Hamburg Airport

Hamburg Airport (German: Flughafen Hamburg „Helmut Schmidt”) (IATA: HAM, ICAO: EDDH) is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been named after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. It is located 8.5 km north of the city centre in the Fuhlsbüttel quarter and serves as a hub for Eurowings and focus city for Condor. It was formerly named Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport, a name still frequently used.

Hamburg Airport is the fifth-busiest of Germany's commercial airports measured by the number of passengers and counted 13,559,732 passengers and 120,315 aircraft movements in 2023. As of July 2017, it featured flights to more than 130 mostly European metropolitan and leisure destinations as well as two long-haul routes to Dubai and Doha. The airport is equipped to handle wide-bodied aircraft including the Airbus A380.

Hamburg's other airport, Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport where the Airbus factory is located, is not open to commercial traffic.

History

The airport opened in January 1911, making it the oldest international airport still in use and the second oldest in Germany. It started with airship flights and later added fixed-wing planes.

During World War I, the airport’s hangars were used by the German military until a fire destroyed them in 1916. After World War II, during the British occupation, the airport was used for the Berlin Airlift in 1948.

Lufthansa began passenger flights from Hamburg in 1955 but later moved its main hub to Frankfurt. In 1959, Pan American World Airways started the first jet service to Hamburg. Over the years, many airlines came and went, with some starting new routes and others ending service.

In the 1990s, the airport began big changes, including a new terminal and better transit links. In 2016, the airport was renamed Hamburg Airport Helmut Schmidt in honor of a former German chancellor.

Facilities

Overview

Hamburg Airport started with an area of 440,000 square meters, but it has grown to over five times that size, now covering 5.7 square kilometers. The main area where planes park can fit 54 planes, and there are 17 special bridges that help passengers get on and off planes easily. In 2016, three gates were updated to make it quicker for very big planes, like the Airbus A380, to load and unload passengers. The airport’s runways and paths can handle large aircraft, including the Airbus A380. In May 2018, a new service began flying from Dubai International Airport to Hamburg using the A380 plane.

Terminals

Hamburg Airport has two connected buildings where passengers go. Terminal 1 is used by many airlines, including those in the Oneworld and SkyTeam groups. Terminal 2 is used by airlines in the Star Alliance group. These two terminals are linked by a special area called the Airport Plaza, which also has places to check bags. The first floor of all the buildings is where people leave for their flights, with 44 gates for departures. The ground floor is for people arriving, with ten extra gates for buses. There are 12 places to get bags after flights arrive. The Airport Plaza has security checks, shops, restaurants, waiting areas, and other services. It also has a train station.

Terminal 2 was finished in 1993, and Terminal 1 was completed in 2005. Both buildings were designed to look similar, with high, curved ceilings that look like wings.

Airlines and destinations

Hamburg Airport has many airlines that fly there. These airlines offer both regular flights and special charter flights. The airport is a main place for Eurowings to fly from, and Condor also uses it as an important spot.

Statistics

Ground transportation

The airport is about 8 kilometers north of Hamburg city centre and sits in the Fuhlsbüttel area.

Rail

The S-Bahn Hamburg train, called the S1, leaves every ten minutes and takes you to places like Ohlsdorf, Wandsbek, and Hamburg central station. It is part of the Hamburg transport association, which sells tickets for all kinds of public transport in Hamburg. The S1 train splits at Ohlsdorf station, with one part going to the airport and the other to Poppenbüttel.

Car

You can drive to the airport using the Federal Motorway A7 and take the exit called Schnelsen. Then follow the state motorway B433, which is Hamburg's third ring road.

Bus

There are also local buses from HVV that go to nearby places, plus coach services to Kiel and Neumünster.

Incidents and accidents

On 4–5 November 2023, an armed man brought his 4-year-old daughter to the airport during a disagreement about where she should live. He drove onto the tarmac with her in the car and stopped under a Turkish Airlines plane. He wanted to fly to Turkey with his daughter and fired a weapon into the air twice. He also threw two devices that could catch fire from his car. Because of this, flights were stopped, and everyone on the plane had to get off safely. The authorities believe this happened because of a disagreement about custody. The man was later sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Hamburg court.