The only international airport of Luxembourg is one of the most frequently implemented in the history of flight simulation:

Christoph Rieger brought the airport (together with the visual flight airfields Noutrange and Useldange) with his then label CR Software http://www.cr-software.com first in 2000 as freeware under the title “Luxembourg Airports” for FS 2000. In 2002 followed the first completely newly created payware. In 2009, the implementation for FS X was presented – see FS MAGAZINE 1/2020.

Then came JustSim and has set(s) the airport since 2017 currently an impressive ten times:

• April 2017 as Luxembourg ELLX for X-Plane 10
• April 2017 as Luxembourg ELLX for X-Plane 11
• June 2017 as Luxembourg Findel Airport for FS X and Prepar3D (P3D) 2.5, 3.0 and v4 – see FS MAGAZINE 4/2017
• April 2019 as Luxembourg Findel Airport v2 for P3D v4.4
• May 2019 as Luxembourg ELLX v2 for X-Plane 11
• July 2020 as Luxembourg Findel Airport v2.1 for P3D v4.4+
• July 2020 as Luxembourg Findel Airport v2.1 for P3D v5
• August 2020 as Luxembourg ELLX v 2.1 for X-Plane 11
• April 2021 as Luxembourg Findel Airport for MSFS 2020 – see the PDF “MSFS 2020 Airport Update Special”: https://secure.simmarket.com/fs-magazin-msfs-airport-update-special-(de_16028).phtml

In May 2025, JustSim presented the airport as the second of the New Generation Series (NG) after Nice Côte d’Azur Airport in February 2024 as Luxembourg Findel Airport – NG Series for MSFS 2020. This will be the focus of the following. But first to the…

Reality

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Groussherzogtum Lëtzeburg) is by area the fifth smallest state in Europe after Vatican City, Monaco, the Principality of Liechtenstein and Malta: Around 700,000 inhabitants live on around 2,600 km². The parliamentary monarchy is a founding member of the European Union (EU) and seat of the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank and the Secretariat of the European Parliament. The latter is actually located in Strasbourg, but whatever…

In the 1930s, Sandweiler airfield was opened at the site of today’s Luxembourg Airport https://www.lux-airport.lu (IATA and ICAO codes LUX and ELLX) on a plateau about six kilometers east of Luxembourg City. It is named after the nearby town of Findel. A naming after former EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker is being discussed.

From 1940 to 1944, the air force of the German Wehrmacht occupied the site. In September 1955, American troops conquered it. The United States Army Air Forces (predecessor of the US Air Force) used it until August 1945. After that, it was returned to civilian use.

In the 1950s, the Icelandic Loftleiðir conducted flights with DC-4 and DC-6 to North America with stopovers in Reykjavík. Since the prices of competitors were sometimes significantly undercut, this is referred to as the first “cheap flights” to North America. The airport quickly became an important destination for European and intercontinental flights. Today, the airport is primarily a hub for air freight, served by Atlas Air, Cargolux, China Airlines Cargo, Emirates SkyCargo, Qatar Airways Cargo and Silkway West Airlines.

For passenger traffic, two terminals A and B are available as well as the only asphalt runway 06/24 with 4,002 x 45 meters. It was equipped as follows:

The (Doppler) VOR/DME LUXEMBOURG LUX 112.25 MHz is located at the beginning of the approach lighting for 24.

The operator, Société de l’Aéroport de Luxembourg S.A. reports at https://report.lux-airport.lu the following figures, which were supplemented by own research:

The airport is connected to the transport infrastructure by federal highway 1, which has received a junction to the A1 motorway north of the airport. This passes under the approach lighting of 24 in the east. Since March 2, 2025, the only tram line in Luxembourg runs from Luxembourg Stadium via the city to Terminal A.

Simulation

The airport can be purchased at SIMMARKET via https://secure.simmarket.com and the provider’s app. The airport can only be downloaded via the app https://secure.simmarket.com/app.php. The 3.65 GB flowing through the wires or fiber optics unpack in the automated installation to a massive 9.27 GB. For the last MSFS 2020 version 1.2, 1.05 GB came through the lines and were unpacked to 1.48 GB.

In issue 4/2017 of FS MAGAZINE, I described the airport as the (then) best from JustSim. Now I am inclined to rate this NG Series airport just on par with Nice. Shown is an airport seamlessly integrated into its surroundings with (almost) current development status with the new, curved building directly southwest of Terminal A.

Almost, because the tram station opened in February is missing despite an otherwise impeccably implemented, detailed landside. Both terminals were carefully and attractively furnished in contrast to the predecessor versions. This effort was worthwhile, because through the now transparent glass panes there is quite a bit to see of the interior from the cockpits of aircraft parked in front… The signage and ground markings hold up to comparisons with current satellite images. The two short-range radars were animated as in the predecessors. The “Fuel Farm”, the cargo, the maintenance and the general aviation area also look good.

The texturing of the buildings, ground and runways turned out plausible, the lighting pleasing.

Performance and AI Traffic

The performance of the scenery is always good to very good. This also applies when used with AI traffic providers such as FSLiveTrafficLiveries (FSLTL) https://fslivetrafficliveries.com, which were used in the test.

Identified Problems

The approach lighting of 06 is again shown incorrectly – as with the predecessors: In reality it is a HIALS-I, i.e. an ALSF-I without red side lighting and runway sequence lights, the “rabbits”. The correctly placed ALSF-II of 24 lacks precisely these lights. And at 06, two water retention basins can be seen that have a mesh problem. According to JustSim, this could not be corrected due to a limitation of MSFS 2020. The approach lighting of 06, however, should be corrected in an update. It was suggested to fill the basins with virtual water…

Whether the tram station will be delivered later is unlikely. Perhaps a clever freeware designer will deliver this stop at Findel Airport at flightsim.to?

The data volume of almost ten GB on the storage medium for a not “oversized” airport is exceptionally extensive. It should be (significantly) reduced despite good performance.

Conclusion

Overall well done, JustSim, because ELLX is as mentioned the (second) best airport of the NG Series after Nice and thus the second best of the label overall!

Unfortunately, the communication of the commendably diligent label is suboptimal: The advertising text posted at SIMMARKET is very short and not very informative. Under the appropriate motto here “do good and talk about it”, this could have been considerably more detailed.

The price of 22.37 euros at SIMMARKET seems a bit ambitious in relation to the small size of the airport, while the discount price of 14.88 euros that existing customers pay seems fair. The replacement of the older implementation of the airport with the significantly more current NG version after almost five years is reasonable…

Bert Groner
June 2025
…those who wish may gladly: paypal.me/BertGroner

Availability

https://secure.simmarket.com/justsim-luxembourg-findel-airport-ng-series-msfs20.phtml

Supplement

Freeware

“Luxembourg VFR, Kirchberg and Quartier Gare” by Fibrofly at flightsim.to:
https://de.flightsim.to/file/1277/luxembourg-vfr-ref-points-and-kirchberg

Information

• https://www.lux-airport.lu
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flughafen_Luxemburg
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_Airport

Flight Navigation Charts

Freeware

Belgocontrol
https://ops.skeyes.be/html/belgocontrol_static/eaip/eAIP_Main/html/index-en-GB.html > + AD 2 PUBLIC AERODROMES > – ELLX LUXEMBOURG /Luxembourg > AD 2.24 ELLX Charts Related to ELLX

Payware

Navigraph (Subscription model – optionally with flight navigation data)
https://navigraph.com