Memmingen Airport , also known as Allgäu Airport Memmingen, is an international airport in the town of Memmingerberg near Memmingen, the third-largest city in the Swabia region of Bavaria. It is the smallest of the three commercial airports in the state after Munich Airport and Nuremberg Airport and has the highest altitude of any commercial airport in Germany. It is operated by Flughafen Memmingen GmbH, a limited partnership of mostly local, medium-sized companies and public shares. Located about from the centre of Memmingen and from the city centre of Munich, it serves Memmingen and the Allgäu. It provides a low-cost alternative to Munich Airport and therefore is sometimes referred to as Memmingen/Munich-West Airport. It serves as a base for Ryanair and features flights to European leisure and some metropolitan destinations and handled nearly 2 million passengers in 2022. History Early years A military airfield was built at Memmingerberg in 1935. It was used during World War II. After being rebuilt, it was used for US Air Force training flights from 1956. From 1959 to 2003, it was the home base of German Air Force fighterbomber wing 34 ("Allgäu"). The airport was certified as a regional commercial airport on 20 July 2004, and commenced operation on 5 August 2004, but there were no scheduled or regular chartered flights. Scheduled flights to the 2005 Hanover Fair were cancelled due to lack of demand. In June 2005, the district of Oberallgäu granted initial finance of €480,000. A further sum of €200,000 was granted by the city of Memmingen after a popular vote on 25 September 2005. In 2006, scheduled flights to Dortmund and Rostock were planned but cancelled because the carrier became insolvent. In autumn 2006, Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter offered chartered flights to Dortmund for two months, during which only 100 passengers were carried. In March 2007, a subsidy of €7,500,000 promised by the Bavarian government was approved by the European Commission. Until 25 September 2008, it was known as Allgäu Airport/Memmingen. On 28 June 2007, TUIfly started offering domestic flights to Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne, and also flights to holiday destinations such as Palma de Mallorca, Heraklion, Naples, Rome, Venice, and Antalya. In March 2009, Ryanair announced seven new routes serving Memmingen starting May 2009. Developments since 2010 Ryanair has continued to announce new routes, and from May 2010 Ryanair operated 14 routes to and from Memmingen. Wizz Air also started serving Memmingen