Fanø Airstrip

The closure was primarily due to environmental protection and safety concerns. The landing area is located on Fanø Beach, which was incorporated into the Wadden Sea National Park (Nationalpark Vadehavet), a UNESCO World Heritage site, in 2010. To protect the sensitive ecosystem, fragile dunes, and particularly the rich birdlife from noise and disturbance, aircraft operations were prohibited. Secondary reasons include increased safety risks associated with mixing aircraft operations and the growing number of tourists and recreational activities (like land sailing and kite-surfing) on the beach.

The site is now simply Fanø Beach (Fanø Strand), a major public beach and tourist attraction. It is part of the protected Wadden Sea National Park. The area is heavily used for public recreation, including swimming, walking, land sailing (blokarting), and kite-surfing. All aircraft landings are strictly forbidden, and the area is managed for conservation and tourism.

Fanø Airstrip was not a traditional airport with paved runways or facilities. It was a designated, unpaved landing zone on the wide, flat, hard-packed sand of Fanø Beach, usable during low tide. It was a unique and famous destination for the general aviation community, attracting private pilots in light aircraft and ultralights from Denmark and across Europe. Operations were strictly VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and depended heavily on tides and weather. It was celebrated for the rare experience of landing directly on a beach and enjoying the island's scenery. The ICAO designator DK-0055 was an unofficial code used within the Danish aviation community to identify this specific landing area.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the beach to aircraft. Given its protected status within a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage site, the environmental regulations are stringent. Reinstating landing permissions would contradict the core conservation goals of the park authorities (Naturstyrelsen) and the local municipality (Fanø Kommune). Therefore, the prospect of reopening is considered virtually zero.