Weeze Airport (IATA: NRN, ICAO: EDLV), less commonly known as Niederrhein Airport, is a minor international airport in the Lower Rhine region of Germany. It is used by Ryanair. The airport is situated 3.7 km (2.3 mi) southwest^[2] of the municipality of Weeze (German pronunciation: [ˈveːt͡sə]) and 7 km (4.3 mi) northwest^[2] of Kevelaer, about 33 km (21 mi) southeast of the Dutch city of Nijmegen, and 48 km (30 mi) northwest of the German city of Duisburg. Between 2008 and 2013, this was one of Germany's fastest-growing airports; however, the airport handled only 1.23 million passengers in 2019, reflecting a decline in throughput triggered by Ryanair reducing its route network.^[3]

Quick Facts Weeze Airport Flughafen Weeze/Niederrhein, Summary ...

Weeze Airport Flughafen Weeze/Niederrhein
IATA: NRN ICAO: EDLV
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Flughafen Niederrhein GmbH
Serves	Kreis Kleve and Nijmegen
Location	Weeze, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Opened	May 2003; 20 years ago (2003-05)
Operating base for	Ryanair
Elevation AMSL	106 ft / 32 m
Coordinates	51°36′09″N 006°08′32″E
Website	airport-weeze.com
Map
NRN Show map of North Rhine-Westphalia NRN Show map of Germany
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 09/27 2,440 8,005 Concrete/Asphalt
Statistics (2022)
Passengers 1,036,882 +76,5% Aircraft movements 0,015,533 +68,6% Cargo (metric tons) 0,000,000 +00,0%
Sources: Statistics at ADV[1] AIP at German air traffic control.[2]

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The airport uses the facilities of the former military airbase RAF Laarbruch, and began operating as a civil airport in 2003. There is also a large fire department training facility on the airport grounds. Its IATA code is NRN because of its official name Flughafen Niederrhein. The airport has had several different names in its history as a civil airport. The operators originally wanted to name it after the city of Düsseldorf, but the significant distance of 83 km (52 mi) to that city, which already had two closer international airports (Düsseldorf Airport as well as Cologne Bonn Airport), resulted in the name being blocked by a court ruling that such a description would be likely to mislead passengers.^[4] However, Ryanair still refers to it as "Düsseldorf-Weeze". The airport is actually closer to the Dutch cities of Venlo, Nijmegen and Arnhem, the German cities of Duisburg and Essen, and the immediate Weeze area than Düsseldorf.

Weeze was served by the short-lived, Dutch low-cost carrier V Bird, which opened a base here and operated flights to Berlin, Munich and several international destinations, from its inception in 2003 until bankruptcy in 2004. During this time, passenger numbers doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 within a year.^[5] In February 2014, Ryanair announced the cancellation of 18 routes from Weeze for the 2014 summer season citing a lack of aircraft.^[6]

In 2019, the airport faced severe financial difficulties due to a fall in passenger numbers by 30 percent over the previous year as a result of the cancellation of several Ryanair routes.^[7]

Weeze Airport has one passenger terminal building with restaurants, shops, and check-in facilities. The apron, which is to the west of the terminal building, features nine aircraft stands for mid-sized aircraft such as the Boeing 737-800. As there are no jet bridges due to the location of the apron to the west side of the terminal building instead in front of it, bus-boarding is used for six stands. Only three stands are close enough to the terminal to be accessed on foot.

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and seasonal flights at Weeze Airport:^[8]

• Transport in Germany
• List of airports in Germany