Salzburg-W.A. Mozart Airport

Location
First in use in 1926, the airport is about 5 km or 3 miles west of Salzburg city centre, on the southern edge of the district Maxglan. By car use either the A1 or A10 or the federal road 1.

Rail passengers take trains to Salzburg main railway station. From the bus station, bus numbers 2 or 8 go to the terminal. Bus number 27 also operates a regular service from Ferdinand Hanusch Platz to the airport.

Other bus services are provided for example by the ÖBB Post buses, going to Bad Reichenhall, Hinterglemm, Lofer, Saalfelden, Wals, Weissbach or Zell am See or the "Watzmann Express" to Berchtesgaden.

History
Commercial aviation in Salzburg began in the autumn of 1811 when a helium-filled balloon flew over the city, causing the ciztizen’s to gasp with amazement . Only 12 years on, the flying enthusiast Joseph Wibmperger founded an airline, but not until many years later, on 16 April 1902, did the Archduke Leopold Salvator and the two adventurers Captain Franz Hinterstoisser take off in a hot air balloon at the urban gasworks.

In the summer of 1910, the history of civilian aviation finally took off. The first powered flight was operated from a racetrack in the district of Aigen by the pilot Josef Auer. Two years later 15,000 people watched an air show and saw the Maxglan pilot Josef Auer perform his flying acrobatics. After the First World War, demand for a proper airport in Salzburg was growing and so the former pilots and flight engineers decided in the spring of 1925 to promote a working group whose aim was to establish its own pilots association. They succeeded in the same year and after deliberate planning, an area of land was levelled off to be used as a future take-off and landing area in Maxglan. The airport could be opened only a few months later, on 16 August 1926. Lufthansa was the first company at the time to fly the route from Salzburg to Munich via Bad Reichenhall.
The opening ceremony of the three room wooden shack and a makeshift runway took place six days later. As early as 1927, the former Austrian carriers ÖLAG (Austrian aviation company shares) added Salzburg as a destination in its regular flight schedule and operated flights on the route from Salzburg to Innsbruck. At the same time, a flying school and a company for the manufacturer of aircraft were built on the plot.

In 1928, only one year later Salzburg was already one of the most often used airports in the region along with Bad Reichenhall and Innsbruck. In 1930, 34 different routes were operated from Salzburg. Due to the growth of the airport, the provisional wooden house was no longer sufficient for passenger clearance and a new building was therefore constructed on the grounds.

Only a year later, the global economic crisis also hit the Salzburg region and there was a reduction in state subsidies for Salzburg’s aviation transport. Consequence of this crisis was the suspension of all non-profitable routes. In the following years, important aircraft landed in in Salzburg, including a wide-bodied aircraft of the type Junkers, which was used in 1932 by the "Deutsche Luft Hansa" on the route from Vienna via Salzburg to Zurich. It was not until 1937, after the ÖLAG had established more routes from Salzburg into its flight schedule, the airport was again able to show rising passenger and aircraft movements. But only a few years later, Austria was seized by the Nazis, who immediately began to use the site for war purposes.

In the 50s, after the liberation of Austria by the Allied Forces, the airport was commissioned by the American forces and again used for civil aviation. In the middle of the decade, Salzburg City Council considered building a larger airport in the northern district Flachgau, but this idea was rejected immediately because of opposition from the local population. Thus, the modernisation and expansion of the existing airport site at the end of the 50s was prevented.

Shortly after completion, the number of passengers increased from about 12,000 to over 120,000 in 1965. But only a few years on, numbers again decreased and protest by the population grew ever louder, as the aircraft noise had grown more unbearable over the years. As a result of these protests, the airport management immediately stopped gliding flight operations and decided to invest in effective noise control measures at its own expense as well as regulating the operating times at the airport.

For the next twenty years the annual passenger numbers due to the increase of the onset of charter services grew rapidly in Salzburg. The runway was extended from 2,200 meters to 2,750 meters, and in the northwest of the site, more new aircraft hangars were built. In 2003 Salzburg Airport celebrated the opening of its new second terminal, which provides for more comfort as it is able to check in more than 1.9 million passengers a year.