50 years Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport
50 years anniversary
Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport will turn 50 in 2019. Many events are planned throughout the year. The big exhibition GATE will be the big celebration day on 15th and 16th of June. Also Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport will give a brief history flashback in four stories within the anniversary year.
50 years PAD part I – 1969 until 1982
Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport is an airport with a transnational importance for about 5.5 million people from North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Hesse nowadays. It started with the formation of the "Regionalflughafen Südost-Westfalen GmbH" on 13th of October 1969. The intention of the Kreis Brilon, Büren, Höxter, Lippstadt, Paderborn and Warburg was to have an airport for the growing business air traffic and the commercial usage for bigger airplanes in the region of Südwestfalen, Ostwestfalen and Lippe.
The airport had the permisson to startup as "Verkehrslandeplatz Paderborn/Ahden" on 22nd of July 1971. In September 1972 the air traffic started with smaller aircrafts for scheduled flights and business airplanes. 1972 the airport hall 1 was built and three years later the airline DLT Deutsche Luftverkehrsgesellschaft flew regularly from Paderborn to Frankfurt am Main. Through these routes the region had a two times a day connection to the Lufthansa network.
With the increased air traffic it was necessary to widen the capacities. The number of passengers rose from 26.800 in 1978 to more than 70.500 in 1981. In 1982 the runway was enlarged to 1,760m in length and 30m in width.
For over seven years the regularly scheduled air traffic took place already. But it took two more years until Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport got the offical permit as an civil airport. How the "Verkehrslandeplatz Paderborn/Ahden" turned into an official civial airport and when the first airplane started from Paderborn to Mallorca will be mentioned in part II.
50 years Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport
The history of Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport began in 1969 with the approval process for an airfielt north from Ahden. The airport celebrates its 50 years anniversary with many events throughout 2019. Here you can find an event overview. You want more information about the Paderborn-Lippstadt Aiport history? Please click here.