Memmingen Airport

If you drive on the A96 toward Lindau, just past the Memmingen interchange you see a tail fin with the Ryanair harp rising above the fields. Until 2002 you would have seen very different silhouettes here: Luftwaffe Starfighters and Tornados taking off from Memmingerberg for training flights over southern Germany. Memmingen Airport is one of the most successful examples of how a Cold War air base becomes a civil airport – carried not by the state but by entrepreneurs from the region. For you as a spotter, that means: a manageable place, lots of Boeing 737, lots of A320 family, and registrations from half of southeastern Europe.

Memmingerberg air base: the military prehistory

The site’s history begins in January 1936. Near the municipality of Memmingerberg, east of the town of Memmingen, the Luftwaffe of the time had an air base built. In World War II, bomber units were based here, equipped with types such as the Heinkel He 111, the Dornier Do 17 and the Junkers Ju 88. Toward the end of the war, the site was bombed several times and largely destroyed.

After the war, the use changed repeatedly: the grounds first served no aviation purpose, and later the US Air Force used them. In 1956, a pilot training school of the new Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr moved in. A different unit proved formative, though: in spring 1959, Fighter-Bomber Wing 34 relocated to Memmingerberg and was officially commissioned on May 5, 1959.

The wing stayed here for more than four decades. It began with the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, followed from 1964 by the F-104G Starfighter. During this time, Memmingerberg was part of NATO nuclear sharing: American nuclear weapons were stored on the site, guarded by a US unit, and the wing kept aircraft on constant alert. In 1987 the Starfighter was replaced by the Panavia Tornado. In 1992 the unit received the traditional name “Allgäu,” and in 1996 the nuclear weapons were withdrawn and the US unit was bid farewell.

The structural reforms of the Luftwaffe brought the end. Military flying ended on December 31, 2002, the wing was disbanded on June 30, 2003, and the air base closed in spring 2004. What remained was a long runway, hangars, shelters and a huge site – and entrepreneurs from the Allgäu who saw an opportunity in it. How to read the registrations of Luftwaffe aircraft from this era is explained in the article Registrations of Bundeswehr (German armed forces) aircraft.

The civil restart as an entrepreneurs’ airport

While the wing was still being wound down, companies from the region founded a company to use the site for civil purposes. The special thing about it: unlike at almost all German commercial airports, the state, district or city was not at the center, but mid-sized companies from the Allgäu and Upper Swabia. Memmingen still calls itself an “entrepreneurs’ airport” today. According to the operator, private entrepreneurs from the region hold 62 percent, and the remaining 38 percent lies with AAP-Besitz GmbH, backed by about 90 companies and public bodies.

In July 2004, the site received approval as a civil regional airport, and general aviation started in August. The breakthrough came on June 28, 2007: scheduled service began with TUIfly, at that time under the name “Allgäu Airport.” Since 2008 the airport has officially been called Memmingen, but the Allgäu Airport brand lives on, for example in the name of the bus shuttle to Munich. Some low-cost airlines also marketed the site as “Memmingen/München-West” – a label that, given a good 100 kilometers to Munich, was mostly advertising.

Flughafen Memmingen GmbH has operated the site since 2017. That same year the airport passed the one-million-passenger mark for the first time, and Ryanair opened a base. After that, things went steeply uphill: after the pandemic slump, traffic grew from just under two million passengers in 2022 to about 3.7 million in 2025. According to the airport, Memmingen thus ranks among Germany’s 15 largest commercial airports.

The runway: 06/24 with a military legacy

The layout is pleasantly simple for spotters. There is exactly one runway, designated 06/24. The numbers reveal the orientation: on 06 you head roughly east-northeast (about 60 degrees), on 24 west-southwest (about 240 degrees). The airport gives a total length of 2,981 meters – exceptionally long for a regional airport and a clear legacy of the air base’s jet era.

The width, on the other hand, was long an issue. For combat jets, 30 meters was enough, but for commercial aircraft it did not meet the international standard. In 2019 the runway was therefore widened to 45 meters; flight operations were suspended for about two weeks in the second half of September for this. Since fall 2021, in addition to the instrument landing system toward 24 there is also one toward 06, so landings in poor visibility are better possible in both runway directions in use.

Because there is only one runway, all aircraft take off and land in the same direction. With runway direction 24 in use, landings come from the east-northeast and takeoffs go toward the west-southwest. With 06 it’s the other way round. Which direction applies is decided mainly by the wind; westerly weather patterns often bring 24 in southern Germany. How to estimate that before setting out is explained in the articles Understanding the runway direction in use at an airport and Windy and other weather maps for spotters.

Ryanair, Wizz Air and the Balkan factor

The traffic picture in Memmingen is clear: low-cost traffic rules here. The biggest share comes from Ryanair. The Irish have flown from Memmingen since 2010 and have operated a base with stationed aircraft since fall 2017. From here, flights go to destinations in southern and western Europe, such as London Stansted, to the Balkans and as far as North Africa. Besides aircraft with Irish registrations, aircraft of the group sister Malta Air with Maltese 9H- registrations also show up. How the business model behind it works is explained in the article How low-cost carriers work.

The second fixture is Wizz Air. Its network from Memmingen reaches far into southeastern and Eastern Europe, including Romania, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. That’s exactly what makes Memmingen special. According to the airport, Tirana and Palma de Mallorca were the most popular destinations in 2025; Pristina, Belgrade, Sofia, London Stansted, Skopje, Banja Luka and Bucharest each had more than 100,000 passengers.

