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Zweibrücken airport declares insolvency

10 Posts

http://www.airliners.de/flughafen-zweibruecken-stellt-insolvenzantrag/33172

Just another illustration that running an aerodrome commercially is risky business – recreational pilots should make themselves independent of commercially operated aerodromes.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

recreational pilots should make themselves independent of commercially operated aerodromes.

Which is EXACTLY what EASA and all the other Eurocrats want.

Pity about Zweibrücken, landed there years ago on a flight from northern Germany to Spain. Memories…..

Well, Zweibrücken is a particularly stupid case. There is another international airport 30km away, called Saarbrücken. It has a shorter runway (too short in many cases) but it is the capital of a (superfluous) Bundesland which is why the politicians have kept Saarbrücken alive. Airliners would go to Saarbrücken but use Zweibrücken in case they need the larger runway. Zweibrücken kept getting the CAT II approval denied for political reasons to not kill Saarbrücken. The result is that there are two airports devoid of any traffic running huge deficits.

Airports are run by local politicians. Local politicians very rarely manage to do things right when it comes to economics.

recreational pilots should make themselves independent of commercially operated aerodromes.

How do you mean? Do you mean the flexibility to move your aircraft between various airfields / aerodromes in case the one you are based at suddenly becomes unavailable?

Funnily enough, that is the situation I appreciate. Panshanger (EGLG) is closing in September due to the landlords having not formally extended the lease to the flying school on a long term basis, and this time completely pulled the plug on the airfield. Its a bit of a blow if your aircraft is based there.

Ah crap… There goes awesome shopping trips. Zweibrucken is a great airport!

EDHS, Germany

It is always sad to hear of an airfield closing – because in most cases there are no nearby alternatives and based pilots have to drive 1-2hrs, which makes most of them pack up flying permanently.

Unfortunately we cannot make a case for a taxpayer subsidy short of pushing for a US-style integration of GA into national transport, which isn’t going to happen in “short term” Europe.

So it leaves us with airfields having to stand on their own feet financially.

Which is why I get angry when a certain UK aviation “chat site” acts as a permanent host for a lynch mob which slags off any airport charging more than about £20. Rationally, people know that 20 quid is nothing on the scale of fuel costs (and pilots operating aircraft where 20 quid buys an hour’s fuel can usually set up on a 400m farm strip and avoid the whole issue that way) but they still read the negative publicity and avoid the airfield in question. Shoreham is a prime example of this – a constant lynch mob target.

Ultimately it comes down to there not being enough pilots willing to dip into their pockets. They might drive a 50k BMW or whatever but their GA activities are done strictly on the cheap, and the cheaper the better. Anybody doubting the generality of this sentiment should try running a syndicate, to give just one example.

Of course anybody voicing this view gets lynched for being an elitist, wanting to make GA accessible only to the rich, etc, etc

A TBM owner can build a hard runway for the cost of an engine overhaul. Actually this is a real situation, in which the TBM guy was frustrated by the landowner, only! The runway could then host a load of based aircraft. So the issues really are political…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Which is why I get angry when a certain UK aviation “chat site” acts as a permanent host for a lynch mob which slags off any airport charging more than about £20.

Any particular airfield in mind? (No little devil smilie available )

Ah yes, I see

Last Edited by Jonzarno at 25 Jul 20:33
EGSC

Seriously, though, there are several airports in Germany (Monchengladbach EDLN is a good example) where you get excellent facilities at, by UK standards, very reasonable prices, and which do not seem to have the level of traffic to make them a paying proposition.

I for one am glad they are there, but don’t really see how they can survive long term without either continuing government subsidy or commercial traffic.

EGSC

There certainly still are many local government subsidised airports in Europe. Almost none in the UK; I think some in Scotland, and maybe some in the economically deprived areas further south – Welshpool I believe gets a grant.

But their numbers are likely to decline.

It seems that you can run a tarmac airport, well maintained, on a €20 landing fee and a cafe – provided you manage it smartly and don’t build an empire. It is empire building which keeps killing GA airfields. Plymouth reportedly had 56 employees when it shut – 56!!! They must have been working H24 working out how to look busy.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

It is always sad to hear of an airfield closing

Nobody said Zweibrücken was closing! It’s business as usual for now. Insolvency is great because you can just stop paying your creditors and happily continue doing your thing, for years if you like to. Then you give your creditors a cent on the Euro and start over again.

I for one am glad they are there, but don’t really see how they can survive long term without either continuing government subsidy or commercial traffic.

You will find that the more rural the area is, there more political will to subsidize an aerodrome exists. Airports like Mönchengladbach hardly serve any business or transport needs but airports like Schwäbisch Hall, situated in a rural area which happens to host a multi billion Euro world market leader (in this case Würth), are easier to sell.

It’s those huge airports built without demand that are a problem. Zweibrücken was a Canadian Air Force base (later US air force) turned into a civil airport. It reportedly employes over 100 staff. That is complete nonsense obviously. Scale it down (maybe 5 staff) and merge it with airport Saarbrücken and there might be a chance. Of course it has to get the CAT II approval to be of any use to commercial air transport.

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