Airport history

The era of 1968

Our airport was officially opened on 22 June 1968 – named Flughafen Augsburg-Mühlhausen (Augsburg-Mühlhausen Airport).

After many years of lively discussions Augsburg became increasingly interesting for the regional economy thanks to “Germany’s largest commercial airport”. This was first and foremost a political achievement of Wolfgang Pepper, at this time mayor of Augsburg.

As early as 1928 Augsburg had had its own airport. It was situated in Haunstetten.

In 1945 the American occupying forces took charge of the airport.

Gliders were allowed to use it from 1952 and

motorized aeroplanes from 1964.

In 1964 the Americans left the airport.

At this time Augsburger Flughafen GmbH was founded as a successor company of Schwäbisch-Bayerische Fluggesellschaft GmbH, which had been closed in 1945.

In 1970, Dr. Kotter, the city’s mayor and head of the economic department, insisted that Augsburg was extremely interested in gaining a direct access to German air traffic as this was very important for the regional economy.

In 1985, Augsburg Airport was equipped with the control area necessary for instrument flight.

At the 1 November 1994 the airport fire brigade was awarded the status of a “Werkfeuerwehr” (company fire brigade).

At the end of November 1997 the new tower was completed. Due to its height, the old tower had been built far to near to the runway and therefore did not comply with international regulations on instrument flights.

In 1998, Augsburg Airport became internationally competitive owing to the permanent customs and police station that was established at that time.

Unfortunately, Augsburg Airways, which had been very active at Augsburg Airport, had to leave our airport permanently in 2004. According to international regulations the runway had become far too short to guarantee economical scheduled air travel at competitive conditions with their aircraft.

In 2005 Augsburg Airport was hit by an economic disaster.

Only three months later, though, it was brought back on a new road to success by a new management and strong support of the city of Augsburg as a “City Airport – an airport not just for business travellers”.

Our airport is also often used by film crews and VIPs