Older virtual pilots will remember the sentence that repeatedly annoyed the then airport builders from the German Airport Team (GAP), Thomas Hirsch and Peter Hiermeier (†), a good twenty years ago: “Where is Düsseldorf?”
The two have delivered multiple times – here is a list of previous payware releases:
- German Airports 3 – FS 95, FS 98 and FS 2000 – Aerosoft – May 2000
- German Airports 3 – FS 2004 – Aerosoft – July 2004
- Mega Airport Düsseldorf – FS 2004, FS X, Prepar3D v1 and v2 – Aerosoft – November 2012 – FS MAGAZIN 1/2013
- Airport Düsseldorf – X-Plane 10 – Aerosoft – April 2013
- Düsseldorf Airport EDDL – FS X and P3D v4 – JustSim – June 2017
- Düsseldorf Airport EDDL – X-Plane 10 and 11 – JustSim – July 2017
- Düsseldorf Airport EDDL v2 – P3D v4.4+ – JustSim – November 2019
- Düsseldorf Airport EDDL v2 – X-Plane 11 – JustSim – December 2019
- Düsseldorf Airport EDDL v2.1 – P3D v5 – JustSim – July 2020
- Düsseldorf Airport EDDL v2.1 – P3D v4.4+ – JustSim – November 2020
- Düsseldorf – MSFS 2020 – Simbreeze – November 2020
- Düsseldorf Airport – MSFS 2020 JustSim – Dezember 2020
- Düsseldorf Airport – MSFS 2024- JustSim – März 2025 *
* …not tested
Just Sim deserves a “gold star” for its seven offerings, however, their implementations, as usual, show errors and inaccuracies, including the Düsseldorf Airport for MSFS 2020, which is already a good five years old. Therefore, a new, up-to-date design is more than overdue.
By the way: A freeware for MSFS 2020 by “hu277” was added in January 2021 on flightsim.to. This has reached v1.41 with eight updates as of October 2024.
In April 2025, a current implementation for MSFS 2024 from Aerosoft was released, which will be presented below. First, however, a look at the…
Reality
The history of Düsseldorf Airport www.dus.com with the IATA and ICAO codes DUS and EDDL began a few kilometers south of its current location on the former Golzheimer Heide in the Lohhausen district with the use of airships. Here, the LZ 8 “Deutschland” crashed in 1911 and the LZ 10 “Schwaben” in 1912. Somewhat north of the current airport, a first military airship hangar was erected in Zeppenheim. In 1915, the “Royal Flying Corps” (with the “Royal Naval Air Service,” predecessor of the Royal Air Force, which was founded in 1918) carried out the first air raid in the Rhineland on this hangar, during which the airship LZ 25 “Z IX” stationed there was destroyed.
Civilian flight operations began on the Golzheimer Heide in the autumn of 1927. After the Second World War, the British occupying forces returned the site to German hands. The site was expanded to the northeast and the then main runway was extended for the first time. In 1952, it measured a considerable 2,475 meters, and since 1960, the current 3,000 meters. Meanwhile, the “crosswind runway” 15/33 with 1,630 meters had been added. It was decommissioned in the 1990s due to low usage and currently serves as a parking area.
The current northern runway 05L/23R was added in the late 1980s. For noise protection reasons, it was initially only allowed to be used during capacity bottlenecks and as a substitute runway. Various legal proceedings against the operation of both runways and the associated increased traffic only ended on June 11, 2011. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig overturned the lawsuits on the condition that the airport would increase its financial participation in passive noise protection measures for residents, such as the installation of soundproof walls and windows. Currently, some neighboring communities and the Nature Conservation Association are again opposing further expansion of the airport concerning spatial capacity expansions and more flight movements…
Runways
| Runway | Dimensions | ILS | PAPI | REIL | Approach Lighting | Touchdown Zone Lights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05L/23R | 3,000 by 45 meters | |||||
| 05R/23L | 3,000 by 45 meters | |||||
| 05L | CAT I | left | yes | ALSF-I | no | |
| 05R | CAT IIIb | left | yes | ALSI-II | yes | |
| 23L | CAT IIIb | left | yes | ALSF-II | yes | |
| 23R | CAT IIIb | left | yes | ALSF-II | yes |
The conventional VOR/DME DUESSELDORF DUS 115.15 MHz, built in the southwest between the runways, was dismantled in 2023 and replaced in 2024 by a Doppler VOR/DME on the same frequency.
