Hamburg

The city of Hamburg has a well-deserved reputation as Germany’s Gateway to the World. It is the country’s biggest port and the second-busiest in Europe, despite being located astride the River Elbe, some 100 kilometres from the North Sea. It is also Germany’s second largest city with a population of over 1.8 million and the Greater Hamburg Metropolitan Region has a population of over four million. Hamburg is proud of its status as a “Free and Hanseatic City” and thus shares the same status as a province, making up one of Germany’s 16 federal-states or Bundesländer.

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• Airport Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel (IATA: HAM) (ICAO: EDDH)
  Hamburg has the fifth largest international airport in Germany, so arrival by plane is an obvious choice for those visiting from far away. There are plenty of connections within Europe, although only a few intercontinental direct services are offered.

  The airport has been thoroughly modernized with new terminals, airport hotel, streamlined infrastructure, and facilities that are by and large adequate, so you won’t get lost. Depending on the gate your flight arrives at or leaves from, walking longer distances might be necessary as on any other airport too.

  Airport Transfer

  • Train
    Hamburg Airport is connected to the city by the S-Bahn S1 commuter train line, which connects to the Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) and the city centre in about 30 minutes. There are trains every 10-20 minutes, and a single fare is €3. Beware on the way back from the city centre to the airport: All trains are divided at Ohlsdorf, with only the first three cars going to the airport, and the rest going to the suburb of Poppenbüttel. There are no trains between midnight and 4 AM, but a bus runs along the same route. As there aren’t any flights between 11PM and 6AM this may not affect your journey at all.

    The airport, which is hugely popular with plane-spotters, is surrounded by Schrebergärten (meticulously maintained allotments), park lands, and open green spaces, crisscrossed by bicycle and walking trails. The popularity of this area is not only due to the many viewpoints, but also because Lufthansa Technik (Lufthansa’s maintenance service) operates some large hangars on the airport, which means that the site is visited by a variety of rare and interesting aircraft (including VVIP).

• Airport Lübeck-Blankensee aka “Hamburg-Lübeck” (IATA: LBC) (ICAO: EDHL)
  As with many other destinations, the discount airline Ryanair does not operate from Hamburg, as their naming scheme might indicate. Instead, it operates from Lübeck-Blankensee airport (not to confuse with Hamburg’s quarter Blankenese), which is 65 km from Hamburg via motorway A1. The second airline that offers flights to Lübeck is Wizz Air. Flights go to London Stansted (England), Shannon and Dublin (Ireland), Glasgow Prestwick (Scotland), Stockholm Skavsta (Sweden), Milan Bergamo (Italy), Pisa (Italy), Kiev (Ukraine), and Gdansk (Poland).

  Airport Transfer

  • Bus
    Buses connecting to the flights go from Hamburg’s central bus station (“ZOB”, adjacent to the main train station). They cost €12 for single way and take about one hour and 10 minutes. The buses depart about two hours and 50 minutes before every Ryanair departure, meet every arrival, and wait for delayed flights.
• Hamburg-Finkenwerder Airport (IATA: XFW) (ICAO: EDHI)
  Situated just across the Elbe river, Finkenwerder Airport would undeniably be the most convenient airport for travellers visiting Hamburg. But unfortunately, due to being associated with an Airbus aircraft plant, for security concerns, usage is restricted to Airbus employees only. For them, two daily flights are available to/from Toulouse, but most of the time the runway is used for freight (up to complete sections of passenger planes using the Beluga aircraft ) or the delivery of new planes.

  The runway, as well as the aircraft parking lot, can be observed from the public street Neß-Hauptdeich. The parking lot is on the other side of the street, so a few times a day planes actually cross the street, including the world’s largest passenger aircraft A380.

  Airport Transfer

  • Bus
    The plant is located not far from the centre, however, it’s on the other side of the Elbe. Using public transport, Airbus is accessible by harbour ferry 68 from Teufelsbrück. Ferry 62 from Landungsbrücken 3 will bring you to the town of Finkenwerder, from there take the number 150 bus to the Airbus bus stop. Bus 150 starts at Altona’s train station and uses the Elbe tunnel (not spectacular, but still one of the longest river tunnels in the world), that would be your third option. To observe the runway, exit bus 150 at stop Neuenfelde, Rosengarten (next one after stop Airbus).
• Hamburg-Uetersen Airport (ICAO: EDHE)
  Air Hamburg serves several German islands from this airport. The only way to reach it is by taxi, the nearest railway station being Tornesch.