Enschede Airport Twente is located outside of Enschede in Overijssel, Netherlands. It has one runway, though one of the current taxiways has been used as a runway. The airport is currently uncontrolled and closed for scheduled passenger flights and military operations. A local flying club uses the airport for their activities. The airfield has also been approved for limited use by business charter operators and an aircraft scrapping firm.
History
Twente Airport was opened July 1931 by the mayor of Enschede, Edo Bergsma. KLM started a scheduled flight to Amsterdam in 1932, which was suspended in 1939. During World War II the German Luftwaffe took over the airport and made it a military airbase, renaming it Fliegerhorst Twente. In April 1945 allied troops reoccupied the airport and transferred ownership to the Dutch armed forces. A minor typo in the deed misspelled the airport name as Airbase Twenthe, with an added 'h'. After World War II the airport became a "joint use airport", with both civil and military use. The military stationed both fighter and trainer aircraft at the base. Aircraft based at Twente since the Second World War include the Gloster Meteor, Lockheed T-33, Fokker S.14 Machtrainer, Hawker Hunter, North American F-86K Sabre, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Northrop NF-5 and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. For civil operations the airport was renamed to Enschede Airport Twente and ran by the privately held company Enschede Airport Twente BV. On 7 December 2007 military use of the airport ceased. As of 1 January 2008 the airport has been closed for civil aviation as well, pending governmental agreement on the future of the airport. On 16 June 2010 the province of Overijssel agreed on a spatial plan including an airport. On 1 December 2010 the ownership of the airport grounds was transferred to the Twente region and the city of Enschede. Though it was attempted to find a party interested in operating the airport commercially, it was announced on 4 December 2012 that despite three parties showing interest in this proposal, none of them made a bid to operate it. In March 2013, the military briefly re-opened the airport for military use as part of exercise Cerberus Guard. In March 2014 the government proposed that the airport could re-open for General Aviation users in 2015, and commercial traffic in 2016. Movements would be limited to 22.000 a year under the proposal primarily for noise abatement. However, in June 2014 both the provincial government and the city of Enschede abandoned the plan to re-open the airport for commercial traffic. The future of the airport remained uncertain. In August 2015 it was announced that Belgianaircraft recycling firm Aeronextlife intended to start using the airport to scrap aircraft. As part of the plan, Aeronextlife would become responsible for the costs of certain vital services required for airport operation, such as a fire fighting presence during aircraft operations. Approval was granted, and flights to Enschede Airport resumed on 1 May 2016 with the landing of a Cessna Citation Sovereign coming from Manchester, which departed for Aostalater that day. Besides the arrival of aircraft for scrapping, additional traffic allowed at the airport include cargo aircraft to transport airplane parts, business charter aircraft of a number of operators that requested permission to use the airfield, a limited amount of smaller general aviation aircraft and gliders. In November 2016 it was announced Aircraft End-of-Life Solutions was taking over the permit for the dismantling of aircraft from Aeronextlife. AELS already conducted such activity at Woensdrecht Air Base, however, they are limited in the size of the aircraft they can dismantle at Woensdrecht. The first aircraft to be scrapped was HB-JMK, an Airbus A340-300 formerly operated by Swiss International Air Lines, which arrived on the 27th of April 2017. Since then, widebody aircraft from KLM and Air France have also been flown to Twente for scrapping.
Enschede Airport is accessible by car via the nearby A1 motorway, exit 33. The car park is adjacent to the terminal and free of charge. There are no public transport links to Enschede Airport.
