Pre-World War II Plans for an airport in southern
Limburg date back as far as 1919, with various locations being considered. Years of debate among various municipalities over the location and funding of the airport delayed its construction. In July 1939, the Limburg provincial government agreed to financially back the airport, however, the start of World War II meant the plans were put on hold once more.
Advanced Landing Ground Y-44 After the allied
invasion of Normandy, the
USAAF Ninth Air Force, specifically the IX Engineer Command, was tasked with constructing temporary airfields close to the advancing
front. The area around Maastricht was liberated in 1944. In October 1944, the advance headquarters of the XIX Tactical Air Command and the 84th and 303rd Fighter Wings were moved to
Maastricht to keep up with the Ninth Army. Because of the proximity to the new headquarters, the decision was made to create a temporary airfield between the towns of
Beek,
Geulle and
Ulestraten. Several
orchards which had suffered damage from a tank battle were commandeered and cleared. Rubble from the nearby town of
Geleen, which had been unintentionally bombed in 1942, was used to level the area. The runway was and reinforced with
pierced steel planks. The field was built in less than 2 months and was operational on 22 March 1945, and was designated Y-44. The first unit to be based at the field was the 31st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, flying the F-6, a reconnaissance version of the
P-51 Mustang. The unit arrived on 22 March 1945. As
Nazi Germany was rapidly collapsing, the front was already well into Germany by the time the field was ready, and no direct combat sorties were operated from Y-44. 31st TRS was moved to
Y-80 near Wiesbaden on 19 April 1945.
Units operating at the field • 31st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron,
North American F-6 Mustang (22 March 1945) •
387th Bombardment Group (Medium) • 556, 557, 558 and 559th Squadrons,
Martin B-26 Marauder (4 May 1945)
After World War II Authority over what was to become known as Beek airfield (
vliegveld Beek), was officially transferred to the Dutch government on 1 August 1945. It was decided to keep it open rather than re-open the pre-war debate over the location of an airport in the Maastricht area. The first civilian aircraft landed on 26 September 1945 and were operated by the
Regeeringsvliegdienst, a government service with the purpose of carrying government officials and other people with urgent business, because the war had left many roads and railroads heavily damaged. The service used six
de Havilland Dragon Rapides made available by the British government. In 1946, the service was taken over by
KLM, using
Douglas DC-3 Dakotas. However, as repairs to the Dutch infrastructure progressed, demand for the service dropped and it was stopped in 1949. The first semi-permanent
airport terminal was completed in 1947. Runway 04/22 was lengthened to 1,850 m (6,070 ft), and permanent runway lighting was installed in 1960.
1950s and 1960s The late 1950s and early 1960s brought significant expansion in commercial operations at the airport. Operators included
KLM, Airnautical, Skytours,
Euravia,
Tradair and
Transair. The airport was also used as an intermediate stop for services from London and Manchester to Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia. A local airline based at the airport,
Limburg Airways, had a contract with the
International Herald Tribune for distributing the newspaper's European edition, which was printed in Paris. Limburg Airways was taken over by Martin's Air Charter (now
Martinair) in 1962. A promotion campaign by the Dutch tourist board for the nearby town of
Valkenburg aan de Geul, aimed at British tourists, was highly successful and brought services by
Invicta Airlines,
Britannia and
Channel Airways. Domestic travel picked up as well, and newly created
NLM CityHopper started to operate a service between Maastricht and
Amsterdam Schiphol in 1966. The service would continue after KLM acquired NLM in 1992, and would last until 2008. When it was cancelled, it was the last remaining domestic service in the Netherlands. An
ILS system, which allows landings in poor weather, was built in 1967, for runway 22 only.
1970s In 1973, the airport was expanded again to handle bigger aircraft. The main runway was lengthened to 2500 m (8,200 ft), taxiways were widened, and aprons were enlarged. This mostly offset the negative effects of the
1973 oil crisis, passenger volume remained the same and cargo operations expanded. The international air traffic control
area control centre for
EUROCONTROL was built at the airport. It started operations on March 1, 1972.
1980s Around 1980, the airport changed its name to "Maastricht Airport". In 1983, the aging passenger terminal and air traffic control tower were replaced by new buildings The new terminal was later expanded and is still in use as of 2010. On 14 May 1985,
Pope John Paul II held an open-air mass for 50,000 people at the airport, as part of his visit to the Netherlands.
Plan for an east–west runway In 1981, a development plan for the airport recommended constructing a 3,500m east–west runway to facilitate growth in cargo operations, particularly during the night hours. The new runway would greatly reduce noise impact over the towns of
Beek,
Meerssen and the city of
Maastricht. Although some night operations are allowed (including distribution of the European edition of
The Wall Street Journal), runway length limits intercontinental operations. The Dutch government initially approved plans for the runway in 1985, however, the new runway would mean increased noise over other towns and parts of Belgium as well, and the final decision was delayed. As the new east–west runway would require substantial investment, it would only be profitable if night operations were permitted and increasingly the debate became focused on whether or not night flights should be allowed. Successive cabinets could not reach a final decision, and in 1998, after some 25 years of debate and postponement, the plan was aborted altogether.
