Located around 10 kilometres to the east of Dortmund, this minor international airport serves the eastern Rhine-Ruhr. With large-scale airports at Düsseldorf and Cologne-Bonn providing a hub for major international airlines, Dortmund Airport mostly services budget carriers operating low-cost flights to holiday and business destinations.
Dortmund Airport operates from a single terminal building, set across three different levels, with Eurowings, airBaltic, Germanwings, Ryanair, Wizz Air and SunExpress all operating flights from here. There is a Heinemann duty-free shop where passengers can purchase discounted perfumes, spirits and cosmetics, as well as a Coffee Fellows cafe, Restaurant Bella Vista, and praline shop, Confiserie Drüke. The East Bar + Shop is located within the Departures lounge on level one, offering drinks as well as travel items, newspapers, magazines, books and gifts, while the West Bar is situated past the airport’s security screening area. A visitor’s terrace on level two offers expansive views across the airport apron where they can take in all the action, or there is an online webcam which can be viewed in the comfort of inside. Sightseeing flights across Dortmund also operate from the airport in either a historic bi-plane affectionately known as the “Red Baron”, or in “Aunt Ju” which has been beautifully preserved by the Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung.
Dortmund Airport is connected to Dortmund’s central train station, the Holzwickede/Dortmund Flughafen and the city’s metro system by bus. Taxis located outside the terminal building are available to whisk passengers into the city centre and direct to their hotel door.
The first commercial flights from the airport took off in 1925 to Paris before it was transformed into a German air base during World War II. It was then occupied by the British Royal Air Force until German Reunification, with an increase in budget airline carriers during the 1990s seeing it reopen for commercial flights as the Dortmund Airport.