Sylt Airport (IATA: GWT, ICAO: EDXW) is the airport on the German island of Sylt located in the municipality of the same name. It mostly features summer seasonal scheduled traffic to major German cities as well as general aviation and gliding. Sometimes the airport is referred to as Westerland/Sylt named after Westerland, a well-known part of the municipality of Sylt which however is not the nearest settlement to the airport.

History

The island of Sylt was a famous destination for leisure and holidays in the early 20th century. Sylt's first small airport was established right after World War I, and in 1919 the first scheduled routes to Weimar, Hamburg and Berlin commenced. As Germany had lost the mainland port serving Sylt due to the Treaty of Versailles, the airport became an important way for travelers to avoid entering Denmark, before the construction of the "Hindenburg causeway" linking Sylt to the mainland by railway.

During World War II the airport was significantly redeveloped and enlarged to serve as a military base. After the war, it became RAF Sylt and was used for weapons and other training until closure in late 1961. In the 1960s the leisure traffic came back and developed strongly from the 1970s onwards.

In 1990 Sylt Airport received new technical equipment as well as new passenger facilities. Today it is capable of handling medium-sized aircraft such as the Boeing 737.

In June 2015, Lufthansa CityLine announced the expansion of their services to Sylt: instead of being seasonal, flights from Frankfurt and Munich are now operated year-round. easyJet announced in April 2019 that they would launch weekly flights throughout the summer season to their base in Berlin.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Sylt Airport:

Airlines	Destinations
Eurowings	Düsseldorf Seasonal: Stuttgart
Lufthansa	Seasonal: Frankfurt, Munich
Luxair	Seasonal: Luxembourg
Rhein-Neckar Air	Seasonal: Mannheim Seasonal charter: Kassel
Swiss International Air Lines	Seasonal: Zürich
Sylt Air	Seasonal: Hamburg

The nearest larger international airport is Billund Airport in Denmark, approx. 135 kilometres (84 mi) (by road) to the north. Hamburg Airport is approx. 220 kilometres (140 mi) to the south.

Statistics

	Passengers
2010	210,000
2011	217,500
2012	176,000
2013	175,000
2015	unknown
2016	unknown
2017	unknown
2018	129,000
2019	140,000
2020	85,979
2021	101,991
2022	119,763

See also

• Transport in Germany
• List of airports in Germany