LEIPZIG HALLE turns 90
Leipzig/Halle Airport’s excellent road and rail links have helped turn a once sleepy East German airport into a major European cargo hub. Sebastian Schmitz reports.
Sebastian Schmitz
Leipzig/Halle Airport celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2017. To mark the occasion the airport hosted a fun day during the summer.
LEIPZIG/HALLE AIRPORT
O perations began at the current Leipzig/Halle Airport (IATA: LEJ) site, located halfway between the two cities after which it is named, in April 1927. The local area already had a history of aviation with hot air balloons, airships and light aircraft, flying from small airfields in Mockau and Lindenthal (in Leipzig) and Mötzlich and Nietleben, near Halle. The opening of the new airport, close to the town of Schkeuditz, marked the first time that flights from both cities were consolidated at one airfield with state-of-the-art facilities. Two years after the launch of services, the new airport had three international routes and nine domestic (more of the latter than it has today) and handled 20,000 passengers per year. Unusually for the time, the airport also played host to night flying.
With passenger numbers rising, new infrastructure was added including a new terminal building. However, the outbreak of World War Two halted this development and when hostilities ended commercial flying had ceased and much of the airfield lay in ruins. Now part of the German Democratic Republic, a new 8,202ft (2,500m) runway was built. However, commercial traffic opted to use the smaller Mockau airport, with Leipzig/Halle used solely for the Leipzig Trade Fair.
It was only in 1972 that commercial traffic was permanently moved to the new airport, which, unlike its smaller rival, could handle jet aircraft. Between 1972 and 1988, passenger figures grew tenfold from just over 50,000 to 550,000 per year. In 1986, the airport welcomed an Air France Concorde, which became a regular visitor during the Leipzig Trade Fairs. British Airways also visited with its Concorde, but this proved to be a one-off.