The airport has a curved, very bright, high main terminal with three piers extending onto the apron: A (11 parking positions with 10 jetways), B (9/9), and C (9/9):
https://www.dus.com/de-de/informieren/lageplan/gel%C3%A4nde%C3%BCbersicht
On the western “Apron West,” there are 41 parking positions, in the cargo area 27, and 22 in front of the hangars in the northeast. At the end of Terminal B, the old airport tower can still be seen. The new tower, at 85 meters the highest tower of the Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) www.dfs.de in Germany (Frankfurt/Main is 70 meters, Berlin-Brandenburg 75 meters), was opened in 2002, located east of the parking garage at the terminal.
One of the two police helicopter squadrons of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has its base with H145 machines in the northeast of the airport, not far from the ICE train station. The other is stationed at Dortmund Airport. The airport fire department operates two stations to meet the ICAO requirement of reaching all points of the airport within three minutes of an alarm and beginning assistance: one at the southern end of the cargo area and one in the north at the touchdown zone of 23R. The airport has been classified by ICAO in the second-highest protection level 9.
The airport can be reached via the “Düsseldorf Flughafen” exit of the A44 motorway, via local roads, and by Deutsche Bahn. The latter maintains two train stations at the airport: Firstly, the “Düsseldorf Flughafen Terminal” tunnel station with the S-Bahn line S 11 to Bergisch Gladbach via Neuss, Dormagen, and Cologne Central Station (Hbf). Secondly, the Düsseldorf Flughafen station at 23L/R with Regional Express, IC, and ICE traffic, as well as the S 1 via Düsseldorf Central Station to Solingen. The double-track “Skytrain” suspension railway (a tribute to the Wuppertal suspension railway) connects this station with the terminal, with an intermediate stop at parking garages P4 and P5.
At the earliest in 2025, the U 81 light rail line from Neuss via Düsseldorf and the Messe Düsseldorf/football stadium stations is scheduled to serve the new tunnel station at Düsseldorf Airport. It is planned to extend the line to Ratingen by the early 2030s.
The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen (ADV) www.adv.aero reports for the year 2023 that 19,109,517 passengers and 29,170 tons of air freight were transported on 146,626 flights. This makes Düsseldorf, as it has been for many years, the largest commercial airport in North Rhine-Westphalia, ahead of Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, and Münster-Osnabrück.
Fire Catastrophe 1996
On April 11, 1996, a fire catastrophe originating from Pier A resulted in 17 deaths and 88 injuries. During welding work, polystyrene insulation panels in a suspended ceiling were ignited, causing massive and deadly smoke gas formation, which led to this pier subsequently needing to be completely renovated and Pier B having to be demolished. Pier C, like the terminal, could be put back into service after intensive cleaning.
Simulation
At the end of 2024, MK-Studios announced they were working on Düsseldorf for MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024. In early 2025, with the release of the first screenshots, it was announced that the airport should be released in the later first quarter of 2025. The deadline could not be met.
Then the surprise: Aerosoft released EDDL for MSFS 2024 on April 10, 2025 – a successful coup without any prior communication. Not even their in-house beta test team knew about it. Hence my spontaneous congratulations to the designers and Aerosoft under the title “Let the beta test begin…”
After downloading 2.95 GByte and its installation via Aerosoft One https://one.aerosoft.com, occupying about 4.8 GByte of storage space, the airport seamlessly integrates into its surroundings. This looks even (much) better than that of MSFS 2020 due to the higher resolution compared to MSFS 2020.
Designers Jo Erlend Sund and Lukas Vezyroglou present the airport, after several visits there and support from local helpers, in its current structural state, already including the new Doppler VOR/DME. All runways, taxiways, aprons, hangars, the terminal, parking garages, the SkyTrain, the tower, and the train station in the northeast are present. The types of approach lighting and the equipment of the runways with touchdown zone lighting correspond to the real model.