1990–2009 In 1992, the Belgian town of Tongeren became shareholder of the airport. Two years later, the board of trade or chamber of commerce of the nearby German city of
Aachen became shareholder. This interest eventually became prominent and in October 1994 the airport's name was changed to "Maastricht-Aachen Airport". In July 2004, a 100% share in the airport was acquired by OmDV, a consortium of airport investment company
Omniport and the construction company
Dura Vermeer, making it the first fully privatised airport in the Netherlands. Substantial investments in the airport infrastructure have been made since the privatization. Between August and October 2005, the runway was resurfaced and renamed to 03/21 (from 04/22) to compensate for changes in the
Earth's magnetic field. The airport originally had two runways; the second (shorter, ) runway (07/25) was closed and removed to make room for a new cargo
terminal and additional aircraft maintenance facilities. Construction of the new facilities started in April 2008. On 7 May 2005,
Air Force One carrying US president
George W. Bush landed at the airport. Bush visited the
Netherlands American Cemetery in nearby
Margraten the next day. The
instrument landing system (ILS) for runway 21 was upgraded to category III in 2008, which allows landings in very low visibility conditions.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the only other airport in the Netherlands that has category III ILS.
2010s In March 2011, the airport was certified to handle the upcoming
Boeing 747-8, as two of the airport's major airlines—
Cargolux and
AirBridge Cargo—have placed orders for this aircraft. Ryanair announced on July 3, 2012, that Maastricht will become a new Ryanair base from December 2012, the first on Dutch soil, with one
Boeing 737-800 being based at the airport and three new routes being launched:
Dublin,
London-Stansted and
Treviso. In October of the same year, German low-cost airline
Germanwings ended its flights to
Berlin after already halving its flights a year prior. In the same month, start-up Dutch airline,
Maastricht Airlines, announced plans to base six
Fokker 50 aircraft at the airport, initially operating to
Berlin,
Munich, and
Amsterdam, before adding
Copenhagen,
Paris Charles de Gaulle and
Southend in 2014. This did not happen and the company declared bankruptcy. In December 2013, a spokesperson of the airport confirmed the closure of the Ryanair base from March 2014, entailing the ending of the
Bergamo,
Brive,
Dublin,
London-Stansted and
Málaga flights. Also in 2013, the airport was helped by the province with a 4.5 million euro contribution. The airport was very close to bankruptcy during this period. Later on, in March 2014, the same province of Limburg believed that closure was never an option. They decided that they would like to take over the airport. In late 2015, also
Transavia announced they would not return to Maastricht in the summer of 2016, at the same time
Vueling announced a new route to
Barcelona, however, this latter route was only short-lived.
2020s Following a record-breaking year in 2019 with 435,977 passengers, the pandemic abruptly ended the airport's positive trend. In the years after the pandemic, passenger traffic never recovered to the pre-pandemic level, and while cargo throughput remained relatively stable, a sharp drop occurred after 2022 without recovery in the years following. In 2023, the
Royal Schiphol Group acquired 40% of the shares in the airport from the
Province of Limburg. This strategic acquisition followed a vote by the
Provincial Council of Limburg on whether to close the airport or not in November 2022. Another major setback for the airport came in June 2025, when Ryanair announced that it would be ending its operations on October 26 due to rising costs at the airport. Resulting in the termination of all flights to
Alicante,
Bari,
Girona,
Porto, and
Zadar. This was a significant loss for the airport, as the low-cost airline was the airport's largest customer, accounting for the majority of all passenger traffic. A few months later, in September 2025, also
Corendon Dutch Airlines announced it would not be returning to Maastricht and would focus on nearby airports in Belgium and Germany instead. As a reason, the airline stated it had been unsuccessful in attracting German passengers to Maastricht, as well as the more attractive financial and operational conditions at nearby airports. As Ryanair and Corendon decided to leave the airport,
Wizz Air announced it would be returning to
Maastricht with flights to
Bucharest,
Chișinău,
Katowice,
Lublin,
Podgorica and
Tuzla. However, after several schedule revisions, only flights to
Tuzla commenced as planned, while flights to
Bucharest and
Chișinău were cancelled after they had already been postponed. The flights to
Katowice,
Lublin, and
Podgorica commenced as planned in March 2026. In March 2026, both
TUI fly Netherlands and
Transavia announced that they will temporarily move a significant number of flights from
Eindhoven Airport to Maastricht as the airport in Eindhoven will close for five months in February 2027 due to runway renovations. ==Aircraft movements==