Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Ostend-Bruges International Airport lies on the Belgian coast a few kilometres south-southwest of Ostend, offering a single very long hard-surfaced runway equipped with ILS on both approaches. Long associated with cargo and charter traffic, it has a colourful history stretching back to wartime Luftwaffe use and now serves as a base for TUI fly Belgium and EgyptAir Cargo, as well as private and business aviation.
Ostend-Bruges International Airport (ICAO: EBOS, IATA: OST) serves the Belgian coastal city of Ostend and, more distantly, Bruges. It is a substantial airfield covering some 350 hectares, historically weighted toward freight operations but with a growing charter and holiday-flight presence, and it is also a popular destination for private and business aviation. For a simulator pilot, the long, ILS-equipped runway and coastal setting make it an interesting and accessible European airfield to fly into.
The airport sits about 5 km south-southwest of Ostend, close to the Belgian coast, and roughly 25 km from central Bruges. It is operated by the Egis Group under an agreement with the Flemish Region, which owns the airfield.
Ostend-Bruges has one physical runway, 08/26, a hard-surfaced, lit strip of approximately 9,495 ft (2,894 m) in length, equipped with ILS. Field elevation is 3 ft above mean sea level. A former grass strip, runway 14/32, once existed on the field but has long since been closed; it is still faintly visible from the air as a strip of ground that does not match the colour of the surrounding fields.
Pilots can expect the following services and frequencies: Oostende Approach on 120.6 MHz, an ATIS broadcast on 126.13 MHz, Oostende Ground on 121.98 MHz, and Oostende Tower on 118.18 MHz. The airfield is ILS-equipped.
During the Second World War the Luftwaffe relocated the airfield from Ostend-Stene to a new site in the municipality of Middelkerke, five kilometres southwest of Ostend, from where it played a significant role in the air battle with Britain. Before the war a grass strip, runway 14/32, had been laid out at 627 by 45 metres; this has since closed and is only faintly traceable from the air. After the war the site was developed by the Department of Airways into an international airport. In 1971 the airline Pomair began operating flights to the Caribbean, Asia and South America from Ostend, ceasing operations in 1974. In 1992 ownership passed from the Belgian State to the Flemish Region and the airfield took the name Ostend-Bruges International Airport. Gino Vanspauwen was appointed CEO/Managing Director in 2003, and in 2014 operation of the airport passed to the Egis Group under a 25-year agreement. Ryanair briefly served Ostend-Stansted between May and December 2003. MK Airlines established a hub at the airport in 2006, prompting expansion of a 4,000 square metre hangar, before the airline's bankruptcy and departure in 2010. Jetairfly expanded services from 2015 onward, later rebranded as TUI fly Belgium. In March 2019 the Russian carrier Pobeda opened a route to Moscow Vnukovo, though this was scrapped by July of the same year. The airfield has also seen several notable incidents, including the loss of a Sabena Junkers Ju 52/3m on approach in bad weather on 16 November 1937, storm damage to a Douglas DC-3 in 1992, a fatal air display accident in 1997, a Boeing 707 cargo crash shortly after take-off in 1998, and an Ilyushin Il-76 runway overrun following an aborted take-off in 2001.
Today the airport is used for a mix of scheduled and seasonal passenger charter flights operated by TUI fly Belgium, cargo services operated by EgyptAir Cargo, and general and business aviation. The long ILS-equipped runway and coastal location make it a well-used regional gateway on the Belgian coast.
