Rostock Airport, German: Flughafen Rostock-Laage (IATA: RLG, ICAO: ETNL), is the airport of Rostock, the largest city in the German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and is named after Laage, within the boundary of which it is located. Laage is a town in the Rostock district. It features flights to major cities throughout Germany as well as some leisure routes. In addition to civil activity, Jagdgeschwader 73 of the German Air Force is stationed on the military side of the airport.
Rostock Airport Flughafen Rostock–Laage | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public/Military | ||||||||||
| Operator | Flughafen Rostock Laage-Güstrow GmbH | ||||||||||
| Serves | Rostock, Germany | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 42 m / 138 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 53°55′06″N 12°16′42″E / 53.91833°N 12.27833°E | ||||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  RLG Location of Airport in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | |||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2022) | |||||||||||
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Sources: Statistics at ADV.[1] | |||||||||||
History
editEarly years
editConstruction of the airport began in 1979 as a National People's Army facility. It became operational in 1984 with the Fighter Wing JBG 77 and the Navy Fighter Wing 28. It was deactivated by the Bundeswehr in 1990 and was reactivated in 1993 when Jagdgeschwader 73 was posted there. In the same year the Rostock-Laage-Güstrow GmbH begins civilian operations on a 60 hectare section of the airport.
Development since the 2000s
editThe airport was expected to post losses of €2.8 million for 2013 while the passenger numbers decreased by 12 percent in the same year. As the government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is not willing to give additional financial aid, the airport operator may face bankruptcy in the near future.[2] In October 2014, Rainer Schwarz, a former general manager of Berlin Brandenburg Airport was appointed to the same position at Rostock–Laage Airport.[3]
After the British airline Flybmi, which operated domestic flights to Munich and Stuttgart ceased the operation and declared bankruptcy, Lufthansa took over the route from Rostock to Munich with up to two daily rotations with Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft. However, this service has since been terminated.
In 2019, the airport suffered a sharp downfall in passenger numbers with a decrease by more than half to just 148,000.[4] This was mainly caused by the shutdown of Germania which operated several leisure routes from Rostock. In February 2021, Lufthansa Aviation Training relocated their practical training from Bremen Airport to Rostock.[5]
On the airfield it is a part of the major maneuver held in June 2023, held under the leadership of the German Air Force Air Defender 23 it is the greatest exercise of air forces since NATO was announced.[6]
In November 2024, Condor announced to terminate their two-weekly, summer seasonal route from Rostock to Palma de Mallorca, citing low rentability.[7]
Facilities
editThe airport consists of one modern passenger terminal building containing a large check-in hall as well as some shops and restaurants. The building is equipped with two jet bridges and apron positions. Rostock–Laage Airport usually sees traffic by mid-sized aircraft such as the Airbus A320 but is equipped to handle wide-body aircraft up to the Boeing 747-400.[8] It also has several stands for smaller general aviation planes.
Airlines and destinations
editThe following airlines operate scheduled flights at Rostock Airport:[9]
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Corendon Airlines | Seasonal: Antalya[10] |
Additionally, the airport is frequently used for non-public cruise ship charter flights to and from Southern Europe, e. g. operated by ITA Airways, to carry passengers travelling to and from the nearby cruise port of Warnemünde.[11][12]
The nearest major international airports are Berlin Brandenburg Airport 190 kilometres (120 mi) to the south and Hamburg Airport 200 kilometres (120 mi) to the west.
Statistics
edit
| Rank | Destination Country | Passengers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Turkey |
16,998 | |||||
| 2 |  Greece |
4,394 | |||||
| 3 |  Italy |
1,677 | |||||
| This statistic includes only departures. (No arrivals) | |||||||
| Rank | Destination Airport | Destination Country | Passengers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antalya | Turkey |
16,998 | ||||
| 2 | Heraklion | Greece |
4,386 | ||||
| 3 | Milan-Linate | Italy |
1,543 | ||||
| 4 | Las Palmas |  Spain |
340 | ||||
| 5 | Tenerife South | Spain |
334 | ||||
| This statistic includes only departures. (No arrivals) | |||||||
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
| Passengers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 219.489 | |||
| 2011 |  223,516
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| 2012 |  203,990
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| 2013 | 177,464
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| 2014 | 169,946
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| 2015 | 190,869
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| 2016 | 250,199
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| 2017 | 290,654[14]
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| 2018 | 298,000[4]
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| 2019 | 148,000[4]
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| 2023 | 52,579[15] | |||
| Source: Rostock Airport[16] | ||||
Ground transportation
editPublic transport
editFor all scheduled and most charter flights, a direct bus connection to Rostock Hauptbahnhof (25 km distance) is provided by the regional public transport company (Rebus). A special fare ("Flughafenticket") is introduced, allowing passengers to use suburban trains and street cars within the City of Rostock for one connecting trip. The same applies for one additional trip on regional busses from Rostock within the integrated fare region of Rostock.
Road
editThe motorways A19 (Rostock–Berlin) and A20 (Lübeck–Szczecin) are nearby. There are 4 parking areas at the airport with more than 1,000[17] parking spots in total. Several international as well as local car rental agencies are located at the airport.[18]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "ADV Monthly Traffic Report 12/2022" (PDF; 919 KB). adv.aero (in German). Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen e.V. 2023-02-13. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Rostock-Laage vor dem Aus?". www.austrianaviation.net.
- ^ "Regionalflughafen: Ex-Berliner Flughafenchef wird Geschäftsführer in Rostock-Laage". Faz.net – via www.faz.net.
- ^ a b c ndr.de (German) 11 January 2020
- ^ aerotelegraph.com (German) 17 February 2021
- ^ "Germany prepares to host NATO's biggest ever air exercise over Europe". euronews.com. 2023-06-07. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
- ^ airliners.de (German) 22 November 2024
- ^ aerotelegraph.com - Boeing 747: A little invasion at Rostock Airport (German) 27 January 2016
- ^ rostock-airport.de - Rostock Airport flight schedule retrieved 21 December 2024
- ^ "CORENDON AIRLINES NW22 SCHEDULED SERVICE ADJUSTMENT – 20OCT22". aeroroutes.com. 20 October 2022.
- ^ "Urlaub: Nonstop ans Meer! So lockt der Flughafen Rostock Hamburger an". 17 June 2022.
- ^ "Gute Neun-Monats-Bilanz des Flughafens Rostock-Laage". aero.de. October 5, 2015.
- ^ a b "Statistical Report - Air Traffic at Major Airports - 2023". Retrieved 2024-06-21.
- ^ airliners.de - "Record year for Rostock" (German) 8 January 2017
- ^ https://www.adv.aero/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/12.2023-ADV-Monatsstatistik.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Rostock Airport - parking at the airport". Rostock Airport (EN). Archived from the original on 2022-01-26. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
- ^ "Booking hire cars at Rostock Airport". Rostock Airport (EN). Archived from the original on 2021-10-22. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
External links
edit
Media related to Rostock-Laage Airport at Wikimedia Commons
