In 1933, the
Blohm & Voss shipbuilding company in
Hamburg decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all-metal, long-range
flying boats, especially with the German state airline
Deutsche Luft Hansa. It also felt that its experience with all-metal marine construction would prove an advantage. In order to do this, it created the
Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) as a
subsidiary company. Initially manufacturing was carried out at the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding works, with an inland airfield and final assembly building for landplanes at
Wenzendorf Aircraft Factory. In 1937, the HFB was reconstituted as a operating division of Blohm & Voss rather than as a separate company, and the Finkenwerder aircraft works and associated airfield were established in 1939 by this division. The works were substantially damaged during
World War II, and when manufacturing was revived there, using the previous HFB company identity, the facilities began a long series of progressive expansions and modernizations. The foundations of the
Fink II submarine pen are still extant, just east of the north end of the runway. During the
Berlin Airlift, detachments from both
No. 201 Squadron RAF and
No. 230 Squadron RAF flew
Short Sunderland V's. In 1964, both the
HFB 320 Hansa Jet and the third prototype
Transall C-160 made their first flights from the airport. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, HFB and its Finkenwerder facility eventually became part of
Airbus. Between April 2006 and July 2007, the runway was extended at the southern end, increasing its length from 2,684 m to 3,183 m, in order to accommodate the then planned freight version of the
Airbus A380. Airbus offers factory tours. There is also a visitor terrace, overlooking the runway, at . ==Manufacturing==