Memmingen

Memmingen Airport is a small, low-cost hub in southern Germany. Often marketed as Munich West or Allgäu Airport, it is nowhere near Munich. Instead, it sits in Swabia, making it a much quieter and often cheaper alternative for skiers driving south into the Austrian Arlberg or the local Bavarian Alps.

Regional layout & geography

The airfield is located in Memmingerberg, about 4.5 kilometres southeast of Memmingen town. At 633 metres above sea level, it is Germany’s highest commercial airport. Because it sits on the flat Swabian plateau rather than deep inside a mountain valley, it rarely suffers from the severe alpine weather that can shut down Innsbruck. Fog can occasionally be an issue in late autumn, but winter operations are generally stable. The site started as a military base in the 1930s. During the Cold War, it housed the German Air Force’s Jagdbombergeschwader 34 fighter-bomber wing. When the military left in 2003, local business owners bought the site and switched it to civilian flights in 2004. They kept the heavy-duty 2,981-metre runway, which easily handles the Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s used by budget airlines. The airport’s main advantage is the road network outside its front door. It sits right by the Memmingen motorway interchange where the A7 (running north to south) meets the A96 (running east to west). This means you can get off a flight, get into a car, and drive straight south towards Austria without ever touching Munich’s notorious ring road traffic. The A7 takes you directly down to the Allgäu Alps, while the A96 points you towards Lake Constance and the Austrian border. Because of this road access, Memmingen draws passengers from across Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, and eastern Switzerland. For winter sports, it cuts the driving time to major ski domains significantly compared to flying into larger German hubs. You avoid the massive crowds of Munich Airport and the complex mountain approaches of Innsbruck.

Terminals & passenger flow

Memmingen has one compact passenger terminal. The distances are incredibly short – you can walk from the front door to the security queue in under a minute. The building is split across two levels to separate the landside desks from the departure gates. It feels more like a large regional bus station than an international airport, which is exactly why it works so well for quick weekend ski trips. On the ground floor, you will find check-in desks numbered 1 through 10. Since almost everyone flying through Memmingen uses low-cost carriers, these desks are mostly just for dropping off hold luggage and ski bags. The arrivals hall is right in the middle of the same floor. It has a basic baggage reclaim area that spits you out directly next to the exit doors and the rental car offices. To reach the departure lounge, you go upstairs to clear security. The queues move steadily, though they do bottleneck on Saturday mornings in February when several ski flights are scheduled to leave at once. If you hate waiting, you can book a Fast Track security ticket online for a few euros to skip the main line. Once through, the departure hall splits into Schengen and non-Schengen zones. There are no airbridges here. When your gate opens, you either walk across the tarmac to the plane or cram into a shuttle bus for a 30-second ride to a remote stand. The airport expanded the arrivals hall and added new baggage carousels in 2021 to handle the growing crowds. They are currently working on enlarging the upstairs departure gates, which can feel claustrophobic when multiple flights are delayed.
FacilityLocationDetails
Check-in & Baggage dropGround floorDesks 1–10, typically opening 2 hours before departure
Security controlUpper floorFast Track access available to book online
Departure gatesUpper floorSplit into Schengen and non-Schengen zones; apron boarding
Arrivals & ReclaimGround floorCentral location with direct exit to parking

Winter airlines & connectivity

Ryanair and Wizz Air run almost everything at Memmingen. This duopoly pushed the airport to a record 3.7 million passengers in 2025. During the winter, the two airlines fly to around 50 destinations across Europe, North Africa, and the Caucasus. Ryanair uses Memmingen as a base and keeps several aircraft parked there overnight. Their winter schedule leans heavily on bringing British and Irish skiers into the Alps, with busy routes from London Stansted, Dublin, and Manchester. They also run outbound flights taking Germans to Spain and the Canary Islands for winter sun. Wizz Air focuses entirely on Eastern Europe and the Balkans. They run high-frequency routes to Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania, including capitals like Bucharest, Sofia, and Belgrade. While these flights are largely driven by the labour market and people visiting family, they also bring a steady stream of Eastern European skiers into the region. You might occasionally see a Eurowings or GP Aviation plane, but the old days of TUIfly and Air Berlin operating here are long gone. During the Christmas and February school holidays, Ryanair and Wizz Air add dozens of extra flights, which pushes the small terminal to its absolute limit. If you are flying on a Saturday in February, expect the terminal to be packed with people in ski jackets.

