Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder, also known as Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport(IATA: XFW, ICAO: EDHI), is an aircraft manufacturing plant and associated private airport in the Finkenwerder quarter of southwest Hamburg, Germany. The airport is an integral part of the Airbus-owned plant, and is exclusively used by that company for corporate, freight, test, and delivery flights with the final assembly of the A320neo family of aircraft being conducted here.
In 1933, the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding company in Hamburg decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all-metal, long-range flying boats, especially with the German state airline Deutsche Luft Hansa. It also felt that its experience with all-metal marine construction would prove an advantage. In order to do this, it created the Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) as a subsidiary company. Initially manufacturing was carried out at the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding works, with an inland airfield and final assembly building for landplanes at Wenzendorf Aircraft Factory.[2][3][4][5]
In 1937, the HFB was reconstituted as a operating division of Blohm & Voss rather than as a separate company, and the Finkenwerder aircraft works and associated airfield were established in 1939 by this division. The works were substantially damaged during World War II, and when manufacturing was revived there, using the previous HFB company identity, the facilities began a long series of progressive expansions and modernizations.[6] The foundations of the Fink II submarine pen are still extant, just east of the north end of the runway.
In 1964, both the HFB 320 Hansa Jet and the third prototype Transall C-160 made their first flights from the airport. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, HFB and its Finkenwerder facility eventually became part of Airbus.
Between April 2006 and July 2007, the runway was extended at the southern end, increasing its length from 2,684m to 3,183m, in order to accommodate the then planned freight version of the Airbus A380.[9]
The Airbus facilities at Finkenwerder employ approximately 15,000 people. The plant operates four final assembly lines for the A320neo family, the most recent of which opened in June 2018 along with a larger and modernised delivery centre.[11][12] In October 2019, Airbus inaugurated a highly automated fuselage structure assembly line for A320-family aircraft.[13] To support production of the A321XLR, Airbus established a dedicated aft-fuselage production line at the site in February 2021, using a former A380 facility to enable the ramp-up of XLR-specific structures without disrupting overall A320neo-family output.[14]
The site also hosts a large global spares centre holding approximately 120,000 parts, along with maintenance and training facilities for the A320 family.[citation needed]
In addition to single-aisle production, the Hamburg factory manufactures and equips the forward and rear fuselage sections for the Airbus A330neo and Airbus A350, which receive final assembly in France.
Airlines and destinations
There are no public scheduled services at Finkenwerder. The airport handles around 10 to 15 aircraft movements per day. Most are transfer, freight, and test flights for Airbus manufacturing. The twice-daily corporate shuttle service to the Airbus plant in Toulouse has been operated by the Spanish operator Volotea since 4 November 2019 on a five-year contract. Previously the service was operated by Germania[15] and PrivatAir.[16]
Incidents and accidents
In 1967 the pilot of a SpantaxConvair 990 Coronado mistook the 1360m long runway of Finkenwerder for the 3000m long runway of Hamburg Airport in Fuhlsbüttel, and only just brought the aircraft to a stop before the end of the runway.[17]
↑"AIP VFR online". dfs.de. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
↑Amtmann, Hans; "Blohm und Voss Remembered" (Part 1), Aeroplane Monthly, February 1998, pp.22–27
↑Pohlmann, Hermann; 'Chronik Eines Flugzeugwerkes 1932–1945. B&V – Blohm & Voss Hamburg – HFB Hamburger Flugzeugbau (in German). Motor Buch Verlag, 1979 ISBN3-87943-624-X
↑Gunston, Bill; World Encyclopedia of Aero manufacturers, 2nd edition, Sutton, 2005.
↑Walden, Hans; Wie Geschmiert: Rüstungsproduktion und Waffenhandel im Raum Hamburg ("Well Oiled: Armament Production and Arms Trading in the Hamburg Area"), Loeper, 1997. B+V Geschichte v. 1933–1938 (retrieved 1 May 2017)
↑Pohlmann, Hermann; Chronik Eines Flugzeugwerkes (Story of an aircraft manufacturer), 2nd impression, Motorbuch Verlag, 1982.
Jefford, C.G. (1988). RAF Squadrons. A comprehensive record of the movement and equipment of all RAF squadrons and their antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife. ISBN1-85310-053-6.
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