Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport (German: ''Flughafen Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden'') is the

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, the third-largest city in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, and also serves the

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, Ba ...

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

. It is the state's second-largest airport after

Stuttgart Airport Stuttgart Airport () formerly is an international airport serving Stuttgart, the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is christened in honor of Stuttgart's former mayor, Manfred Rommel, son of Erwin Rommel, and is the sixth ...

, and the 15th-largest in Germany with 1,800,355 passengers as of 2024 and mostly serves low-cost and leisure flights. The airport itself is part of ''Baden Airpark'', a business park with numerous other tenants. It is located in

Rheinmünster Rheinmünster is a municipality in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Formed in 1974, the town is an amalgamation of the former independent councils of Greffern, Schwarzach and Stollhofen. The name comes from the Rhine ...

, south of

, west of

, east of

Haguenau Haguenau (; or ; ; historical ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Bas-Rhin Département in France, department of France, of which it is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture. It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg ...

and north of

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

History

Early years as a military airport

The construction of a military airfield began in December 1951 in the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben ( German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the ...

between the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

and the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

River under the supervision of the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...

. The runway and associated facilities were completed by June 1952. The airfield was granted to

Canadian forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

and became a military base, ''RCAF Station Baden–Soellingen'', later renamed

CFB Baden–Soellingen Canadian Forces Base Baden–Soellingen or CFB Baden–Soellingen, formerly known as RCAF Station Baden–Soellingen (Baden), (International Air Transport Association airport code, IATA:FKB, International Civil Aviation Organization airport cod ...

, from 1953 until 1994. The newly founded Baden Airpark

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

took over the former military airfield to develop it into a regional airport and business park. Technically, the airport itself today is part of the ''Baden Airpark'', which also includes business facilities.

Public operations

The first commercial flight from

Hapag-Lloyd Flug Hapag-Lloyd Flug GmbH (known as Hapagfly GmbH between 2005 and 2007) was a German leisure airline headquartered in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony, that was originally founded by Hapag-Lloyd and later became a subsidiary of TUI Group. It operated sc ...

(now

TUI fly Deutschland TUI fly Deutschland (legally TUIfly GmbH), formerly ''TUIfly'', is a German leisure airline owned by the travel and tourism company TUI Group. It is headquartered at Hannover Airport with bases at several other German airports. TUI fly Deutschla ...

) took place in April 2001 with service to

Palma de Mallorca Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

and

Ibiza Ibiza (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...

. In 2008 the airport counted over one million passengers within a year for the first time. On 25 October 2011,

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

announced it would open its 47th base at Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden in March 2012 with two based aircraft and 20 routes. In addition to Ryanair's then existing 12 routes Ryanair opened seven additional routes to Faro, Málaga, Palma, Riga, Thessaloniki, Vilnius and Zadar. In July 2018,

announced that it would terminate its operations at the airport, cancelling seven year-round and seasonal leisure routes to the Canaries and the Mediterranean. Since March 2025, Ryanair has stationed a fourth aircraft at Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airport.

Facilities

Terminal

Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport consists of one passenger terminal building equipped with 20 check-in counters and eight departure gates as well as some shops and restaurants.

Runway

The apron features eight aircraft stands of which most can be used by mid-sized aircraft such as the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

. Due to the location of the terminal building walk stands and buses are used for boarding. Due to its extensive runway and facilities, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport is frequently used by major airlines for training flights.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport:baden-airpark.de - Flugplan
(German) retrieved 20 March 2022 The closest other international airport is

Strasbourg Airport Strasbourg Airport (; ; ) is a minor international airport located in Entzheim and 10 km (6.2 miles) west-southwest of Strasbourg, both '' communes'' of the Bas-Rhin ''département'' in the Alsace '' région'' of France. In 2018, the airp ...

, located approximately to the southwest.

Statistics

Ground transportation

The airport can be reached via motorway A5 which leads from

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

(Exit ''Baden-Baden''). There are local bus connections to

and

Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 51,000 (2022). Rastatt was an ...

as well as their respective train stations.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karlsruhe Baden-Baden Airport Airports established in 1952 Airports in Baden-Württemberg Buildings and structures in Rastatt (district) Companies based in Baden-Württemberg Transport in Karlsruhe