The airport, originally located in the suburb of Brackel, was first served by commercial flights in 1925 byAero Lloyd, which operated flights to Paris. By the business year 1927/1928, service had expanded to 2,589 commercial flights annually. DuringWorld War II the airport was used as a Germanair base, and was subsequently used by the BritishRoyal Air Force. Service to Dortmund was not recommenced when German commercial air service was restarted in 1955. In 1960, the civil airfield was relocated toDortmund-Wickede. The old airport was abandoned and occupied by British forces until the 1990s.
Commercial service was restored in 1979 with daily flights toMunich byReise- und Industrieflug.Nuremberg andStuttgart followed shortly afterwards. FollowingGerman Reunification in 1990,Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, and London were added to the flight schedule.Reise- und Industrieflug andNürnberger Flugdienst merged in 1990 andEurowings was formed, which is still based in Dortmund.
Construction was started in 1998, and completed in 2000 on a new replacement terminal. This multi-level terminal prepared the airport for its resurgence.
From late 2000 onwards, Dortmund Airport has experienced a drastic increase in air traffic. In the 1990s weekly service had been generally restricted to a fewturboprop flights to destinations within Germany, as well as occasional charter flights to warm-weather destinations. Since 2000, several new airlines have commenced service to Dortmund, many with mainline jets. Most of the air traffic today is offered bylow cost airlines operatingBoeing 737 orAirbus A320 family series aircraft to warm-weather destinations andVFR-driven destinations inEastern Europe.
The first larger carrier at Dortmund Airport wasAir Berlin, which began flights toLondon,Milan, andVienna in 2002, supplementing its leisure route portfolio to theMediterranean.easyJet commenced services to Dortmund in 2004, andGermanwings followed in 2007.Air Berlin ceased most non-leisure routes from Dortmund again in 2005, while easyJet cancelled four out of its five destinations in 2012.[3]
Since 2006 the airport has been carrying the name "Dortmund Airport 21", in reference to the fact that Dortmund's utility company, DSW21, is its major shareholder. The airport's master plan consists of the following elements: Increasing normal operating hours by one hour at night (to 23:00h), with an additional one-hour window in the morning and at night for exceptions, lengthening the runway to 2,800 m (9,200 ft), expanding the terminal and its infrastructure, improving the motorway connections and directly connecting the airport to mass transit.
At one timeEurowings had its headquarters, the Dortmund Administrative Center (Verwaltungsstandort Dortmund), at the airport.[4] It has been relocated toDüsseldorf in 2010.
In October 2014,Air Berlin announced it was leaving Dortmund Airport entirely, cancelling their last remaining summer seasonal route toPalma de Mallorca.[5] The airline had shut down several leisure routes from the airport in 2012.[6]
As with easyJet in the 2000s, other low-cost carriers started opening routes from Dortmund Airport. Ryanair has progressively added new routes from Dortmund, mostly to destinations around the Mediterranean and the UK. From 2013 to 2015, Spanish low-cost airlineVueling offered a short-lived, four weekly service to Barcelona.[7] However,Wizz Air has been the most significant contributor to the airport's resurgence. The Hungarian low-cost airline began servicing the airport in the mid 2000s by operating several routes to Eastern Europe, in large parts due to the Ruhr's significant Slavic community. In June 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wizzair announced that Dortmund Airport would become its 33rd base, being the first in Germany. However, only one year later, Wizz Air announced the closure of their Dortmund base which led to the termination of several routes.[8]
In October 2024,Ryanair announced the termination of all routes at three German airports including Dortmund, citing high operational costs.[9]
In December 2024,Eurowings also announced it would downsize its operations in Dortmund, terminating the year-round service toMunich as well as not resuming four seasonal destinations.[10] In October 2025, Eurowings subsequently announced the immediate closure of its base at Dortmund Airport as of the same month, cutting four of five remaining destinations to and from the airport exceptPalma de Mallorca.[11]
Dortmund Airport is served by an express bus toDortmund main station, a shuttle bus to the nearby railway stationHolzwickede/Dortmund Flughafen, a bus to the city's metro lineU47, as well as a bus to the city ofUnna.
Heading toDortmund main station by theAirportExpress bus (or taking bus line 490 to Aplerbeck and then metro line U47). The direct connection from Dortmund central station to Düsseldorf is operated by frequent regional and long-distance trains.
Catching theAirportShuttle bus to nearbyHolzwickede station. The shuttle bus leaves every 20 minutes in front of the terminal building. From Holzwickede station taking theRE 13 (Maas-Wupper-Express) towardsVenlo. The train runs once every hour and provides a direct connection to Düsseldorf, the travel time is approx. 60 minutes.
On January 22, 1982, aCessna 404 of RFG – Regionalflug on aferry flight from Düsseldorf landing at Dortmund Airport veered off the runway, crashed into a hangar, and caught fire. The 58-year-old pilot, the sole occupant, was killed. At least four other aircraft in the hangar were destroyed or damaged. Thealtimeter was incorrectly set due to the pilot'svisual impairment.[52]
On the evening of November 20, 1985, a privateCessna 421 coming from Vienna crashed about 1 kilometer short of the runway while attempting to land in bad weather. All four occupants were killed.[53]
On 3 January 2010,Air Berlin Flight 2450, operated by aBoeing 737-800 (D-ABKF) overran the end of the runway after anaborted take-off at high speed due to an airspeed discrepancy on the two pilots' instruments. There were no injuries among the 171 people on board.[54]
On 5 December 2022, a Ryanair Boeing 737 landing at Dortmund Airport overran the end of the runway, which was wet and slightly covered with snow. None of the 175 people on board were injured.[55]
^ab"ADV Monthly Traffic Report 12/2022"(PDF; 919 KB).adv.aero (in German). Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen e.V. 13 February 2023. Retrieved17 February 2023.
^ab"AIP VFR online".dfs.de. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH. Retrieved21 February 2023.
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