year under the proposal primarily for noise abatement. However, in June 2014 both the provincial government and the city of Enschede abandoned the plan to re-open the airport for commercial traffic. The future of the airport remained uncertain. In August 2015 it was announced that Belgian aircraft recycling firm Aeronextlife intended to start using the airport to scrap aircraft. As part of the plan, Aeronextlife would become responsible for the costs of certain vital services required for airport operation, such as a fire fighting presence during aircraft operations. Approval was granted, and flights to Enschede Airport resumed on 1 May 2016 with the landing of a Cessna Citation Sovereign coming from Manchester, which departed for Aosta later that day. Besides the arrival of aircraft for scrapping, additional traffic allowed at the airport include cargo aircraft to transport airplane parts, business charter aircraft of a number of operators that requested permission to use the airfield, a limited number of smaller general aviation aircraft and gliders. In November 2016 it was announced Aircraft End-of-Life Solutions (AELS) was taking over the permit for the dismantling of aircraft from Aeronextlife. AELS already conducted such activity at Woensdrecht Air Base, however, they are limited in the size of the aircraft they can dismantle at Woensdrecht. The first aircraft to be scrapped was HB-JMK, an Airbus A340-300 formerly operated by Swiss International Air Lines, which arrived on 27 April 2017. Since then, aircraft from KLM, Air France and other airlines have also been flown to Twente for scrapping. In June and July 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic economic downturn, six Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 aircraft arrived at Enschede for storage and possible dismantling. In October 2020 Lufthansa decided to remove the aircraft for scrapping in Texas but it was discovered that, while local environmental regulations permitted the arrival of large aircraft it did not permit them to take-off again. After negotiation a limited exemption from the regulation was agreed and Lufthansa planned to fly the aircraft out, over a period of time, with the last aircraft to leave before July 2021. On 18 April 2021, the airport was the site of the NN Mission Marathon won by Eliud Kipchoge in 2:04.30. The race was originally scheduled for April 11 in Hamburg but postponed because of Covid-19 restrictions before being relocated to ENS. Besides the storage and scrapping of aircraft, the airport also worked to establish themselves