It is christened in honor of Stuttgart's former mayor, Manfred Rommel , son of Erwin Rommel , [ 4 ] and is the sixth busiest airport in Germany with 11,, passengers having passed through its doors in The facility covers approximately hectares 1, acres , of which hectares are green space.
It is located approximately 13 km 8. In , the Messe Stuttgart convention center β the ninth biggest exhibition centre in Germany β moved to grounds directly next to the airport. In , the United States Army took over the airport until returning it to German authorities in For the duration of the Cold War the runway and facilities were shared with the United States Army who operated helicopters, the Grumman OV-1 Mohawk and other fixed wing aircraft as Echterdingen Army Airfield on the southern portion of the airfield.
The airport was expanded after World War II. The runway was extended to 1, m 5, ft in , then to 2, m 7, ft in and finally to 3, m 10, ft in Renovation was scheduled for , full closure phase was preponed to be completed in April during the corona lockdown. The original terminal was finally replaced in and there are now four terminals with a maximum capacity of approximately 12 million passengers.
Politicians, town planners and nearby residents have been arguing for years about the construction of a second runway. After the death of former mayor Manfred Rommel in November local politicians proposed renaming the airport after him.
In September , United Airlines cancelled their route to Stuttgart from Newark due to insufficient demand [ 17 ] leaving Stuttgart Airport with only one remaining long-haul connection to Atlanta provided by Delta Air Lines. In October , easyJet announced they would serve Stuttgart as their seventh German destination by March Air Berlin announced the start of a service to Abu Dhabi from December In July , Lauda announced the closure of their base at Stuttgart Airport β which has been operated as a wetlease for Ryanair β by October Prior to this announcement, the base staff rejected a new labour agreement.
