In today's world, Luxembourg Airport is a topic that is gaining more and more relevance and attention. For years, Luxembourg Airport has been an object of study and interest for various sectors of society, from science to politics, including art and culture. As time progresses, Luxembourg Airport becomes a central point of debate and reflection, generating conflicting opinions and diverse positions. This is why it is crucial to deepen our knowledge and understanding of Luxembourg Airport, to be able to address it comprehensively and make informed decisions about its impact on our lives. In this article, we will explore the different facets of Luxembourg Airport and analyze its importance in the current context, as well as the implications it has for the future.
Sources: Belgian AIP at Belgocontrol Statistics from Eurostat
Luxembourg Airport (IATA: LUX, ICAO: ELLX) is the main airport in Luxembourg. Previously called Luxembourg Findel Airport due to its location at Findel, it is Luxembourg's only international airport and is the only airport in the country with a paved runway. It is located 3.25 NM (6.02 km; 3.74 mi) east of Luxembourg City. In 2019, it handled 4.4 million passengers. It is a major cargo airport, ranking as Europe's fifth-busiest by cargo tonnage and the world's 28th-busiest in 2010. Luxair, Luxembourg's international airline, and cargo airline Cargolux have their head offices on the airport property.
History
Early years
The airport was originally known as "Sandweiler Airport", and was opened in the 1930s as a small grass airfield with a relatively short, 3,400 ft (1,000 m) runway.[citation needed]
World War II
Neutral Luxembourg was invaded by Germany on 10 May 1940, and on 21 May the Luftwaffe assigned Jagdgeschwader 53 (JG 53), a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter unit, to the airport. JG 53 was engaged in combat against the French and British Expeditionary Force in France during the Battle of France in May and June. In addition, Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) operated Bf 109s from Sandweiler during the Blitzkrieg. JG 52 moved into France on 29 May but JG 53 remained in Luxembourg until 18 August when it moved closer to the English Channel to take part in the Battle of Britain.
Sandweiler Airport then remained unused by the Luftwaffe until September 1944, when Aufklärungsgruppe 123 (AKG 123), a reconnaissance unit which flew the Henschel Hs 126, a two-seat reconnaissance and observation aircraft, was assigned to the airport. AKG 123 moved east into Germany after only a few days when the United States Army moved through Luxembourg and cleared the country of the occupying German forces.
Allied use
United States Army combat engineers arrived at Sandweiler in mid September 1944 and performed some minor reconstruction to prepare the airfield for Ninth Air Force combat aircraft. The airfield was designated as Advanced Landing Ground "A-97" Sandweiler and was opened on 18 September 1944. The Ninth Air Force363d Tactical Reconnaissance Group operated a variety of photo-reconnaissance aircraft until 29 October 1944 when they also moved east into Germany.
Sandweiler Airport was used by the Americans for the rest of the war as a transport supply airfield and also to evacuate combat casualties to the UK. It was returned to Luxembourgish control on 15 August 1945.
Present
During the late 1960s and 1970s, Icelandair used Findel Airport as their European hub, connecting cities in North America with Europe at Luxembourg.[citation needed] In March 1999, Luxair launched direct flights to Newark using a Boeing 767. The service lasted seven months. In 2002, TAROM routed its flight from Bucharest to New York through Luxembourg in an attempt to increase the number of passengers.
Luxembourg Airport has constructed a high-security zone far away from most airport activities in order to attract the business of transporting valuable goods such as art and jewels. According to Hiscox, there is a "massive demand" for such a hub for precious cargo. Planes taxi away from main airport facilities before loading.
In 2015, the airline with the largest share of the airport's total passenger volume was still Luxair with 1.69 million passengers at a 63% share. Luxembourg Airport was closed to all passenger traffic for a week from 23 March to 29 March 2020 as a public health measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2023, China Southern Airlines began service to Zhengzhou.
Terminals
Terminal A
Built in 1975, the building was the only terminal of the airport for 30 years, until terminal B opened in 2004. The terminal was getting overcrowded especially during the summer period, and only contained four shops, a post office and a restaurant. The terminal started to be demolished at the end of 2011 and was complete by March 2012; this was to make way for a footbridge connecting terminal B to the new terminal A. Construction of the new Terminal A started in 2005 and it was inaugurated in May 2008.
