Leipzig/Halle Airport

Leipzig/Halle Airport Flughafen Leipzig/Halle
IATA: LEJ – ICAO: EDDP
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding AG
Operator	Flughafen Leipzig/Halle GmbH
Serves	Leipzig and Halle
Location	Schkeuditz, Germany
Hub for	AeroLogic DHL Aviation
Elevation AMSL	470 ft / 143 m
Coordinates	51°25′26″N 012°14′11″E / 51.42389°N 12.23639°E / 51.42389; 12.23639
Website	leipzig-halle-airport.de
Map
LEJ Location of Airport in Saxony
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 08L/26R 3,600 11,811 Concrete 08R/26L 3,600 11,811 Concrete 10/28 2,500 8,202 Concrete
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 2,321,975 Passenger change 14–15 0.4% Freight (tonnes) 863,665 Freight change 11–12 13.6%
Sources: AIP from Eurocontrol, Annual Traffic Report 2012[1]

Leipzig/Halle Airport (IATA: LEJ, ICAO: EDDP) (German: Flughafen Leipzig/Halle) is an international airport located in Schkeuditz, Saxony and serves both Leipzig, Saxony and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt.

It is Germany's 13th largest airport by passengers and handled more than 2.3 million passengers in 2015 mainly with flights to European leisure destinations. In terms of cargo traffic, the airport is the fifth-busiest in Europe and the second-busiest in Germany after Frankfurt Airport, having handled 863,665 metric tonnes of cargo in 2015. The airport serves as the main European hub for DHL Aviation and the main hub for AeroLogic. Also military installations have been built at the airport for NATO and EU military aircraft.^[2]

History

The airport in May 1929

The airport was built new from scratch at a location between Halle and Leipzig from 1926 and opened in 1927.

On 18 March 1986 a Concorde operated by Air France landed at Leipzig/Halle Airport for the first time due to the internationally known Leipzig trade fair. Two days later British Airways also sent a Concorde to Leipzig/Halle. Both airlines continued flying to the airport with the Concorde from Paris and London when a trade fair was held in Leipzig in the following years.

Despite its name, the airport ground property tax goes to the county of Delitzsch. A deal between the city of Leipzig and Delitzsch led to an exchange of area. In 2007, Leipzig received land outside the airport while ownership of the airport land was transferred to Delitzsch. The District of Delitzsch now owns and claim taxes from the grounds and commercial interest from the airport.

DHL Aviation moved its European hub from Brussels Airport to Leipzig/Halle in early 2008 and thereby increased cargo traffic. The airport also was modernized with the 2012 Olympic Games hosting bid for Leipzig in mind but the city lost out to London.

In spring 2013, Ryanair announced to start operations to Leipzig/Halle on six routes. However, one year later all of them except the flights to London-Stansted were terminated again.^[3] In February 2015, Etihad Regional announced the immediate termination of their entire Leipzig/Halle operations which commenced only two years earlier due to changes to their operational concept. All three routes are shut down while two newly announced ones won't start.^[4]

As of March 2015, the largest passenger airlines at Leipzig/Halle Airport measured by weekly departures are Condor with 38 outgoing flights a week followed by Air Berlin, which operates 29 departures per week.^[5]

In September 2016, Pakistan International Airlines announced plans to replace Manchester on their Islamabad - Manchester - New York City route with Leipzig/Halle from somewhere in 2017 due to lower operational costs and time saving measures. As the airline holds Fifth Freedom rights, this would be Leipzig/Halle's first passenger service to the United States.^[6]

In October 2016, DHL inaugurated a major expansion to its freight facilities at the airport. The two new cargo terminals increase the handling capacity by 50 percent.^[7]

Facilities

Terminal

The modern airport terminal structure extends over the adjacent motorway and railway. It features an integrated car park as well as the check-in-facilities and is connected to a pier equipped with six Jet bridges as well as several apron stands.

Runways

Leipzig/Halle Airport features two runways. The terminal access is south of the railway while the runway 08L/26R parallels the driveway north of the railway, requiring aircraft to taxi on a bridge over the tracks and roads.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Leipzig/Halle Airport:^[8]

Cargo

Military

Some US airlines fly to Leipzig/Halle on behalf of the US Department of Defense, to bring US Army troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Leipzig/Halle is used as technical stop for refueling on these flights. They do not appear at any official timetable. Soldiers flown via Leipzig/Halle are listed as transit passengers in its traffic statistics. Miami Air International airlines and others operate military charter flights via Leipzig/Halle.

Statistics

General plan of the airport

Concourse connecting the check-in and airside areas

Cargo facilities

Taxiway crossing the Autobahn

	Passengers	Movements	Freight (in t)
1990	274,878	9,549	366
1991	634,424	26,089	4,372
1992	1,073,378	42,960	8,611
1993	1,521,436	48,510	17,482
1994	1,901,797	52,590	23,189
1995	2,104,822	53,807	25,225
1996	2,186,649	50,298	22,410
1997	2,248,852	47,284	17,220
1998	2,108,779	43,778	12,866
1999	2,162,769	47,944	15,220
2000	2,288,931	47,030	17,086
2001	2,185,130	42,408	15,799
2002	1,988,854	41,209	16,882
2003	1,955,070	40,303	17.559
2004	2,041,046	39,316	12,575
2005	2,127,895	37,905	15,641
2006	2,348,011	42,417	29,330
2007	2,723,000	50,972	101,364
2008	2,462,256	59,924	442,453
2009	2,421,382	60,150	524,082
2010	2,348,597	62,247	663,024
2011	2,266,743	64,097	760,344
2012	2,286,151	62,688	863,665
2013	2,240,860	61,668	887,101
2014	2,331,399	63,569	910,708
2015[11]	2,321,975	65,061	988,240
Source: Leipzig/Halle Airport Traffic statistics[12]

Ground transportation

Train

Leipzig/Halle Airport railway station

Leipzig/Halle Airport railway station is located directly beneath the passenger terminal and has both Intercity and Intercity-Express connections to cities like Frankfurt, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Hanover, Cologne and Dresden. Two lines of the suburban S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland connect directly to Leipzig and Halle, furthermore to Altenburg and Zwickau. Transit connection of the network reach most of parts of Central Germany.

Car

The airport is connected to two motorways: the A14 connecting to Dresden (130 km), Halle (Saale, 20 km) and Magdeburg (130 km), and the A9 connecting to Munich (430 km), Nuremberg (280 km), and Berlin (180 km).

Coach

Berlin Linien Bus provides intercity bus services to Leipzig/Halle Airport as a part of its Eisenach-Berlin route. There are four daily stops from and three towards Berlin at LEJ.^[13] Flixbus connects in both ways twice per day to Dresden, Göttingen, Kassel and once per day to Dortmund and Cologne.

In popular culture

The airport's facilities have been featured in major films during recent years:

• In December 2004, Leipzig/Halle Airport was a filming location for Flightplan starring Jodie Foster and Peter Sarsgaard.^[14] According to the film, Jodie Foster's flight departs from Berlin but all shots showing Berlin's supposed airport were actually taken at Leipzig/Halle Airport.
• In 2010, the check-in area of Leipzig/Halle was a filming location for Unknown Identity starring Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger.^[15]
• The airport's terminal and apron have been featured heavily as the location of a major confrontation in the 2016 film, Captain America: Civil War. Branded equipment featuring the airport's logo was shown several times during the scenes.

See also

• Transport in Germany
• List of airports in Germany

References

External links

Media related to Leipzig/Halle Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Current weather for EDDP at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for LEJ at Aviation Safety Network