Mannheim City Airport (City-Airport Mannheim in German, formerly Mannheim-Neuostheim/Neuhermsheim) is a minor regional airport serving the German city of Mannheim. It is mainly used for general aviation. Location The airport is located 3.5 km (2.2 mi) east of the city center in the district of Neuostheim. It is surrounded by highways to the east (B38a) and the south (B37/A656), there is a power transmission line to the east and several high rise buildings to the west making Mannheim City a challenging airport. Because of its proximity to the city center and the lack of space for an expansion, there have been continuous discussions about relocating the airport. The airport has its own control zone, neighboring control zones are Heidelberg Airfield and Coleman. History Early years Aviation in Mannheim started with the airship constructors Schütte-Lanz in 1909. Their first airship, called SL 1, lifted off from Mannheim-Rheinau in 1911. With the growing importance of airships for military purposes, a new airfield with hangars and barracks was opened in the north of Mannheim, where the Schönau district is located today. By the end of World War I, 22 airships had been built in Mannheim. In 1922 all hangars had to be demolished, complying with the conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The first commercial airport in Mannheim was founded on May 16, 1925, as Flughafen Mannheim-Heidelberg-Ludwigshafen in the northern district of Sandhofen. With its opening Mannheim became part of an important air track, running from north to south and vice versa. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Deutsche Aero Lloyd operated cargo and passenger flights from Hamburg to Zurich stopping in Mannheim. Balair from Switzerland flew between Geneva and Amsterdam via Basel, Mannheim, Frankfurt and Essen. Badisch-Pfälzische Luftverkehrs A.G operated the black forest route to Konstanz, via Karlsruhe, Baden Baden and Villingen. In 1926 the airfield was transferred to Mannheim-Neuostheim, its present site. The same year Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded in Berlin. A Luft Hansa route map of the 1930s shows scheduled flights from Mannheim to Frankfurt via Darmstadt and other destinations, like Stuttgart, Saarbrücken and Konstanz. In 1939 Luft Hansa flew nonstop to the capital Berlin using various Junkers aircraft. During World War II the airport was severely damaged. After the war the airport was occupied by the US-Army and temporarily used as a transmitter site. The terminal building and hangars were partly demolished and partly refurbished. The