History28 SEP 20265 min readDromopedia editors

Since 1909

The oldest airports were fields where someone first put an aeroplane down. A few never stopped being airfields, and each of them counts its age in its own way.

The first airfields were not built but chosen: a parade ground, a meadow, a stretch of heath flat enough for a machine to run along and lift off. Most went back to being fields within a few years. A handful are still airfields, and three of them claim to be the oldest in the world. The claims do not contradict each other, because each measures something different.

College Park

CGSCollege Park Airport US · 49 FT / 15 M · RWY 2,980 FT / 908 MWilbur Wright began instructing two Army lieutenants here on 8 October 1909. Runway 15/33, 908 m. Since 2001 inside the Washington Flight Restricted Zone.

In 1909 the US Army had its first aeroplane, bought from the Wright brothers, and needed officers who could fly it. The field chosen for the lessons was at College Park, Maryland, beside what is now the University of Maryland. Wilbur Wright began instruction for Lieutenant Frank Lahm and Second Lieutenant Frederic Humphreys on 8 October 1909; Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois joined them later that month. Wilbur made 55 flights at College Park before leaving on 2 November.1 Humphreys became the first military pilot to solo in a military aeroplane, and on 27 October Mrs Ralph Van Deman became the first woman in the United States to fly as a passenger.1

The Army opened its first aviation school there in 1911, and the field collected firsts: the first machine gun fired from an aeroplane in 1912, the Washington end of the first regular US Post Office airmail service on 12 August 1918, the first controlled helicopter flight in 1924.2 The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission owns the airport today and runs the College Park Aviation Museum beside it. It calls the field "the world's oldest continuously operating airport", and the National Register of Historic Places listed it on 23 September 1977.23

It is a small place. The FAA gives one asphalt runway, 15/33, of 2,980 by 60 ft, or 908 m; older descriptions give 2,607 ft.4 Since 11 September 2001 the airport has lain inside the Flight Restricted Zone, a circle of about 15 nautical miles around Washington National where general aviation is normally not allowed at all.5 College Park, Potomac Airfield and Washington Executive/Hyde Field, the "Maryland Three", are the exceptions. A pilot who wants to fly from them must complete the FAA's Special Flight Rules Area course, be fingerprinted, pass a TSA security threat assessment and criminal history check, and receive a personal identification code, given over the telephone. Every arrival and departure needs a flight plan, which Washington Center accepts only after verifying the code.67 The oldest airport in the world, by its own account, is also one of the hardest to fly into.

Fuhlsbüttel

HAMHamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport DE · 16 M / 53 FT · RWY 3,666 M / 12,028 FTHamburger Luftschiffhallen GmbH was founded on 10 January 1911; the airship hangar and the first airships came in 1912, scheduled flights in 1920. Still on its original site.

Hamburg's airport was founded for airships. The Hamburger Luftschiffhallen GmbH was established on 10 January 1911, with private money, to build a hangar for two Zeppelins on some 45 hectares of grassland near the village of Fuhlsbüttel. The hangar opened in 1912, and the first airships flew from the site that year. The airport's own history says "the awkward Zeppelins were soon supplanted by the first aeroplanes"; scheduled flights began in 1920, to Berlin, Amsterdam and Sylt, and KLM's Rotterdam–Amsterdam–Hamburg–Copenhagen route brought the city its first international service the same year. The count for 1920 was 241 passengers.89

The airport's claim is worded carefully: "one of the world's oldest commercial airports and the oldest international airport in Germany", and "one of the oldest international commercial airports in the world, and it is still located at the original site".89 That last part is the point. Berlin's Tempelhof opened in 1923 and closed in 2008; Fuhlsbüttel is where it was in 1911, with the city grown around it and 14.8 million passengers a year passing through.10

The register dates Hamburg to 1912, not 1911. Wikidata records both an inception year of 1911 and an official opening in January 1912, and the register takes the opening date when there is one.10

Shoreham

ESHBrighton City Airport GB · 2 M / 7 FT · RWY 1,032 M / 3,385 FTHarold Piffard flew from the site in 1910; the aerodrome opened officially on 20 June 1911. The 1936 terminal is still in use.

The third claim comes from the Sussex coast. Harold Piffard made his first flights from grazing land by the River Adur in 1910, and the aerodrome opened officially on 20 June 1911. The National Transport Trust calls it "Britain's oldest airport, opened 1910, and the first purpose-built commercial airport in the world". Its art deco terminal, opened on 13 June 1936, is listed Grade II* and is still the terminal.11 The register lists it under its present name, Brighton City Airport, at 1910.

What "oldest" means

College Park counts from the first flying lessons on the field. Hamburg counts from the founding of a company that built a shed for airships. Shoreham counts from one man's flights over a meadow. Each is honest, and each would lose under the others' rules.

The register keeps a single field, opened_year, which comes mostly from Wikidata and in turn from Wikipedia, and it inherits every one of these ambiguities. The top of the Oldest airports still open collection shows it.10 Cannes-Mandelieu is listed at 1905, and the airport's own history does say "the first flights in Siagne Valley go back to the year 1905", but the airport at its present site was completed in 1930.12 Shanghai Hongqiao is at 1907 because the district government dates its origin to a military airfield built that year; it became an international civil airport in 1963.13 Toussus-le-Noble, also 1907, is the one early date that does mark an aerodrome: the commune dates it to that year, when Robert Esnault-Pelterie flew there.14 Farnborough, 1908, is the year Samuel Cody made the first recognised powered flight in Britain there, on 16 October, over about 425 m; civil flying there began only in 1989.1516

The 1909 entries are the least reliable. Blackpool's date is the Aviation Week of 18 to 23 October 1909, the first officially recognised flying meeting in Britain, held on a temporary ground at Squires Gate; the site was a racecourse and then a hospital before it became an aerodrome, and the town's first aerodrome opened at Stanley Park in 1931.17 Malpensa's 1909 does not match the airport's own history, which begins with the Caproni brothers' first flight on 27 May 1910 and dates the civil airport to 1948.18 These dates mark a first flight, not the opening of an airport, and in Blackpool's case not even the same ground.

