Hamburg Airport is world's oldest

Hamburg Airport (HAM) has been selling tickets since January 1911, making it the world's oldest continuously operating commercial airport. It began not with airplanes, but as a base for Zeppelin airships.

A different American airfield has operated longer without interruption, but Hamburg's commercial pedigree sets it apart. The site's story involves airships, two world wars, foreign occupation, and a jet age it was never designed to survive.

From Zeppelin Hangar To Airport

The airport's origin was a public relations pitch. In March 1910, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin addressed Hamburg residents about the commercial future of rigid airships. On January 10, 1911, investors founded the Hamburger Luftschiffhallen GmbH (Hamburg Airship Hangar Company). They set aside roughly 111 acres of grassland near Fuhlsbüttel for a hangar large enough for two Zeppelins.

This linked the site to DELAG, widely regarded as the world's first airline. The Fuhlsbüttel hangar was finished in 1912, marked by a festival. The first airships lifted off from what is today Hamburg Airport's apron. Passengers rode in open gondolas beneath a hydrogen-filled envelope longer than a football field.

Airships were expensive, slow, and dangerously inflammable. Within two years of the 1912 opening, Europe was at war. The hangar that made Hamburg's name ended up on the losing side.

Survival Through Two World Wars

In 1914, the German military requisitioned the Fuhlsbüttel field. By the war's end in 1918, the original airship hangar was destroyed. The Treaty of Versailles dismantled Germany's rigid-airship program, erasing the field's founding purpose before its tenth anniversary.

Scheduled flights resumed in 1919. In 1920, KLM launched the first international route, linking Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Copenhagen. Passenger numbers were tiny. Hamburg counted exactly 241 passengers in all of 1920, the year record-keeping began. The total climbed steadily. By 1929, the airport had opened its first proper terminal building with a restaurant and observation deck.

On August 28, 1939, four days before Germany invaded Poland, the Luftwaffe requisitioned Fuhlsbüttel. According to historical records, the airport had already been expanded and militarized by the Luftwaffe in 1936-37. Its wartime units included 1.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 122 equipped with Heinkel He 111 bombers. Fuhlsbüttel was repeatedly bombed during Allied attacks on Hamburg.

The RAF Museum states Bomber Command flew 3,091 sorties during Operation Gomorrah and dropped 8,344 tons of bombs. The resulting firestorm killed approximately 45,000 people. Yet Fuhlsbüttel survived largely intact. Hamburg Airport says the Luftwaffe camouflaged the field with trees and nets. When Germany surrendered in 1945, Fuhlsbüttel was unusual: it had survived two world wars and remained operational.

Postwar Service And The Jet Age

The Royal Air Force took control in May 1945. Britain administered the airport until 1950. This stretch was defined by the Berlin Airlift. Between June 1948 and May 1949, the field served as a launch point for Allied "raisin bombers" supplying West Berlin.

The site was renamed Hamburg Airport in 1950. According to Lufthansa's history, the airline began scheduled domestic services from Hamburg on April 1, 1955. Just over two months later, it launched its first North Atlantic service to New York using a Lockheed Super Constellation.

On March 2, 1960, Lufthansa's first Boeing 707 arrived at Hamburg from Seattle, marking the airport's entry into the jet age. The first Lufthansa Boeing 747 landed at Fuhlsbüttel on March 30, 1970. The 350-ton jumbo jet required a reinforced apron and Hamburg's first two passenger bridges.

Modernization For The Largest Jets

Hamburg's answer to aging infrastructure was the HAM21 modernization program from 2001 to 2009. It cost roughly $390 million. The project rebuilt the airport around two passenger terminals, added a metro rail station, a multistory parking structure, and wider access roads.

That modernization proved crucial. The airport's two terminals can now handle roughly 14 million passengers a year. On October 29, 2018, Hamburg became a certified Airbus A380 destination and welcomed its first scheduled Emirates A380. The aircraft 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. The 2018 arrival demonstrated Hamburg's infrastructure could handle the world's largest passenger aircraft. A hangar built for two Zeppelins now shares a runway with the largest passenger jet ever certified.

The Older Record Holder

College Park Airport in Maryland predates Hamburg by two years. According to surveys, the US Army Signal Corps brought Wilbur Wright there in 1909. However, its continuous commercial operation is debated. This complicates Hamburg's claim and depends entirely on the definition of "commercial." An Emirates Boeing 777-300ER now touches down on ground that has been receiving aircraft since before the Titanic sank.