Antwerp International Airport

Early years

After the first flying events at the Wilrijkse Plein, work on a proper airport for the city started in 1921, under the impulse of pioneer aviator Jan Olieslagers and others. The national airline Sabena operated passenger services from 1924 from an old railway carriage as the only passenger infrastructure. In 1929, the first stone of the project was laid by the Minister of Railway Transport, Maurice Lippens.

The airport was home to the aircraft factory Stampe et Vertongen until its demise after World War II.

During World War II, the airport was used by the Luftwaffe and also served the nearby Erla aircraft factory. After the German retreat in 1944, it saw brief use by Allied air forces, who called it Advanced Landing Ground B-70.

Development since 2000

Antwerp Airport was home to VLM Airlines since the end of 2014, since independence from CityJet. VLM was offering flights from Antwerp to Hamburg and Friedrichshafen and was flying on behalf of CityJet on the route Antwerp, London City. However, the airline declared bankruptcy on 22 June 2016 due to cancellations of ACMI contracts by People's. Due to VLM's demise, their ACMI customer CityJet handed over the operations of VLM's former service from London City Airport to Antwerp to Danish Air Transport. The Antwerp to Hamburg service was taken over by Chalair Aviation but has been discontinued.

On 6 August 2018, the revived VLM Airlines announced the termination of five scheduled routes with another new one not commencing in the coming weeks and that instead it would focus on charter operations. On 31 August 2018 however, VLM Airlines announced the immediate stop of all of their operations from Antwerp.

After the demise of VLM, Air Antwerp was created. It announced a thrice-daily service to London City Airport from September 2019. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline announced the suspension of the route as of May 2021 before shutting down altogether in June 2021.

Facilities

The airport consists of one small passenger terminal with basic facilities including service desks, a small bar/coffee shop in the entrance hall and at the gate, and a bar/restaurant with a terrace. The apron features ten stands for smaller airliners such as the Fokker 50. As there are no jet bridges, walk-boarding is used. Due to its short runway length of only just over 1,500 m (4,900 ft), it is not possible to operate aircraft larger than the Boeing 757 at the airport.

Operator

The airport was operated by the Department of Mobility and Public Works of the Flemish Government which made an agreement with the French engineering group Egis Group to operate it for 25 years, starting in 2014.

Other uses

The airport is home to several flying schools, aircraft maintenance and repair workshops, operators of business jets, to several hangars for private aircraft, and to the Stampe en Vertongen Museum.

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and seasonal flights at Antwerp International Airport:

The nearest larger international airports are Brussels Airport, approximately 40 km (25 mi) to the south, and Eindhoven Airport, approximately 80 km (50 mi) to the northeast.

Source numbers 2004-2014: Antwerp Airport ″Annual report 2014″

Sources numbers 2014-present: Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport: ″Airport statistics″ and Antwerp Airport.

Buses 51, 52 and 53 operated by De Lijn connect the airport with the Antwerpen-Berchem railway station which operates local, intercity and international trains.

• On September 8, 2022, a Cessna Citation business jet operated by GlobeAir overshot runway 11 while landing at Antwerp. Nobody onboard, including Dutch DJ Afrojack, was injured, and the aircraft reportedly did not sustain damage. As of September 2022, the incident is under investigation.