Leipzig-Altenburg

50°50'00"N 012°30'05"E

Runway 04/22 - 2435x45meters - concrete
Runway 04/22 - 2000x100meters - grass (Wartime emergency - CLOSED)

Airfield Leipzig-Altenburg (german: Flugplatz Leipzig-Altenburg, also known as Flugplatz Altenburg-Nobitz, Fliegerhorst Altenburg, or in russian: Альтенбург, ICAO: EDAC) is an airfield 175 kilometers southwest of Berlin.
The airfield was officially opened in 1913, and got a major infrastructure upgrade as early as 1916 when the German army took over the airfield. In a new construction hangar aircraft types like Albatros, DFW Rumpler and Fokker were built.

After World War I aircraft, construction facilities and support equipment were destroyed by orders of the Allied armies, and only sightseeing and balloon flights were allowed.
In the early 1930s the airfield was rebuilt in preparation for the rebuilding of the air arm, codenamed Alpendohle. By orders of Hermann Göring the Fliegerhorstkommandantur was reinstated in 1936, after which the rebuild began in ernest. The airfield received runways, hangars, a radio and weather station, barracks, messes and so fort.
Between 1942 and 1945 an aircraft construction course ran at the airfield, which included glider pilot training. On 14 April 1945 the US 6th Armoured Army commanded by Gen. R.W. Grow reached Altenburg and took the airfield.

The US transferred control of the airfield to the Red Army on 1 July 1945, who began destructing all Wehrmacht (German armed forces) equipment. The Soviets remained until 1992, during which time they significantly enlarged and upgraded the airfield. The runway was lengthened and new bunkers, barracks and hangars were built.


Unidentified MiG-19 at Altenburg in 1965 (Photo A. Fedorov).


A Su-22 taxying to the runway at Altenburg somewhere in the 1980s (Photo A. Fedorov).

Initially only transport and liaison aircraft were stationed at the airbase, but they were later followed by MiG-19, MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-27 and MiG-29 fighterbombers. The air base also housed a helicopter regiment.
The Russians (by then the Soviet Union had seized to exist and was called the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS) handed over control of the airbase in May 1992.

Earlier in 1992 the civilian airport company Flugplatz Altenburg-Nobitz GmbH was founded and a rebuild to regional airport followed. A new station building and a new control tower were built and in 1996 a charter airliner started for the first time from the airport. Over the years many startup companies tried to start services from the airfield, but it took until 2003 before Irish low-cost operator Ryanair began operating the airfields first commercial services. 
The airport was closed for aircraft over 14 tonnes on 17 December 2004 because tall trees growing in neighbouring Saxonia (german: Sachsen) were hindering safe operations. As these trees were in a nature preserve they could not be cut and thus forced Ryanair to Erfurt. Foul play of an Erfurt politician was suspected when it was discovered that Ryanair had earlier announced to stop operations from Erfurt. The same politician had argued that the trees were a danger to passengers at Altenburg. After remeasuring it was found that the trees were on Thuringia land, could therefore be cut and on 11 January the airfield was reopened to all flights again.
In March 2005 the airport museum was opened.


A restored MiG-21 Fishbed in front of its Altenburg hangar in 2006 (Photo Andreas Grüner via wikipedia).


Breguet Atlantic 61+12 of the Marineflieger at the Altenburg aviation museum.

In February 2008 the airport was officially renamed 'Leipzig-Altenburg', like Ryanair had done 5 years earlier by marketing flights from England as 'Altenburg (Leipzig)'. The new name was reason for Leipzig/Halle to take the airport to court however, which ruled in favour to Leipzig/Halle. On 2 May 2008 an appeal ruled in favour of Altenburg however. Leipzig/Halle appealed again but withdrew its appeal in November 2008, by which time Ryanair began selling tickets to 'Altenburg'. 
June 2009 marked the lenghtening of the runway to its former length of 2435meter (from 2235) when repairs of the last few hundred meters were completed. In April 2010 a new section of the terminal building was opened, enlarging it by 640 square meters.
As of March 2011 Ryanair will drop the airports last airline connection to England as a result of dropping sales. Regardless, although its reconstruction was funded by millions of tax-money, the airport still seems to be able to continue profitably.


A Ryanair Boeing 737 and an unknown business jet share the ramp at Altenburg in June 2008 (wikipedia).

The former air base occupies several hundred of hectares of property, of which the actual airport uses only a minor portion on the western end. It has happened on multiple occasions that aircraft managed to overshoot the runway, cross the nearby B-180 regional road and end up outside the air base. This meant the runway was lenghtened several times to reach it's ultimate end. These consecutive upgrades can be seen on the runways northeast side: on the first 1.810meters its width measures 80meters, the next 350meters are 60meters wide, and on the final 240meters the width is a mere 44meters.
the complete history of the runways:
1937-1952 1250m concrete
1952-1960 1810m concrete
1960-1969 2160m concrete (lenghtened between April and June 1960
1969-1992 2400m Concrete (lengthening between April and October 1969)
1992-2003 2145m concrete
2003-2006 2235m concrete (reconstruction October 2003)
2006-2009 2235m concrete/asphalt (reconstruction March 2006)
2009-current 2435m concrete/asphalt (reconstruction June 2009).

A copy of this airfield exists in the Nevada desert, which is fairly accurate, except its runway is about 100meters longer.


Altenburg in 2000 before the runway renovations (Google Earth).


Altenburg airfield in the Nevada desert (maps.google.com).