The offering is rounded out by leisure and charter flights. SunExpress has flown to Antalya again since late March 2026, and Freebird Airlines also to Turkey. Aegean Airlines and Avanti Air appear on the airport’s airline list, plus the Swiss GP Aviation.

Important: schedules change with every season, and especially in the low-cost business routes come and go quickly. Which airlines and destinations are current is shown by the schedule on the airport’s website. How to use such boards for your planning is covered in the article on the arrivals and departures board; the change between schedule periods is explained in IATA summer and winter schedules.

What you photograph in Memmingen

If you’re looking for widebodies, Memmingen is the wrong place. In everyday scheduled service, two families shape the picture: the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 family. That is exactly where the appeal lies for beginners and registration collectors. In the Ryanair group, both the classic Boeing 737-800 and the newer Boeing 737-8-200 with bigger LEAP engines and split winglets fly. Which variant is at the gate right now is revealed by the registration. How to reliably separate the generations is shown in the article Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart.

With Wizz Air you’re in the Airbus world: A320, A321neo and their relatives. With Wizz Air in particular, a close look at fuselage length, emergency exits and engines pays off. You’ll find a compact guide under Reliably telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart and A320neo or ceo?.

The real treasure for collectors is the registrations. Ryanair uses aircraft with Irish and Maltese registrations, and Wizz Air operates several operating companies with different registration prefixes. If you consistently note your sightings by registration, you quickly see how many different aircraft are behind the seemingly identical liveries. Why so many aircraft are registered in Malta or Ireland is explained in the article Why many aircraft are registered in Ireland, Bermuda or Malta.

Spotting at Memmingen Airport

The airport’s website doesn’t mention a designated observation deck or an official spotter hill. The legal way to get very close to the aircraft is the airport tours. According to the airport, the adult tour takes about 90 to 120 minutes including the security check and leads across the apron, to the handling area and to the airport fire department; there is also a bus tour of the grounds. You can take part from age twelve, and there is a separate children’s tour without a bus ride for younger visitors. Booking is online; groups inquire by email. The airport lists prices and conditions on its website – they may change.

If you want to photograph takeoffs and landings from outside, you look for locations along the airport grounds. Where that is legal and sensible depends on runway direction in use, light and local conditions; we don’t have a dedicated spot guide for Memmingen so far. Around the airport lie fields, commercial areas and local roads – strictly respect barriers, access bans and agricultural land, and ask the local spotter community for proven places. What is generally allowed is summarized in the article Is plane spotting allowed?.

You’ll find general tips for smaller airports like this one in the article Spotting at small regional airports, and an overview of worthwhile destinations across the country under Regional airports in Germany for spotters. If you’re out in winter, you should also take a look at Plane spotting in winter – de-icing and snow clearing certainly provide their own subjects in Memmingen.

Getting there and operating hours

By car, Memmingen is easy to reach: the airport lies right at the interchange of the A7 and A96, and the Memmingen-Ost exit of the A96 is only about two kilometers away. There is parking right at the building, but it is geared toward passengers and costs money; according to the airport, participants in the airport tours park free in lots P1 to P5.

There is no train station at the terminal. According to the airport, a City Shuttle connects Memmingen station with the terminal about every half hour, from early morning to late evening. If you book a ticket with Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) to “Memmingen Allgäu Airport,” the shuttle ride is already included in the ticket. From Munich, the Allgäu Airport Express and Flibco buses run from the main station directly to the terminal, and FlixBus also connects the airport with many cities.

On operating hours: the airport had applied for an extension of regular operations into the late evening, which was approved with restrictions in 2013; lawsuits against it failed in 2015 before the Bavarian Administrative Court of Appeal. For your planning, the daily schedule is what counts: the first departure wave starts early in the morning, and at night it is largely quiet.

Memmingen compared

Among the Bavarian commercial airports, Memmingen has a profile all its own. Munich Airport offers Lufthansa long-haul, the A380 and, with the visitors’ hill (Besucherhügel), one of the most comfortable spotting places in Germany. Memmingen is smaller and specialized in point-to-point traffic, but here you find airlines and destinations that hardly play a role in Munich. To the northwest lies Stuttgart Airport with its observation deck, and to the southwest on Lake Constance Friedrichshafen Airport.

The comparison with other German conversion airports is interesting. Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport was a Canadian jet base and today likewise lives off Ryanair and Wizz Air. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport emerged from a US air base, and Weeze Airport on the Lower Rhine from a British military airfield. All four show how closely low-cost airlines are tied to former military sites: long runways, lots of space and low costs. Who stands behind the biggest airline on site is explained on the page on Ryanair Holdings.

The region is also well placed for an aviation outing. On Lake Constance, the Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen shows the history of one of the great German aircraft builders; north of Munich, the Flugwerft Schleißheim shows historic aircraft on a traditional airfield site – a good counterpoint to the everyday low-cost routine at the airport.

Conclusion

Memmingen Airport is a place with two lives. For over four decades, Memmingerberg was a Luftwaffe air base where F-84Fs, Starfighters and Tornados stood on alert. Since 2007 it has been a civil airport, built up by entrepreneurs from the region, which with Ryanair, Wizz Air and leisure airlines has worked its way up to about 3.7 million passengers a year. The long runway and the terminal in the old maintenance hangar still recall the military past today.

Spotters won’t find a type zoo here, but a manageable airport where you can study the Boeing 737 and A320 family in peace and collect registrations from all over Europe. If you sort out runway direction in use, light, fog and departure waves beforehand, you get more out of half a day in the Unterallgäu than the short airline list would suggest.