Into Memmingen city

There is no train station at the airport. Instead, the Memmingen Airport City Shuttle runs a bus between the terminal and the Memmingen railway station. The 4.5-kilometre trip takes about 10 minutes, and the timetable is generally synced with the flight schedule. You buy tickets directly from the driver. From the Memmingen station, you can catch regional express trains to Munich in about an hour and fifteen minutes. Other lines run north to Ulm or south into the Allgäu Alps. If you are heading to Austria, you can connect through Lindau on the shores of Lake Constance. Taxis wait right outside the arrivals hall. A cab into town is cheap and makes sense if you have heavy ski bags or arrive late at night when the buses thin out. Memmingen itself has a preserved medieval centre and plenty of Bavarian taverns, making it a decent place to spend the night if you want to delay the drive into the mountains until morning.

Baggage, skis & special items

Flying with skis on Ryanair or Wizz Air means following strict rules. You must book your sports equipment online in advance; paying the oversized baggage fee at the desk on the day of your flight is punishingly expensive. Both airlines usually cap sports equipment at 20 kg, so do not pack your ski bag with heavy clothes unless you want to pay excess weight fees. When you depart, you take your ski bags to the standard check-in desks to get them weighed and tagged. After that, you carry them to a dedicated oversized baggage drop at the far end of the hall. Pack your gear well. The ground crew handles these bags manually, and they do not treat them gently. A hard-shell case or a heavily padded bag is essential. When you arrive, do not wait by the normal luggage carousels for your skis. Oversized items are brought to a separate door in the arrivals hall. Because the room is small, you usually spot your gear immediately. Grab a trolley from the reclaim area – you will need it to haul your boot bags out to the car park.

Parking & airside facilities

All parking at Memmingen is above ground and within walking distance of the terminal. The P1 “Kiss & Fly” zone is directly opposite the front doors. You get 10 minutes of free parking here, which is just enough time to throw your bags out of the boot and say goodbye. If you overstay the 10 minutes, the fees ramp up aggressively. If you need to leave a car for the week, you use P2, P3, or P4. The further you walk, the cheaper it gets. The airport uses licence plate cameras at the barriers, so if you book online, the gate just opens when you drive up. You absolutely need to book parking in advance during the ski season, or you risk finding the cheaper lots completely full. They are currently planning a multi-storey garage with 1,800 spaces to deal with the overflow. Inside the terminal, the facilities cover the basics. Before security, there is a bakery and the rental car desks (including Sixt, Hertz, and Europcar). After security, you walk through a standard duty-free shop to reach a small café selling coffee and sandwiches. Seating is scarce when two or three flights are boarding at once, so many people end up sitting on the floor near their gate. The airport is currently pushing a “Green Airport” project, aiming to run entirely climate-neutral operations by 2030. They have covered the roofs in solar panels and are slowly replacing the baggage tugs and apron vehicles with electric models.

Alpine destinations within reach

Memmingen is a highly practical airport for reaching the Austrian border. Because you are already south of Munich, you skip the worst of the Bavarian motorway traffic. The closest major skiing is in the German Allgäu region – you can drive south on the A7 to Oberstdorf in just over an hour. For the bigger Austrian resorts in Vorarlberg and Tyrol, Memmingen is highly competitive. You take the A96 west towards Lake Constance, cross into Austria, and follow the A14 through the Pfänder Tunnel. Under good driving conditions, you can reach the Arlberg area (St. Anton, Lech, and Zürs) in about 2 to 2½ hours. The Paznaun valley resorts like Ischgl, and the Ötztal resorts like Sölden, take roughly the same amount of time. The drive is generally straightforward, mostly on motorways and well-maintained alpine roads, though heavy snow can slow things down once you leave the main valleys.
DestinationRoad distance
Oberstdorf80 km
Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis155 km
Lech am Arlberg161 km
St. Anton am Arlberg175 km
Ischgl180 km
Sölden182 km

See also

External links

Written by the Alps2Alps editorial team.

This guide is published by Alps2Alps for general information only. It is not affiliated with Wikipedia or any resort, airport, or lift operator. Facts were accurate at the time of writing; always check official sources before travel.