017 Increase 69,810[21]
Source: Kassel Airport[22]

Ground transportation

Kassel Airport can be reached via the federal highway B7 which is itself connected to motorway A7. The express-bus route 100 connects the airport with Kassel city center (journey time approx. 25 minutes) as well as Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station (40 minutes), which is an important long-distance railway hub.[23]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "EAD Basic - Error Page". www.ead.eurocontrol.int. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Regionalflughafen: Kassel-Calden nennt sich künftig „Kassel Airport"". 18 January 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2017 – via FAZ.NET.
  3. ↑ Flugschule Kassel
  4. ↑ Touristik Aktuell: Airport Kassel: Rewe sucht Ersatz für Enter Air. Published on 20 March 2013 (in German) Archived 10 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "Keine Teneriffa-Flüge mehr von Kassel-Calden". 15 August 2013. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2014-11-18.
  7. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2014-11-18.
  8. ↑ "Flughafen Kassel-Calden: Muller muss sofort gehen". 15 March 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  9. ↑ austrianaviation.net - "Kassel loses more flights" 14 December 2015
  10. ↑ airliners.de "Report: Procurement violations at Kassel-Calden Airport construction" (German) 19 May 2016
  11. ↑ airliners.de - Flughafen Kassel-Calden mit Winterbetrieb auf Sparflamme (German) 9 June 2016
  12. ↑ aero.de - "Kassel Airport loses Germania" (German) 22 September 2016
  13. ↑ "Kassel Airport - Mit Sundair ab Juli 2017, 13 Flüge die Woche zu attraktiven Urlaubszielen". www.kassel-airport.aero. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  14. ↑ "Hessischer Finanzminister: Letzte Chance für Kassel Airport". Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  15. ↑ aero.de - "Amazon ends flights to Kassel" 16 May 2017
  16. ↑ fnp.de - "Disputed airport: It goes on" 21 December 2017
  17. ↑ "Kassel Airport - Zahlen, Daten und Fakten". www.flughafenkassel.de. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 kassel-airport.aero - Flugplan (German) retrieved 12 September 2018
  19. ↑ "Flughafen Kassel-Calden legt Passagierbilanz für 2015 vor". Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  20. ↑ "Kassel Airport wird 4: Startklar für 2017". Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  21. ↑ "Statistik 2017". Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  22. ↑ "Kassel Airport - Zahlen, Daten und Fakten". www.flughafenkassel.de. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  23. ↑ "Kassel Airport - An- / Abreise". www.flughafenkassel.de. Retrieved 4 May 2017.

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