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Lelystad Airport (EHLE) lies in Flevoland, a few kilometres south-southeast of Lelystad and roughly forty minutes' drive from Amsterdam, and is the busiest general aviation airport in the Netherlands. It offers a single hard-surfaced runway with ILS, full air traffic control from the tower, and a mix of flight training, business aviation and sightseeing traffic that makes it a lively and useful stop for the VFR or IFR pilot exploring central Holland.
Lelystad Airport sits in the province of Flevoland, close to the city of Lelystad, and has grown since its origins in the early 1970s into the largest general aviation airport in the Netherlands by movements. It has been part of Royal Schiphol Group since 1993 and today handles around 80,000 aircraft movements a year, making it the second-busiest airport in the country after Schiphol itself. For a simulator pilot the field is of particular interest as a controlled general aviation hub with a full ATC service, an ILS-equipped runway, and the on-site Aviodrome aviation museum, which displays a former KLM Boeing 747-200SUD alongside other historic aircraft.
The airport lies about 3.5 nautical miles south-southeast of the city of Lelystad in Flevoland, and is within easy reach of the Amsterdam area. As a controlled aerodrome with its own tower operated by Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL), Lelystad sits close to the busy Schiphol terminal airspace, and traffic to and from the field is coordinated with Schiphol Approach and Departure as well as Schiphol Arrival, reflecting its role as a designated relief airport for Amsterdam Schiphol.
Lelystad has a single physical runway, 05/23, with a hard surface measuring 4,080 feet in length. The runway is lit and equipped with an ILS on the 05 approach direction.
Lelystad is a controlled airport with the following published frequencies: Clearance Delivery (GND) on 123.68 MHz, Lelystad Tower on 135.18 MHz, Lelystad Arrival on 134.53 MHz, Lelystad ATIS on 120.73 MHz, and Dutch Military Information (FIS) on 132.35 MHz. Because of its proximity to Amsterdam's airspace, pilots will also work Schiphol Approach/Departure on 119.055 MHz and 121.205 MHz, and Schiphol Arrival on 131.155 MHz, as appropriate to the routing. The field's ILS serves runway 05.
The site first saw flights in 1971 and was granted official airport status in 1973, when pilots landed via the reporting point known as 'Hotel Bravo'. The original grass runways and taxiways proved unable to cope with traffic on the region's clay soil, with tracks forming under repeated use, prompting the move to a paved surface. Royal Schiphol Group took ownership of the airport in 1993, and in 2008 the Alders Agreement formally established Lelystad's role as a relief airport for Schiphol. The airport is also home to the Aviodrome aviation museum, which displays a former KLM Boeing 747-200SUD, and various aviation events are held on site because of the museum's presence. The flying school AIS Flight Academy, which later launched the airline AIS Airlines in 2009, remains headquartered at Lelystad although that airline does not operate scheduled services from the field itself.
Lelystad Airport remains the busiest general aviation airport in the Netherlands, supporting flight training, sport flying, business aviation, electric flying, sightseeing flights, medical flights and aircraft maintenance, with around 45 businesses based on the airport site. It is a controlled aerodrome with air traffic control provided by LVNL from the tower. Following a long period of political discussion, a decision was taken in January 2026 to open the airport to commercial holiday flights, with an initial cap of around 10,000 commercial flights per year, no night flights and no cargo flights; this passenger operation is planned to begin once all regulatory conditions have been met, alongside a separate plan to station Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35 aircraft at the field.
