Sylt Airport

Sylt Airport (IATA: GWT, ICAO: EDXW) is the airport on the German island of Sylt located in the municipality of the same name. It mostly features summer seasonal scheduled traffic to major German cities as well as general aviation and gliding.

Sylt Airport

Flughafen Sylt
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorFlughafen Sylt GmbH
ServesSylt, Germany
Elevation AMSL51 ft / 16 m
Coordinates54°54′48″N 008°20′26″E
Websiteflughafen-sylt.de
Map
EDXW
Location of Sylt Airport in Schleswig-Holstein
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
06/24 5,564 1,696 Asphalt
14/32 6,955 2,120 Paved
Statistics
Passengers (2014)175,000[1]

Sometimes the airport is referred to as Westerland/Sylt named after Westerland, a well-known part of the municipality of Sylt which however is not the nearest settlement to the airport.

History

The island of Sylt was a famous destination for leisure and holidays in the early 20th century. Sylt's first small airport was established right after World War I, and in 1919 the first scheduled routes to Weimar, Hamburg and Berlin commenced.[2] As Germany had lost the mainland port serving Sylt due to the Treaty of Versailles, the airport became an important way for travelers to avoid entering Denmark, before the construction of the "Hindenburg causeway" linking Sylt to the mainland by railway.

During World War II the airport was significantly redeveloped and enlarged to serve as a military base. After the war, it became RAF Sylt and was used for weapons and other training until closure in late 1961.[3] In the 1960s the leisure traffic came back and developed strongly from the 1970s onwards.[2]

In 1990 Sylt Airport received new technical equipment as well as new passenger facilities.[2] Today it is capable of handling medium-sized aircraft such as the Boeing 737.

In June 2015, Lufthansa CityLine announced the expansion of their services to Sylt: instead of being seasonal, flights from Frankfurt and Munich are now operated year-round.[4]

EasyJet announced in April 2019 that they would launch weekly flights throughout the summer season to their base in Berlin. The flights are operated on their A319 aircraft and were launched on 4 May 2019.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Sylt Airport:[5]

AirlinesDestinations
easyJet Seasonal: Berlin (begins 28 March 2021)[6]
Eurowings Düsseldorf, Stuttgart
Lufthansa Munich
Seasonal: Frankfurt
Rhein-Neckar Air[7] Seasonal: Kassel, Mannheim
Swiss International Air Lines Seasonal: Zürich
Sylt Air Seasonal: Hamburg

The nearest larger international airport is Billund Airport in Denmark, approx. 135 kilometres (84 mi) (by road) to the north. Hamburg Airport is approx. 220 kilometres (140 mi) to the south.

Statistics
Passengers
2010 210,000[8]
2011 217,500[9]
2012 176,000[10]
2013 175,000[1]
2014 175,000[1]

See also

References
  1. "Sylter Spiegel - Aktuelles von der Insel". www.sylter-spiegel.de.
  2. flughafen-sylt.de - Historie (in German)
  3. "RAF Sylt Association".
  4. "Lufthansa verbindet ihre Drehkreuze auch im Winter mit Sylt".
  5. "www.flughafen-sylt.de". Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  6. easyjet.com retrieved 8 February 2021
  7. flyrna.flights - Booking retrieved 8 February 2021
  8. airliners.de Erneut Rekordjahr am Flughafen Sylt (in German)
  9. "Flughafen Sylt mit mehr Passagieren".
  10. chr. "Insel-Flughafen: Airlines fliegen nicht auf Sylt ab - shz.de".
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