College Park itself is not in the collection. It is limited to open airports of large and medium size, and College Park, with 908 m of runway and no scheduled service, is classed as small. Its 1909 is on its data page, and it stands in the History timeline for that year.10

Follow the years

The History timeline lays the register's openings, closures and renamings out year by year. On the page for 1909, College Park, Blackpool and the Italian military fields at Cameri, Ghedi and Brescia sit side by side, first flights next to first garrisons. Renamings have a piece of their own, What's in a name.

Sources

  1. National Park Service, College Park Airport: Wilbur Wright's instruction from 8 October to 2 November 1909, 55 flights, Humphreys and Lahm, Foulois's arrival, the first woman passenger on 27 October 1909. 2

  2. College Park Aviation Museum (Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission), College Park Airport history: the list of firsts, the airmail service of 12 August 1918 and the wording "the world's oldest continuously operating airport since 1909". 2

  3. National Register of Historic Places, reference 77001522, listed 23 September 1977, as recorded in College Park Airport, English Wikipedia. The museum's page gives the same year.

  4. FAA, airport data for CGS, College Park, effective 3 September 2026: runway 15/33, 2,980 × 60 ft, asphalt; elevation 48.9 ft; owner the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission; compliance with 14 CFR 93.335 required. The 2,607 ft figure is from AOPA Pilot, "Airports: College Park Airport, Maryland", September 2019.

  5. FAA, Restricted Airspace, 10 April 2025: the FRZ extends about 15 nautical miles around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and has been in effect since 11 September 2001; the SFRA around it has a radius of about 30 nautical miles.

  6. 14 CFR § 93.343, requirements for flight operations to or from College Park Airport, Potomac Airfield or Washington Executive/Hyde Field: TSA security rules under 49 CFR part 1562, a flight plan for each departure and arrival, and the pilot identification code verified by Washington Center.

  7. Department of Homeland Security, Maryland Three (MD-3) Airports, 20 February 2009: TSA's security threat assessments and fingerprint-based criminal history checks. AOPA, "FAA, TSA streamline Maryland Three airports access policy", 4 August 2016, and "Flying in the Washington DC FRZ", 7 February 2022: the SFRA course, fingerprinting, the PIN given by telephone.

  8. Hamburg Airport, "Our history: 111 years of Hamburg Airport": founded 10 January 1911, the airship hangar of 1912, first scheduled flights in 1920, and the wording "one of the world's oldest commercial airports and the oldest international airport in Germany". 2

  9. Hamburg Airport, "An eventful history stretching back more than a century": Hamburger Luftschiffhallen GmbH, the 45-hectare site at Fuhlsbüttel, first airships in 1912, KLM's route of 1920, 241 passengers that year, and the wording "still located at the original site". 2

  10. Dromopedia register: Oldest airports still open, open airports of large and medium size ranked by opened_year. Opening dates come from Wikidata; where Wikidata gives both an inception date and an official opening date, as for Hamburg (1911 and January 1912), the register uses the opening. Hamburg's passengers, 14,770,495 in 2025, are from Eurostat; College Park's runway is from the FAA; Tempelhof's years are on its data page. Data pages: College Park, Hamburg, Shoreham. 2 3 4

  11. National Transport Trust, Shoreham Airport: Piffard's flights in 1910, the official opening on 20 June 1911, the terminal of 13 June 1936 by Stavers Tiltman, Grade II* listed.

  12. Aéroport Cannes Mandelieu, History: first flights in the Siagne valley in 1905, the airport completed at its present site in 1930, state airport from 1937.

  13. Changning District People's Government, Development since reform and opening-up, 16 December 2021: "first built in 1907 as a military airport", expanded to an international airport in 1963.

  14. Mairie de Toussus-le-Noble, L'aérodrome de Toussus-le-Noble: "créé en 1907", Esnault-Pelterie and the Farman brothers, the flying school (in French).

  15. Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, Cody Flyer project: history: British Army Aeroplane No 1, first recognised powered and sustained flight in the United Kingdom, 16 October 1908, about 425 m.

  16. Farnborough Aerodrome Consultative Committee, Airport history: Cody's flight of 16 October 1908, first civil operations in 1989, TAG's 99-year lease from 2003.

  17. Blackpool Airport, History of Blackpool Airport: the meeting of 18 to 23 October 1909 at Squires Gate, the aerodrome at Stanley Park opened in 1931, Squires Gate rebuilt in 1949. On the meeting itself, Blackpool Aviation Week 1909, English Wikipedia, with its contemporary sources.

  18. MXP Airport, "Breve storia di Malpensa": the Caproni Ca.1 took off from the Malpensa plain for the first time on 27 May 1910; the Società Aeroporto di Busto Arsizio was formed on 22 May 1948 and the first commercial aircraft landed on 21 November 1948 (in Italian).

Codes, elevations and runway lengths in the airport cards are from the Dromopedia register, built from FAA NASR and OurAirports. Each entry’s data page names the source of every field; see also About the data.