Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport

History

In 1933, the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding company in Hamburg decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all-metal, long-range flying boats, especially with the German state airline Deutsche Luft Hansa. It also felt that its experience with all-metal marine construction would prove an advantage. In order to do this, it created the Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) as a subsidiary company. Initially manufacturing was carried out at the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding works, with an inland airfield and final assembly building for landplanes at Wenzendorf Aircraft Factory.

In 1937, the HFB was reconstituted as a operating division of Blohm & Voss rather than as a separate company, and the Finkenwerder aircraft works and associated airfield were established in 1939 by this division. The works were substantially damaged during World War II, and when manufacturing was revived there, using the previous HFB company identity, the facilities began a long series of progressive expansions and modernizations. The foundations of the Fink II submarine pen are still extant, just east of the north end of the runway.

During the Berlin Airlift, detachments from both No. 201 Squadron RAF and No. 230 Squadron RAF flew Short Sunderland V's.

In 1964, both the HFB 320 Hansa Jet and the third prototype Transall C-160 made their first flights from the airport. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, HFB and its Finkenwerder facility eventually became part of Airbus.

Between April 2006 and July 2007, the runway was extended at the southern end, increasing its length from 2,684 m to 3,183 m, in order to accommodate the then planned freight version of the Airbus A380.

Airbus offers factory tours. There is also a visitor terrace, overlooking the runway, at .

Manufacturing

The Airbus facilities at Finkenwerder employ approximately 15,000 people. The plant operates four final assembly lines for the A320neo family, the most recent of which opened in June 2018 along with a larger and modernised delivery centre.{{cite press release |url=https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2018/06/airbus-inaugurates-hamburg-s-fourth-a320-family-production-line0.html |archive-date=17 June 2018 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |author=David Kaminski-Morrow |date=26 June 2017 |title=Airbus expects to park around 30 engineless A320neos |url=https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/airbus-expects-to-park-around-30-engineless-a320neos-438766/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626192401/https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/airbus-expects-to-park-around-30-engineless-a320neos-438766/ |archive-date=26 June 2018 |access-date=27 June 2017 |work=Flightglobal}} In October 2019, Airbus inaugurated a highly automated fuselage structure assembly line for A320-family aircraft.{{cite press release |title=Airbus inaugurates new A320 structure assembly line in Hamburg |date=1 October 2019 |url=https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2019/10/airbus-inaugurates-new-a320-structure-assembly-line-in-hamburg.html |access-date=2 February 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811142551/https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2019/10/airbus-inaugurates-new-a320-structure-assembly-line-in-hamburg.html |archive-date=11 August 2020 |website=Airbus}} To support production of the A321XLR, Airbus established a dedicated aft-fuselage production line at the site in February 2021, using a former A380 facility to enable the ramp-up of XLR-specific structures without disrupting overall A320neo-family output.{{cite news |author=David Kaminski-Morrow |date=3 February 2021 |title=Airbus separates A321XLR aft-fuselage work to avoid disrupting assembly line |url=https://www.flightglobal.com/aerospace/airbus-separates-a321xlr-aft-fuselage-work-to-avoid-disrupting-assembly-line/142264.article

The site also hosts a large global spares centre holding approximately 120,000 parts, along with maintenance and training facilities for the A320 family.

In addition to single-aisle production, the Hamburg factory manufactures and equips the forward and rear fuselage sections for the Airbus A330neo and Airbus A350, which receive final assembly in France.

Airlines and destinations

There are no public scheduled services at Finkenwerder. The airport handles around 10 to 15 aircraft movements per day. Most are transfer, freight, and test flights for Airbus manufacturing. The twice-daily corporate shuttle service to the Airbus plant in Toulouse has been operated by the Spanish operator Volotea since 4 November 2019 on a five-year contract. Previously the service was operated by Germania and PrivatAir.

Incidents and accidents

• In 1967 the pilot of a Spantax Convair 990 Coronado mistook the 1360 m long runway of Finkenwerder for the 3000 m long runway of Hamburg Airport in Fuhlsbüttel, and only just brought the aircraft to a stop before the end of the runway.

References

Citations

Bibliography

References

1. "AIP VFR online". DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH.
2. Amtmann, Hans; "Blohm und Voss Remembered" (Part 1), ''Aeroplane Monthly'', February 1998, pp. 22–27
3. Pohlmann, Hermann; '''Chronik Eines Flugzeugwerkes 1932–1945. B&V – Blohm & Voss Hamburg – HFB Hamburger Flugzeugbau'' (in German). Motor Buch Verlag, 1979 {{ISBN. 3-87943-624-X
4. Gunston, Bill; ''World Encyclopedia of Aero manufacturers'', 2nd edition, Sutton, 2005.
5. Walden, Hans; ''Wie Geschmiert: Rüstungsproduktion und Waffenhandel im Raum Hamburg'' ("Well Oiled: Armament Production and Arms Trading in the Hamburg Area"), Loeper, 1997. [http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/ikrg/buch/b_v/kap202.htm B+V Geschichte v. 1933–1938] (retrieved 1 May 2017)
6. Pohlmann, Hermann; ''Chronik Eines Flugzeugwerkes'' (Story of an aircraft manufacturer), 2nd impression, Motorbuch Verlag, 1982.
7. link. (16 January 2014 In German, 15 January 2014.)
8. "Airbus plant tours".
9. [https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/8044-germania-news-update Germania News Update 02Jan2012 in ch-aviation]
10. [https://www.businesstravelnewseurope.com/Air-Travel/PrivatAir-to-provide-shuttle-service-to-Airbus PrivatAir to provide shuttle service to Airbus]
11. Bonsen, Götz. (30 May 2017). "Irrflug einer Pannen-Airline: Gabelflug mit Spantax: Wie vor 50 Jahren ein Flugzeug in Hamburg kurz verschwand {{!}} shz.de".