Tuesday, February 20, 2001

By Rick Emert
Stars and Stripes

GIEBELSTADT, Germany — The Giebelstadt Army Airfield also will now serve as a public-use airport for the Würzburg region, thanks to an agreement between U.S. Army Europe and the German government.

On Monday, Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, commanding general of USAREUR and 7th Army; German parliament member Walter Kolbow and Giebelstadt mayor Volker Kleinfeld signed the agreement at the Giebelstadt Rathaus. Under the new agreement, civilian air traffic can use the airport, but control remains with U.S. Army Europe. Civilian air traffic must coordinate with the airfield operations staff prior to landing.

"This agreement has taken a very long time to negotiate," Meigs said. "Because it’s a groundbreaking agreement, we had to get it right."

While negotiations on Monday’s agreement lasted about 15 years, civilian aircraft have been landing at the airfield since 1991. However, only seven aircraft per week could land there, said Norbert Schmitt, Giebelstadt airfield manager.

The agreement brings the first public-use airfield to the Würzburg region, which was the only region in Bavaria that didn’t have one, Schmitt said. There are currently no regularly scheduled commercial flights planned for the airport; most of the use will come from private aircraft.

While the Würzburg region avoids the cost of building its own airport, the co-use of the airfield will not exactly be free.

"They’ll have to establish their own passenger terminal outside the [Giebelstadt] gate," Schmitt said. He added that the runway might need to be upgraded, since it hasn’t had any major work done to it since it was built in 1959-60. The civilian terminal would have a taxiway linking it to the runway on Giebelstadt Army Airfield.

Additionally, some limitations remain on civilian air traffic use of the runway, according to Schmitt.

• Civilian air traffic can land only during the airfield’s operating hours. The airfield operates from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. during winter months and until midnight all other months. The airfield is closed on weekends and German holidays.

• Civilian air traffic must give the airfield operations staff at least two hours notice before trying to land on the runway.

• No civilian air traffic can land if the airfield is being used for training. While the airfield is used mostly for helicopters, fixed wing aircraft like the C-12 and C-130 are also able to land on the airfield.

The agreement will not affect training at the airfield. Any training exercises involving aircraft have priority on the airfield, and force protection and safety will be maintained under the agreement, Meigs said.

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