About aerokurier

aerokurier

The aerokurier — the monthly German-language aviation magazine published by Motor Presse Stuttgart since 1957 — is the journal of general aviation for German-speaking pilots: general aviation, business aviation, air sports, gliding, ultralights, flight training, aviation technology, airports and aviation politics — and the official organ of the Deutscher Aero Club and AOPA Germany.

Overview

The aerokurier is a monthly German-language aviation magazine with a focus on general aviation. Together with the magazines Flug Revue and Klassiker der Luftfahrt — which deal with commercial civil aviation, military aviation and spaceflight, and historic aircraft and aviation history respectively — it belongs to Motor Presse Stuttgart. The aerokurier is the official organ of the Deutscher Aero Club as well as the Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association Germany (AOPA). The editor-in-chief is Lars Reinhold; the sold circulation is 13,863 copies (IVW). The magazine's ISSN is 0341-1281; Wikipedia lists aerokurier.de as its web address.

The magazine concentrates on general aviation, business aviation, air sports, gliding, ultralight aviation, flight training, developments in aviation technology, airports and political topics concerning aviation. The aerokurier is also the principal sponsor of the Online Contest (OLC), a worldwide decentralized soaring competition for glider, hang glider and paraglider pilots.

History

The aerokurier was founded in 1957 — in the decade when West German general aviation was reborn, the gliding clubs returning to the airfields, the private pilots buying their first aircraft. The 1950s were the founding decade of the Federal Republic's air sports: the clubs re-established, the airfields reopened, the first postwar generation of private pilots taking their licenses. The aerokurier grew with this community — the magazine of the Wirtschaftswunder's private aviation, the Cessnas and Pipers arriving on German airfields, the gliding tradition (Germany's oldest and strongest air sport) rebuilding its clubs and its manufacturers.

Motor Presse Stuttgart, the Stuttgart special-interest publishing house founded in 1946 by Paul Pietsch, Ernst Troeltsch and Josef Hummel in Freiburg (as Motorsport GmbH, to finance the founders' racing), moved to Stuttgart in 1950 and built its empire largely through acquisitions — auto motor und sport, Motorrad, Men's Health — with aviation as one of its core special-interest pillars. Almost all the publishing house's magazines arrived through acquisitions; the aviation titles were no exception. In 2001 the publisher admitted to falsifying circulation figures — the figures of 16 titles in late 2000 and early 2001 overstated by up to 10 percent, the publishing chief resigning, the IVW readmitting the publisher in late 2002 after its preemptive withdrawal. In August 2008 Motor Presse Stuttgart sold its consumer-electronics division (Connect, Audio, video, stereoplay, autohifi, Color Foto) to the Weka Group. Since April 2024 Kay Labinsky has been the managing director of Motor Presse Stuttgart GmbH.

The aerokurier's role as the official organ of the Deutscher Aero Club and AOPA Germany made it the institutional voice of German general aviation: the magazine the clubs' members read, the title that carried the associations' announcements and the community's debates. The Deutscher Aero Club — the umbrella organization of German air sports — and AOPA Germany — the Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association, the private pilots' and aircraft owners' lobby — represent the organized general aviation: the gliding clubs, the motor-flying clubs, the private owners whose interests the magazine's political coverage defends. The official-organ status means the aerokurier is where the associations speak to their members: the regulatory changes, the airspace decisions, the political campaigns — the community's internal communications, in its own magazine.

The 2015 relocation of Motor Presse Stuttgart's aviation editorial offices from Bonn to Stuttgart consolidated the aerokurier, Flug Revue and Klassiker der Luftfahrt under one roof — the aviation editorial center of the publishing house, with Michael Pfeiffer (previously Motorrad editor-in-chief) taking the publisher role and later the overall editorial leadership for aviation and spaceflight, and Philipp Prinzing taking editorial responsibility. The Bonn editorial seat — the former capital's aviation journalism, close to the ministries and the industry's associations — moved to the Swabian publishing city: the aviation titles' editorial consolidation, the three magazines under one editorial leadership.

The OLC sponsorship — the Online Contest, the worldwide decentralized soaring competition for glider, hang glider and paraglider pilots — shows the magazine's community function: not just reporting on air sports, but sponsoring the competition that organizes them. The OLC's decentralized format — pilots flying from their home airfields, uploading their flight logs, scored centrally against competitors worldwide — is the digital age's answer to the soaring competition: the aerokurier as the sponsor of the global gliding community's online contest, the magazine's brand on the competition that the world's glider pilots fly every season.

The gliding coverage reflects Germany's special position: the world's leading gliding nation — the manufacturers (Schempp-Hirth, Alexander Schleicher, DG), the clubs, the world champions — and the aerokurier's gliding reporting is the national gliding community's monthly chronicle. The ultralight coverage tracks the fastest-growing segment of German general aviation: the 600-kg class, the modern composite ultralights, the training schools — the entry point to private flying for the new generation of pilots.

Content and Concept

The aerokurier's content is the general-aviation pilot's monthly briefing: general aviation, business aviation, air sports, gliding, ultralights, flight training, developments in aviation technology, airports, political topics concerning aviation. The flight-training coverage — the schools, the licenses, the career paths — addresses the pipeline: the student pilots becoming private pilots, the private pilots becoming professionals. The aviation-careers content (the May special: Luftfahrtberufe plus job advertisements) connects the magazine to the industry's labor market: the pilots, the mechanics, the controllers — the jobs of flying, advertised in the pilots' magazine. The sustainability coverage (the August special) tracks general aviation's environmental reckoning: the electric aircraft, the sustainable fuels, the noise debates — the private flying's green future, reported monthly. The magazine's digital specials calendar (2024) shows the editorial rhythm: maintenance, gliding, flight training, the AERO trade fair special, aviation careers, ultralights, avionics, sustainability, helicopters, business aviation, pilot watches, gifts for pilots — the general-aviation year, month by month.

The political coverage is the magazine's distinctive function: the official organ's role means reporting the regulatory and political developments that affect private flying — airspace, licensing, environmental regulation — the issues the Deutscher Aero Club and AOPA Germany fight over, covered in their own magazine.

Coverage and Audience

The aerokurier appears monthly, in German, from Stuttgart. Its audience is the general-aviation community — private pilots, aircraft owners, glider pilots, the club members of the Deutscher Aero Club and AOPA Germany. The sold circulation of around 13,863 copies (declining to around 11,608 in the Motor Presse Stuttgart's Q2/2023 figures) reflects the general-aviation press's niche: the committed pilot community, reading its own magazine.

Ownership

The aerokurier is published by Motor Presse Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG — the Stuttgart special-interest publishing house founded in 1946, today one of Europe's large special-interest publishers. The aviation portfolio — aerokurier, Flug Revue, Klassiker der Luftfahrt — is the publishing house's aviation division, editorially consolidated in Stuttgart since 2015.

Digital Presence

aerokurier.de is the magazine's official website and the Motor Presse Stuttgart aviation portal's general-aviation channel — monthly print rhythm extended by digital specials, news and the OLC community platform. The website carries the magazine's service journalism between issues: the flight-training guides, the maintenance explainers, the aviation-career content.

Since 1957: the aerokurier remains the German-language magazine of general aviation — monthly, from Stuttgart, for the pilots. The official organ of the Aero Club and AOPA, the sponsor of the OLC, the general-aviation community's own magazine.