Goodbye Luxembourg Airport's old Terminal A

When landing at Findel airport, most of us already fear the time needed to retrieve our luggage. Next time, provided that is within the next couple of months, you should stop for a minute to take in the sight of a piece of aviation history, evidence of the passage of time, soon-to-disappear.

Next time you arrive at Luxembourg Airport, look to your left when you head through the sliding doors and wait in line for your luggage on the conveyor belt. The old airport building is moments away from taking its last breath. Soon some of tedious bus rides on the airport tarmac will be gone and instead you’ll be able to walk down a long passage taking you from Terminal A (the new airport building) to Terminal B (the-new-within-the-old airport).

The new Terminal A was inaugurated in 2008 replacing the old terminal A that saw the light of day in 1975. There have been some issues pertaining to who and when, but the old airport will be demolished within the next couple of months. At least that’s the plan.

The history of Luxembourg Airport

Although the destruction of an empty building isn’t a spectacular event as such, the demolition of the old terminal calls for “a remembrance of” and surprisingly the history of Luxembourg’s airport is about more than tarmac, planes and 1 or 2 reported crashes.

In 1937 Luxembourg’s parliament passed a law allowing the construction of Findel airport. Up until that day there had been no commercial aviation activity in Luxembourg and the few brave men who challenged themselves and each other in sport planes took off from a field commonly referred to as “Sandweiler Airport”. However, before any construction of Luxembourg’s airport could take place, WWII broke out and paralysed Europe. In 1940 Germany invaded Luxembourg and took control of the airport. The Luftwaffe used the area for the positioning of their “Jagdgeschwader 52 & 53” fighter-wings that were used in the Blitzkrieg attacks during the Battle of France (May-June 1940).

In the beginning of September 1944 the Luftwaffe used the airport as a base for their reconnaissance flights (Aufklärungsgruppe 123) keeping track of allied forces advances. On the 18th of September 1944 Luxembourg was liberated by the US Army who declared Sandweiler Airport an “Advanced Landing Ground”. The Ninth Air Force 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Group used the area as a base for their missions. Towards the end of WWII the airport was used as a European hub for receiving supplies (military, food, etc.) and transporting the injured back to England. On the 15th of August 1945 Sandweiler Airport finally became Luxembourgish again and in 1946 Findel Airport saw the light of day. Yet, the airport was nothing more than a wooden barracks and a reinforced patch of grass serving as the runway.

At the end of 1946, 1460 passengers (landing, departing and in transit) and over 1000 aircraft operations were recorded, which encouraged the development of a “real airport” with a tarmac runway, a proper terminal, a technical building and a control tower. Findel Airport was modernised by 1949. In the following years traffic operations and freight handling increased and in 1972 the growth was such that the construction of today’s soon-to-be forgotten airport was initiated.

Although the rest is history, it should be mentioned that the old airport has witnessed 2 crashes (one of them on the runway), a terrorist attack (by the Bommeleër), an armed robbery, several runway expansions and much more.

If you want to take a last glimpse at something of a piece of Luxembourg history, why not take a trip to the airport and say your goodbyes to the old Terminal A?