The current 2019/2020 winter timetable, valid from October 27, includes again regular flights between Košice and Düsseldorf.  The route connecting the metropolis of Eastern Slovakia with the capital and second-largest city of the most populous German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia is operated by the German Eurowings airline. This airline, a member of Lufthansa Group, uses turboprop DHC-8-402Q Dash 8 (called just Dash 8 by aviation professionals - and freaks) on the reopened route, which is operated four times a week. The flights are on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, with aircraft arriving from Düsseldorf at 14.10 and departing back to Germany at 14.50.

First flight on the reopened route between the cities known in aviation circles by their KSC and DUS codes was operated – exactly on October 27 - by a Dash 8 bearing German registration D-ABQM. This particular plane served for a number of airlines before Eurowings “inherited” it in November 2017 from the defunct Air Berlin company. The plane is configured for 74 passengers. As we were told by the captain, the flight from Düsseldorf to Košice took one hour 53 minutes, the cruising flight level was 230, corresponding to 23,000 feet, which is roughly 7,000 meters. Screenshot from the well- known (at least for aviation enthusiasts) flightradar24 website shows the routing of the flight.

We may add that Düsseldorf has a population of 620,000, making it the seventh largest city in Germany, and it lies within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region - with over 10 million inhabitants it is the largest metropolitan region in Germany. Düsseldorf (spelled also Dusseldorf in some English sources) is certainly a city worth visiting!

Rado Mlýnek