After much local resistance Allgäu Airport (FMM) (in german) will finally open for scheduled and charter flights on 28th June 2007. The inaugural flight of a Boeing 737-300 will be operated by TUIfly airline. €10 million is being invested between now and then to bring the airport up to the requisite standards - read more here (in german). Worthy of particular note:

• Parking costs: 5€ per day, €15 for a week, 30-minute no-charge pickup time
• Facilities: business lounge, Child play-area, Cafés

Initially, flights to the following destinations will be available: Berlin, Hamburg, Antalya, Crete, Mallorca, Naples and Venice. From today 18:00, tickets costing as little as €19,99 can be purchased for these destinations.
Detailed instructions on how to get to the airport can be found here (in german). Basically, it would take ca. 90 minutes from Munich centre by car. Hourly trains also run from Munich Hbf to Memmingen, journey-time approx 90minutes (and then, presumably it's a bus or taxi ride)
I understand that flights to the UK are also being planned - watch this space.
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More airspace gone

I havnt seen the latest ICAO maps but no doubt they will have a control zone.
The only consolation is that with relatively little airliner traffic there wont be
a huge chunck of airspace on top of the CTR...

@HEM - care to explain yourself?

And how long before it is rebranded "Munich-Allgäu" and Michael O'Loudmouth starts flight for €0.01* from Dublin and Stansted, despite the fact that its soooooo far away from Munich that France is probably closer to the terminal.

Answer - for Wies'n (at least thats my guess).

* plus taxes, airport fees, service charge and extortionate credit card handling fee

New destinations from this Winter to include Köln-Bonn, Fuerteventura, Las Palmas and Rome-Ciampino.

HEM fly's Gliders. With more and more airports like this, there is then less space for private people to fly.

I just looked this up on the ICAO map 2007 (Stuttgart).
Memmingen has a CTR (Control Zone) that goes up to 4500ft MSL supposedly inactive at weekends & holidays.
There is no "C" airspace on top - means outside the CTR "see & be seen" which also means a 737 would have to
give way to a glider - just as practical as an container ship giving way to a yacht on the river Elbe...

Doesnt actually affect me since when I go to schwäbische Alb on flying hols it rains we stay on the North side of the Danube.
It may affect those who fly into the Alps but usually one can obtain clearance through a CTR...

Would be nice to add a cheapo airport to Munich since Lufthansa generally demand a King's Ransom to go anywhere.

flights to Rome would be perfect for a Six Nations jaunt. Anyone ever been to Ciampino? is it easy to get to the city from there?

Sweet. Another option for me!!! Same distance as Munich Airport for me.

Last i read, Oberpfaffenhofen was set to become Munich's 2nd (Lowcost/Ghetto) Airport - Oberpfaffenhofen Airport - expansion

The completion of the Bavarian part of the A96 (the stretch between Memmingen-Ost and Erkheim is still single-carriageway) is scheduled for Summer 2008. This should reduce the drive-time to the airport from Munich centre to 75 minutes.

it is relatively expensive to fly from MUC, although the bonus is that it keeps the British stag parties away from Munich I guess

If they are going to do the UK would be nice to fly to somewhere else than Stanstead (Liverpool, Brummy or Bristol would be good.

I love Memmingen Airport!!

Seriously, I am really tired of all the long lines at Munich Airport, expensive parking rates, hassle with security and way to overpriced food courts.

At the Allgäu Aiport everything seems to be more relaxed and flying out from there is definetly more relaxing than Munich or Stuttgart.

Now, since I like the airport very much (did I mention this already ) I also created a private website for it which can be found under http://www.flughafenmemmingen.eu.

Now, I have heard some rumors that Ryan Air is considering using Memmingen Airportand there is definetly some talk going on about expanding the runway in order to accomodate bigger airplanes (currently it is only being used by Boeing 737-300). We'll see. However, I do recommend using the Allgäu Airport for everyone! *thumbs-up*

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