Terminal B
Terminal B opened in 2004. The building is unique as it only has gates and no check-in counters or arrivals hall. It was built for small planes with a maximum capacity of 50 people. It can handle up to 600,000 passengers a year. The Terminal reopened in the summer of 2017 after some arrangements to handle aircraft with a capacity of up to 110 passengers and a total of 1 million passengers annually.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Luxembourg Airport:
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Annual passenger traffic at LUX airport.
See Wikidata query.
Passengers
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
6 525
55 591
476 938
670 159
1 072 264
1 267 640
1 669 484
1 573 825
1 630 027
1 919 694
2 467 864
3 022 918
4 036 878
4 416 038
1 425 715
2 002 903
4 055 900
4 791 916
Traffic
Movements, freight and night flights
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2019
2020
International movements
39 738
46 586
61 189
65 446
57 537
59 785
62 260
69 577
79 101
80 557
43 635
Local movements
22 976
24 912
24 322
24 211
22 957
21 378
21 962
16 825
15 485
14 428
21 066
Freight (kg)
142 956 417
286 380 935
499 910 851
742 341 598
705 079 728
614 904 815
708 077 753
801 807 232
894 648 866
853 354 139
905 222 594
Night flights
764
886
1 069
1 550
1 256
1 554
1 991
2145
1951
1420
Movements by airplane category
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2019
2020
0-2t Propeller
2 656
8 569
9 796
8 744
14 174
33 657
36 415
39 325
29 015
28 386
28 468
25 119
23 481
22 346
16 472
20 339
2-5t Propeller
338
136
313
1 553
982
1 794
1 802
1 549
1 919
2 028
1 955
5 834
5 158
4 167
3 932
5 170
>5t Propeller
608
2 688
4 016
6 853
7 927
6 945
7 554
12 266
18 043
22 660
19 536
7 581
11 034
14 817
21 862
9 173
Jet
390
2 952
6 683
8 833
9 271
13 737
16 588
35 552
51 123
40 821
43 701
52 719
30 020
Ground transportation
The airport can be reached via autoroute A1 (Luxembourg City - Trier) and is also connected with the surrounding areas by public bus transport route 29, which also reaches Luxembourg railway station, and bus route 16, as well as by a cross-border coach service to nearby Trier in Germany. It is planned that a tram line will reach the airport at the beginning of 2025.
Incidents and accidents
On 22 December 1969, Vickers Viscount LX-LGC of Luxair was damaged beyond economic repair when it ran off the runway and the nose wheel collapsed.
On 6 November 2002, Luxair Flight 9642, Fokker 50 (registration LX-LGB) from Berlin, Germany crashed in a field near the village of Niederanven during its final approach. 20 passengers and crew were killed.
On April 15, 2023, a Cargolux Boeing 747-400 registered as LX-ECV, suffered damage after a hard landing during a flight from Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport. The airplane landed hard on its left wing, then did a go-around before landing, with damage to their number 2, or left wing's inner, engine. No one was injured in the incident.
In May 2023, another Cargolux Boeing 747 crash landed at the airport a short while after taking off; the landing gear would not retract after take off and the decision was made to land the aircraft. The main landing gear separated from the aircraft during landing.
Claims of language discrimination
In 2021, it was announced that public announcements in Luxembourgish (and in German as well) at Luxembourg Airport would cease after many decades of use; it would only be using French and English for future public announcements.Actioun Lëtzebuergesch [lb] declared itself to be hugely upset by this new governmental measure, citing that other airports in the world seem to have no problems making public announcements in multiple languages; according to a poll conducted by AL, 92.84% of people in Luxembourg wished to have public announcements to be made in Luxembourgish at Luxembourg Airport.
All written signs at Luxembourg Airport are only in French and English. This non-use of Luxembourgish and German (two official languages of Luxembourg) have fueled claims of linguistic discrimination, some pointing out that other airports seem to have no difficulties using up to 4 different languages in written signs. (Palma de Mallorca Airport for example uses Catalan, English, Spanish and German, the latter not even being an official language of the country)
^Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN0-89201-092-4.
^Johnson, David C. (1988), U.S. Army Air Forces Continental Airfields (ETO), D-Day to V-E Day; Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
^"Routes". Flight International. 30 March 1999. Retrieved 14 April 2022.