Hamburg Airport: World's Oldest Since 1911

Hamburg Airport (HAM) has been selling tickets since January 1911, which makes it the oldest continuously operating commercial airport on Earth. It began operations not for airplanes, but as a base for Zeppelin airships.

The airport's origin lies in a public pitch by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in March 1910. Local investors founded the Hamburger Luftschiffhallen GmbH (Hamburg Airship Hangar Company) on January 10, 1911, setting aside about 111 acres of land near Fuhlsbüttel for a hangar.

From Airship Hangar to Airport

The Fuhlsbüttel hangar, finished in 1912, linked the site to DELAG, widely regarded as the world's first airline. Passengers rode in open gondolas beneath hydrogen-filled envelopes. This era was short-lived. Airships proved expensive, slow, and dangerously flammable. Europe was soon at war.

In 1914, the German military requisitioned the field. The original airship hangar was destroyed by 1918. Germany's rigid-airship program was dismantled after the Treaty of Versailles. The site's founding purpose had vanished.

Survival Through War and Peace

Scheduled flights resumed to Fuhlsbüttel in 1919. KLM launched the field's first international route in 1920, linking Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Copenhagen. Passenger numbers were tiny initially. Hamburg Airport's records show exactly 241 passengers in 1920. By 1929, the airport had opened its first proper terminal building.

The Luftwaffe requisitioned the airport on August 28, 1939. Historical records indicate it had been expanded and militarized years earlier. It served as a base for units like 1.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 122, equipped with Heinkel He 111 bombers. The airport was repeatedly bombed during Allied attacks on Hamburg.

Hamburg Airport states the Luftwaffe camouflaged the field with trees and nets. It survived largely intact. When Germany surrendered in 1945, the Royal Air Force took control.

Postwar Transformation and the Jet Age

Britain administered the airport from 1945 to 1950. During the Berlin Airlift (June 1948 to May 1949), it served as a launch point for Allied cargo aircraft, known as "raisin bombers," supplying West Berlin.

The site was renamed Hamburg Airport in 1950. Lufthansa began scheduled domestic services from Hamburg on April 1, 1955. Its first North Atlantic service to New York followed just over two months later. The jet age arrived on March 2, 1960, with Lufthansa's first Boeing 707. The first Boeing 747 landed on March 30, 1970, requiring a reinforced apron and Hamburg's first passenger bridges.

Modernization for the Largest Aircraft

Facing aging infrastructure, Hamburg embarked on the HAM21 modernization program from 2001 to 2009, costing roughly $390 million. The project rebuilt the airport around two passenger terminals and added a metro station and new road systems.

This preparation proved crucial. On October 29, 2018, Hamburg welcomed its first scheduled Emirates Airbus A380, becoming a certified destination for the world's largest passenger aircraft. The A380 has a wingspan of 261 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of about 1.27 million pounds. Emirates later replaced the A380 on the Hamburg-Dubai route with Boeing 777-300ERs, but the 2018 arrival demonstrated the airport's capability.

A hangar built for two Zeppelins now shares a runway with the largest passenger jet ever certified. However, the title of oldest continuously operating airport is contested. College Park Airport in Maryland, USA, predates Hamburg by two years, having opened in 1909. The distinction for Hamburg rests on the specific term "commercial," as College Park's early operations were not commercial in the same sense.