Memmingen Airport lies on a plateau in the Bavarian Allgau, around 70 miles (110 km) west of Munich and within sight of the Alps on a clear day. A former air force base, it has grown quickly into a serious alternative to Munich for low fare travellers. Traffic reached about 3.7 million passengers in 2025, almost all of them on low cost airlines. Ryanair and Wizz Air dominate, linking Swabia and the Alpine foothills with holiday islands and the Balkans.
Memmingen Airport at a Glance
The codes are FMM for IATA and EDJA for ICAO. The airfield sits at Memmingerberg, about 2.5 miles (4 km) east of Memmingen town centre. At 633 metres (2,077 feet) above sea level, it is high by German standards. There is one runway and one passenger terminal, which has twelve gates and no jet bridges.
Passenger numbers rose almost 14 per cent in 2025 to roughly 3.7 million, with about 33,200 aircraft movements. Ryanair runs the largest operation here, with five Boeing 737s based as of December 2025. Wizz Air is the other major carrier, and Eurowings, SunExpress, Aegean and Freebird add holiday routes and links to Turkey and Greece. Flughafen Memmingen GmbH runs Memmingen Airport, and timetables are on the airport’s official website.
From Air Base to Airport
The Luftwaffe built an airfield at Memmingerberg in 1935. During the Second World War it housed bomber units of Kampfgeschwader 255, later renamed Kampfgeschwader 51, and the base was destroyed in 1944. Military flying returned in 1956, when the US Air Force used the field for training.
From 1959 to 2003 the airfield was home to the German Air Force fighter bomber wing Jagdbombergeschwader 34, known as the Allgau wing. When the wing disbanded and the military left in 2004, local businesses saw an opportunity. The base was converted to civil use, and the long runway, hardstands and open airspace made it an easy fit for low cost airlines.
Growth was not smooth at first, but the airport recorded its first annual profit in 2017. It welcomed its ten millionth passenger on 6 December 2018. The pandemic cut traffic to around 690,000 in 2020, yet the recovery was fast. Memmingen Airport handled 2.8 million passengers in 2023, a record at the time, and has kept climbing since.
Runways at Memmingen Airport
There is a single asphalt runway, 06/24, with a published length of 2,630 metres (8,629 feet) and a width of 45 metres. The paved strip inherited from the air force is longer, close to 3,000 metres. That leaves plenty of margin for fully loaded Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A321neo departures, even on hot summer days at this elevation.
The runway was widened from 30 metres to 45 metres in 2019 as part of a wider upgrade. It closed for several weeks that September and reopened on 1 October with new lighting and guidance systems. A new all weather parallel taxiway, Taxiway R, entered regular use in 2025, cutting backtracking on the runway.
Runway 24 has a Category I instrument landing system and is the main landing direction, since the prevailing winds come from the west. Arrivals then approach from the north east over the farmland between Memmingen and Mindelheim. Thunderstorms building over the Alps can cause summer diversions, as a Ryanair flight from Dublin found in June 2025.
Terminals and Airlines
All flights use the single terminal. Schengen departures leave from gates 1 to 7 on the ground floor, while non Schengen flights board from gates 23 to 25 on the upper floor. Passengers walk or take a bus to the aircraft. The building has eleven check in counters, four of them self bag drop points for Ryanair and Wizz Air.
Ryanair has the biggest network, with two 737 MAX 8-200s and three 737-800s based at Memmingen Airport. Wizz Air focuses on Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, serving Sofia, Belgrade, Tirana, Skopje and Budapest among others. Eurowings and SunExpress cover Turkey and summer holiday routes, and Aegean and Freebird fly seasonally. No network carrier runs scheduled flights here, so there are no alliance connections.
Routes and Destinations
Palma de Mallorca was the busiest route in summer 2024, with 15 weekly departures and around 79,000 seats. Sofia followed with eight weekly flights, ahead of Banja Luka, London Stansted and Belgrade. Those last three each had seven departures a week.
That mix tells the story. Holiday flights to Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece serve Bavarian and Swabian leisure travellers. A large share of traffic, however, is visiting friends and relatives between southern Germany and the Balkans, Romania and Hungary. Wizz Air reaches further east to Moldova and Armenia. Ryanair adds city routes such as Dublin, Rome, Porto, London Stansted and Manchester.
Summer is busiest, but the Balkan and city routes keep the airport active all year. Winter brings some ski traffic, with the Austrian and Bavarian resorts a short drive away. There are no long haul flights and no meaningful cargo.
Getting to and from Memmingen Airport
There is no station at the terminal. Local buses 2 and 810/811 run to Memmingen town centre and the railway station in about 15 minutes. From there Deutsche Bahn trains reach Munich in roughly an hour and Augsburg in around 70 minutes. Some EuroCity services also run to Lindau, Bregenz and Zurich.
Direct coaches link the terminal with Munich in about 80 minutes, and FlixBus serves other German and neighbouring cities. The coach is the simplest option for Munich, while bus plus train is usually the cheapest sensible choice for Ulm or Augsburg. Taxis and car hire desks sit opposite the terminal.
By road, the airport is close to the Memmingen Ost exit of the A96, near its junction with the A7. The A96 runs east to Munich and west to Lake Constance, while the A7 heads north to Ulm and south towards Austria. Parking is next to the terminal, and a multi storey car park is planned.
Spotting and Photography
The field is relaxed and compact, which suits spotters. Farm roads around the perimeter give views of both approaches, and on clear days the Allgau Alps form a backdrop to the south. The traffic at Memmingen Airport is predictable, with Ryanair 737s and Wizz Air Airbus A321neos making up most movements.
Look out for the Wizz Air fleet on Balkan rotations, plus SunExpress, Freebird and Aegean jets on summer weekends. The runway runs roughly north east to south west, so the light changes sides through the day. Stay on public roads, keep clear of the fence and respect farmland and police instructions.
What Comes Next
The terminal was designed for about two million passengers a year and now handles nearly twice that. A new arrivals hall opened in 2021, and an annex with extra gates followed in 2024. In March 2025 the operator announced a larger upper floor with two more gates and a bigger apron.
Further projects include a separate arrivals exit, a covered balcony on the south side and two more mid sized stands, taking the total to eight. Memmingen Airport looks set to keep growing as a low cost alternative to Munich, with capacity in the building, not the runway, as the real constraint. Compare it with other German airports on our Airports of the World map.
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