Hamburg Flights

Hamburg has a perfectly good, effecient,modern and well connected airport just outside of the city area.

Stuff that. When it comes to travelling from half a dozen places around Europe to Hamburg, Lubeck airport has one (and one only) supreme advantage - its CHEAP.

Ryanair's marketing wheezes often mean it is possible to fly for a weekend in Hamburg very cheaply (sometimes FREE !)

Buses leave from the central bus staion, which are timed to connect with individual flights. Only the Germans (and the Swiss & Japanese then) could organise such things so effeciently. The journey takes just over the hour. Well worth the inconvenience for the possible savings.

Hamburg's Airport is used primarily for flights within Europe, but I noticed that Continental Airlines offers nonstop service to Newark, and Emirates was touting its recently introduced flights to Dubai.

The airport here is comfortable, newish, and easy to use, even for non-German speakers. It's only about 8 km from the city center, so travel to and from your hotel is relatively easy. There are frequent busses to the Hauptbahnoff which cost only 5 euros, and taxis aren't prohibitively expensive, either. Leaving Hamburg, I had a 6.50 am departure, and decided to take a cab for ease and comfort. It was 20 euros, and took only about 15 minutes - thanks to the lack of traffic so early in the day.

I've got an electronic ticket from the lufthansa web site.
I was a bit nervous because I had to actually get the ticket from a machine at the Hamburg airport (as well as the Budapest airport)

However ... it turned out to be pretty nice procedure :
you go to the machine and put your credit card inside - the machine recognizes you by your cc number and gives it back to you, then you choose which seat you would like in the plane and the machine prints out the ticket ....

easy uh ?

In the port of Hamburg - close to the place where Feuerschiff is docked, you have the possibility to book a flight over the city of Hamburg in a small water-plane - see my picture !
These flights will take about 45 minutes and you will mostly explore the area above Binnen-Alster and Ausssen-Alster.

click here for various flights over Hamburg & Germany
including flight with vintage planes like doubble-deckers , helicopters, Zepellins...

3 more images

I flew to Hamburg with the airline Germanwings for the bargain price of just 25E return, the flight actually cost 2c, the rest was airport taxes. This was an offer I just couldn't refuse!

The flight took about an hour and 20 mins, food on board is mainly things like pizza, rolls and muffins and has to be paid for. As there is no seat allocation, boarding can be a bit like a rugby scrum, so wait until the end, there's always a seat.

The airport has two terminals with all the usual cafes, shops etc and in the departure lounge there is internet access at 50c for 10 mins.

On 28th April 1979 the first Air Berlin flight took off from Berlin-Tegel to Palma de Mallorca. Germany's favourite holiday island is still the prime destination of Air Berlin's route network. The Majorca Shuttle operates daily flights from 12 German airports. The total number of weekly flights to Majorca has increased from 140 (summer 2001) to 300 (summer 2006).

But Air Berlin also regularly serves all the other major holiday destinations on the Mediterranean coast, as well as in the Canary Islands, Portugal and North Africa.

In the winter of 1998/1999, for instance, the Spanish mainland experienced a renaissance, which is why Alicante, Almeria, Malaga and Jerez de la Frontera have long been an integral part of our flight schedule. The same applies to all the Canary Islands, Greece and its many islands, the south of Italy, Turkey, Faro in Portugal, Madeira, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.

In October 2002 Air Berlin launched the City Shuttle. It connects German airports with major European cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bournemouth, Budapest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London-Stansted, Madrid, Milan-Bergamo, Manchester, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Zurich.

Air Berlin is also constantly expanding its routes outside Germany, for example from London and Amsterdam to Majorca, or within Spain from Palma de Mallorca to 16 destinations on the mainland and on the Balearic Islands.

In January 2005 the previous product lines were combined to form the Euro Shuttle, thereby underlining the airline?s core European competence.

Hamburg Airport is a modern, customer-oriented service company. The opening of the new Terminal 1 in May 2005 was a further important milestone in the HAM 21 Extension Project. The completion of this spectacular project will mark the end of Hamburg Airports transition from metropolitan hub to one of Europes most convenient and appealing airports. New access roads, more parking spaces and the unique metropolitan location give air passengers from all over north Germany an unparalleled level of service and outstanding convenience. With more than 10 million passengers every year Hamburg Airport is Germanys fifth-largest airport.
Key economic engine for the region
Hamburg Airport is a key feature of the economy in the greater Hamburg region. The companies based at the Airport employ more than 13,000 people and generate 1.5 billion every year. These companies play a decisive role in driving the growth of the aviation industry in Hamburg and helping the city to remain one of the worlds top three aviation locations.

Gateway into the world
An attractive network of services makes Hamburg Airport the ideal starting point for any trip. Mallorca, London, Riga, New York and Dubai (Dubai from March 2006), scheduled flights, charter services and low cost airlines Hamburg Airport offers a wide array of services and destinations all around the world to meet the travel needs of all air passengers.

Complete commitment to environmental protection
Hamburg Airport takes environmental protection very seriously. The noise protection hangar, the only one of its kind in the world, is only one of many examples that show how Hamburg Airport solves the environmental responsibilities associated with being a metropolitan airport.

Passenger figures (historical)


1919 bis 2005

1919 - 233 passengers

1929 -17,973

1937 -57,194

1950 -127,952

1960 -935,213

1970 -3,138,467

1980 -4,558,939

1990 -6,861,255

2000 - 9,949,269

2005 -10,677,268 passengers!!!!

Travellers flying to Hamburg with Ryanair should be aware that the aiprort they use (Hamburg Lubeck) is actually about 40 miles away from the centre of Hamburg.

There is a bus service which connects to the ZOB (bus station) in Hamburg. Travelling time is about fifty minutes and costs 8 euros single per person, so you need to factor this cost into your cheap flight.

Facilities at the airport are quite limited. We had the misfortune to have our evening flight delayed (due to one of the airport staff driving the de-icing machine into the wing of the plane on the runway!) and were shunted into a little side room to sleep on airport benches overnight. The rest of the airport was shut and there was not even a vending machine, nor any drinkable water.

Not a place to be stranded.

The security staff are also amongst the most "zealous" I have ever encountered.