The buildings show extremely high detail and very well-made, immersive textures, including transparent glass surfaces. This also applies to the taxiing and parking areas, which are equipped with numerous markings showing signs of use and diverse information signs. With these, getting lost during off- or online flights should be almost impossible. The lighting in the darker times of the day is impressively well done.
Other eye-catchers are the tower (without interior furnishings), the terminal and piers (with interior furnishings), the parking garages, the solar park, the company’s own sewage treatment plant, the airport fire department’s training area, and the VHF Direction Finder (VDF – from v1.0.1) a few meters east of fire station 2. The trains of the railway and the Skytrain are animated, and there is some ground traffic on the airside.
Sund and Vezyroglou use Aerosoft’s Visual Docking Guide Systems (VDGS). Their software has been adapted and expanded accordingly.
Identified Problems
The apparently omitted beta test by uninvolved “third parties” led to issues in the initial release, such as the missing VOR/DME, and there were problems with the VDGS, as some were displayed duplicated and others, like many red-and-white warning cones, floated in the air. Furthermore, a profile for GSX Pro from FSDreamTeam (FSDT) was missing, and the wig-wag lights (warning lights) at the taxiway entrances to the runways were too dim. Additionally, the SkyTrain station between parking garages P4 and P5 and its stabling and workshop building were absent.
Based on information from customers and FS Reviews, the update to v1.0.1 was released on May 6, 2025, with this content:
- Added missing obstacle lights on floodlights, buildings, and antennas
- Fixed VDGS on western V-stands not being selectable in the Aerosoft VDGS module
- Corrected misplaced VDGS information on some stands
- Added official GSX profile
- Added parking spots for helicopters next to police hangar
- Fixed first row of approach lights not being lit for RW 05L
- Added missing emissive texture maps to office buildings
- Changed taxi signs models to modern type on V stands
- Added beacons on jetways
- Fence model LOD adjustment
- Missing bus gate decals on Bravo stands
- Various terraform issues fixed
- Fixed popping of decals on cargo containers
- Added new temporary building next to old V53
- Fixed jetway pillars not always contacting the ground
- Added Follow me script for GA area (Stop at “Wait for Marshaller” and follow the vehicle to your stand!)
- Added missing VOR and NDB 3D models
- Various texture size optimization
- Added missing monorail service building
- Adjustments to Condor / Eurowings hangar
- Added new logo
- Added detailed interior
- Added static AC inside of the hangar
This update nearly perfects the scenery. Only the wig-wags are still too dark, and the mentioned SkyTrain parking garage station is still missing. According to the designers, this will be added in a further update.
Those who fly at low altitude over the airport will notice that bright grass areas suddenly spread out rectangularly over the darker grass areas of the scenery. This is a consequence of the handmade Custom Graphic Layers (CGL) for improved ground representation of the airport and a bug in MSFS 2024. In the beta of Simulator Update 2, this effect is already mitigated. Sund and Vezyroglou assume that Asobo will have solved the error with Simulator Update 3.
Performance
The performance was always good in the test with the currently available “wide-body aircraft” and the trial use of AI aircraft from FS Live Traffic Liveries (FSLTL) for MSFS 2024. There were no (micro-)stutters.
Conclusion
The only (major) disadvantage of this airport is that it is not available for MSFS 2020.
But MSFS 2024 is now the new standard in virtual aviation… Therefore, my suggestion is to purchase this airport for this flight simulator: The gold medal from FS Review for it!
Bert Groner
FS Reviews
…if you like, feel free to: paypal.me/BertGroner
Availability
Airport Düsseldorf MSFS 2024 is available here for a (fair) price of around 20 Euros:
https://secure.simmarket.com/aerosoft-aerosoft-airport-dusseldorf-msfs24.phtml
Flight Navigation Charts
Freeware
Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS)
https://aip.dfs.de/BasicIFR
AD Aerodromes > AD 2 Aerodromes > Düsseldorf
Payware
Navigraph (with flight navigation data on request)
https://navigraph.com
