IATA Code: ZQW
Address: Flughafen Zweibrücken GmbH
Berliner Allee 11 – 21
66482 Zweibrücken
Terminal Plan: Here
Distance from City: 4km
Day Trip possible: No
Overview: A recent addition, this is a tiny airport even by Ryanair standards – in 2006 the airport barely carried 30,000 passengers, roughly less than 100 a day. The arrival of TUIFly and Ryanair has helped boost this figure tenfold but this remains an extremely small airport with less than ten flights a day. Future growth looks difficult here; there is the relatively closeby town of Saarbrucken to point to but the airport is sandwiched inbetween Karlsruhe, Trier and Frankfurt-Hahn airports, all of which can feature better connections. A good percentage of the footfall here is commuter, with Germanwings operating a daily shuttle to Berlin.
Getting there: There are not many options for reaching here or leaving. A bus service runs via Zweibrucken and Homburg roughly every hour ; plus another service to Saarbrucken (which co-incides roughtly with arrival/departure of flights). Obligatory car-hire and taxi services also available at the airport. No trains, and your best bet for further travel is either Saarbrucken or Homburg by bus.
General Tips: As you can guess, there is going to be no issues from travelling from here; it very rarely gets busy and the airport is very small. Despite being surrounded by much larger airports including Frankfurt-Hahn to the north and Basel-Mulhouse to the south, Zweibrucken has a good position, close to the French border and a good mix of scenery and not too far from the big cities. Perhaps the main attraction for some visitors will be the designer outlet village, right by the airport which features over 100 stores with goods at discount prices. Given this, shopping at the airport is a bit of a let-down although if taking the bus you’ll have very little control over how early you arrive. There is little point of arriving too early here as your options will be severely limited.
Budget Travellers Guide: I have seen this route discounted regularly and at cheap prices even when a sale is not on; the reason being it’s not very busy with so many alternative airports nearby. The downside to this is that a day trip is not possible at all – the only destination being London-Stansted. I wouldn’t be surprised if this route was to vanish in the future. On the plus side, the proximity of the towns is good and pretty cheap to reach. If you’re looking for onward connections, Germanwings offers budget fares to Berlin. Don’t be fooled by TUIFly’s range of destinations from here – some of these have frequencies of as little as once per week.
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