Düsseldorf-Mönchengladbach Airport (Flughafen Düsseldorf-Mönchengladbach) is an airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 located 4.4 km (2.7 mi) northeast of Mönchengladbach

Mönchengladbach

Mönchengladbach , formerly known as Münchengladbach, is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine half way between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border....

 and 15.2 km (9.4 mi) west of Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

.

History

The airport was founded in 1955 as a small airstrip for gliders. A hangar was built in 1957 and the next year a control tower and passenger terminal were constructed. The construction of the 1200 m (3,937 ft) runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

, that is still used today, began in 1970 and it was completed in 1973. From 1996 until 2002 the Dutch airline VLM operated direct services to London City Airport

London City Airport

London City Airport is a single-runway airport. It principally serves the financial district of London and is located on a former Docklands site, east of the City of London, opposite the London Regatta Centre, in the London Borough of Newham in east London. It was developed by the engineering...

 with Fokker 50 aeroplanes providing up to 24 weekly flights in each direction. The current layout is illustrated here: http://www.rzjets.net/airports/?show=5353

The British Army of the Rhine undertook an exercise in 1955, in accord with the then NATO-Strategy of quick reaction. They built a basic 'field-made' airfield on the grass-covered area for an air-landing-exercise on this site. On finishing this exercise, the British Army of the Rhine handed the area over to the Mayor of Mönchengladbach for use as an airfield.

Present

Since the last airline, GLOBUS, had left, there were no more scheduled flights in Mönchengladbach. Today, the airport, which is co-owned by the company which also runs Düsseldorf International Airport

Düsseldorf International Airport

Düsseldorf International Airport is the largest airport in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the third largest airport in Germany, handling 18.99 million passengers in 2010....

 (70 ) and the local utility company NVV AG (30%), is dominated by general aviation

General aviation

General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

. Additionally, there are some chartered passenger flights.

Future

To solve the problem of a short runway, the airport has filed a governmental application to build a longer runway. The runway is to be lengthened to 2320 m (7,612 ft) and the terminal

Airport terminal

An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from aircraft....

is to be enlarged to serve 3 million passengers a year.

External links

• Düsseldorf-Mönchengladbach Airport