Maastricht Aachen Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Maastricht Aachen Airport
nativename =

---

IATA = MST
ICAO = EHBK
type = Public
owner =
operator =
city-served = Maastricht and Aachen
location = Beek, Netherlands
elevation-f = 375
elevation-m = 114
coordinates = nowrap|coord|50|54|41|N|005|46|12|E|type:airport_region:NL
website = [http://www.maa.nl/ www.maa.nl]
metric-rwy = y
r1-number = 03/21
r1-length-m = 2,500
r1-length-f = 8,202
r1-surface = Asphalt
footnotes = Source: DAFIFWAD|EHBK|source=DAFIF] GCM|MST|source=DAFIF]

Maastricht Aachen Airport airport codes|MST|EHBK is a regional airport near Maastricht, The Netherlands, and not far from Aachen, Germany. Its geographical location is coord|50|54|57|N|5|46|37|E| in the municipality of Beek.

It is the second-largest hub for cargo flights in the Netherlands. As of 2006, the airport had a passenger throughput of 293,000 and handled 77,000 tons of cargo. [ cite web |url= http://www.maa.nl/en/content.asp?i=246 |title= MAA website (Facts & Figures) |accessdate=2008-06-03 ]

The Maastricht Upper Area Control centre (MUAC) of EUROCONTROL is also located on the airport. Facilities available at the airport include a restaurant, hotel, sight-seeing flights, aviation medical centre, taxi company, viewing platform and long term parking.

The number of aircraft movements decreased significantly between 2005 and 2007 compared to previous years because the flight school, "Nationale Luchtvaart School", which was based at the airport, moved all flight operations to Évora in Portugal. In the summer of 2007, flight training at the airport resumed as the "Stella Aviation Acedemy" moved into the facilities previously used by the NLS. In 2007, there were a total of 19,454 aircraft movements, up 35% from 2006 [ cite book |title=Jaarverslag 2007 (Yearly Report 2007) |author=Air Traffic Control the Netherlands |date=2008-04-11 ]

Airlines

Ryanair flies from Maastricht with a scheduled service to Girona, Valencia and Alicante. There was also a Volareweb service to Milan. Especially during the summer season, the airport is also used by various charter airlines such as transavia.com. It is also frequently used by private jets, especially during the annual TEFAF ("The European Fine Art Fair") in Maastricht. Airlines easyJet, Blue Air and Volareweb previously had services to Berlin, Bucharest and Milan respectively.

Various cargo airlines fly from Maastricht Aachen airport, such as Cargolux, Air Bridge Cargo, RAF-Avia and Turkish Airlines which have scheduled services. A significant amount of traffic is also related to the presence of aircraft maintenance and painting facilities at the airport.

Developments

In July 2004, a 100% share in the airport was acquired by OmDV, a consortium of airport investment company "Omniport" and the construction company "Dura Vermeer", making it the first fully privatised airport in the Netherlands. [ cite web |url= http://www.maa.nl/en/content.asp?i=248 |title= MAA website (Shareholders page) |accessdate=2008-04-11 ]

Substantial investments in the airport infrastructure have been made since the privatisation. Between August and October 2005, the runway was resurfaced and renamed to 03/21 (from 04/22) to compensate for changes in the earth's magnetic field. The airport originally had two runways; the second (shorter, 1.080m) runway (07/25) was closed and removed to make room for a new cargo terminal and additional aircraft maintenance facilities. Construction of the new facilities started in April 2008.

The Instrument Landing System (ILS) for runway 21 was upgraded to category III in 2008, which allows landings in very low visibility conditions. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the only other airport in the Netherlands that has category III ILS.

Airlines and destinations

cheduled

*KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
**operated by KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam) [ends 25 October]
*Ryanair (Alicante, Girona, Valencia)

Charter

*Corendon Airlines (Antalya)
*Sky Airlines (Antalya)
*transavia.com (Faro, Heraklion, Kos, Las Palmas, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodos, Tenerife-South)

Cargo Airlines

* Cargolux (Luxembourg, Nairobi)
* Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Atatürk)
* Pskovavia (Pskov)
* Amapola Flyg (Stockholm)
* Air Bridge Cargo (Moscow, Shanghai)
* RAF-Avia (Coventry)

References

External links

* [http://www.maa.nl/ Maastricht Aachen Airport] , official site
* [http://www.mst-aviation.nl/portal/ MST Aviation] . Aircraft spotters website for MAA.
* [http://www.omniport.co.uk/ Omniport website]
* [http://www.duravermeer.nl/ Dura Vermeer website] (Dutch)
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?placesearch=Maastricht%20%2F%20Aachen%20%28-%20Beek%20%2F%20Zuid%20Limburg%29%20%28MST%20%2F%20EHBK%29&distinct_entry=true Airliners.net] - photos taken at Maastricht Aachen airport
* [http://www.chapman-freeborn.com/news/articles/080418c.aspx Report on largest ever horse flight from Maastricht Aachen Airport]

*NWS-current|EHBK
*ASN|MST