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Friedrichshafen Airport (EDNY), also known as Bodensee Airport, sits on the northern shore of Lake Constance just three kilometres north of the city it serves, close to the Austrian and Swiss borders. A minor international airport with a single long paved runway and full ILS coverage, it is a useful and scenic destination for VFR and IFR pilots alike, doubling as home to the annual AERO general aviation show and the Dornier aviation museum.
Friedrichshafen Airport, known locally as Bodensee Airport Friedrichshafen, lies on the shore of Lake Constance a few kilometres north of the city centre. It is operated by Flughafen Friedrichshafen GmbH and, while modest in scale compared with Zurich or Stuttgart, handles scheduled and seasonal charter traffic as well as a significant general aviation community. The field is well known among pilots for hosting the AERO Friedrichshafen convention each year and for its Dornier Flugzeugwerke museum next to the terminal, making it an interesting stop for anyone flying the Lake Constance area.
The airport is located on the banks of Lake Constance, about 1.9 miles (3 km) north of Friedrichshafen, in Baden-Württemberg close to the German, Swiss, Austrian and Liechtenstein borders. Zurich provides area information and approach services to traffic in the vicinity, reflecting the airport's position near the Swiss FIR boundary and the busy alpine approach and departure routes used by both airline and general aviation traffic in the region.
Friedrichshafen has a single physical runway, 06/24, hard-surfaced and lit, equipped with ILS. The runway is recorded at 6,833 ft in the 06 direction and 7,040 ft in the 24 direction, giving ample length for the mix of airline, business and general aviation traffic that uses the field.
Friedrichshafen is served by an AFIS frequency of 124.7 MHz. Zurich Information (approach) can be contacted on 119.925 MHz, with Zurich arrival ATIS on 129.605 MHz. The airport's own Friedrichshafen ATIS broadcasts on 129.605 MHz, and Friedrichshafen Tower (Turm) operates on 120.08 MHz and 134.305 MHz. The runway is equipped with an ILS on both 06 and 24, supporting instrument approaches in poor weather over the lake.
The airport sits directly on the northern shore of Lake Constance, giving pilots a prominent and unmistakable natural landmark for orientation on approach. The Messe Friedrichshafen convention centre, immediately north of the runway, and the airport's airship hangar are further useful visual references when inbound.
The airfield's origins lie at Löwental, north-east of Friedrichshafen, where the first hangars were built in 1915, and it became the base for the earliest scheduled passenger flights by Zeppelin airships before that traffic moved to Frankfurt. Scheduled fixed-wing passenger services began in 1929 with Deutsche Luft Hansa flights to Stuttgart-Böblingen, and by 1935 these were being flown with Junkers Ju 52 aircraft. The town's engineering firms, including Maybach and Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, both offshoots of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, gave the airfield strategic importance in the Second World War, when engines and gearboxes for tanks were flown from here to the Eastern Front, including supply flights to Kharkov during the Battle of Kursk. Post-war regional flying resumed in 1978 with Delta Air services to Stuttgart and Zurich, and a new terminal and runway were completed between 1988 and 1994, followed by a further terminal in 2010. The following decades saw a series of airline entrants and departures, including InterSky, Germanwings, VLM Airlines and Sun-Air of Scandinavia, with Lufthansa ending its Frankfurt service in March 2024.
Today Friedrichshafen operates as a mixed-use airport with a single passenger terminal offering scheduled and seasonal charter flights to European destinations, alongside a strong general aviation presence. The site includes an airship hangar and the Dornier Flugzeugwerke museum next to the terminal. It is best known in flying circles as the venue for the annual AERO Friedrichshafen general aviation exhibition. Pilots planning a visit should check current PPR requirements before flying in.
