Weeze (Niederrhein) Airport — Weeze, Germany

Before it carried civilian passengers, the airfield at Weeze operated for decades as RAF Laarbruch, a Royal Air Force base near Germany's border with the Netherlands during the Cold War, when NATO forces maintained a heavy presence along this frontier. British forces withdrew in the 1990s, and after redevelopment the site reopened in 2003 as a civilian airport now known by the code NRN, marketed to travelers throughout the Lower Rhine region and, notably, across the nearby Dutch border, where a large share of its passengers actually originate. Ryanair built its presence here into the airport's primary business, offering fares low enough to draw travelers away from the far larger and pricier Düsseldorf Airport roughly 65 kilometers away. With one runway and a compact terminal, Weeze remains a distinctly low-cost operation, reflecting the budget-carrier model that transformed many former military airfields across Europe into regional gateways.