Flughafen Dortmund GmbH was founded in 1926 in the Dortmund-Brackel district. Thereafter Dortmund quickly established itself, alongside Cologne, at the forefront of domestic German air travel, handling more scheduled flights than Düsseldorf and Essen.
However, the war put an end to civil aviation in Dortmund, and it did not return until 1960, at the site of the present airport in Dortmund-Wickede. In 1974 a 650-metre long, 20-metre wide tarmac runway replaced the previous grass airstrip.
Since then the airport has undergone continuous further expansion: airport buildings and hangars were constructed and the runway and landing strip grew steadily longer. Thus, the originally regional Dortmund-Wickede Airport has turned into the third-largest commercial airport in North Rhine-Westphalia – Dortmund Airport. Today flights leave Dortmund for many interesting destinations throughout Europe, and the airport handles more than two million passengers a year.