The history of Debrecen Airport goes back to the early 20th Century. The first official regular flight carrying mail took off in 1930. Subsequently, the airport served sport and military purposes. From 1930, it had remarkable domestic traffic serving flights from Debrecen to Budapest and to other major cities in Hungary. During World War II it was the base of a Hungarian bombing squad. Between 1946 and 1968, Debrecen Airport functioned also as an emergency airfield for Budapest Airport. Following World War II, the Soviet air force had control over the airport until 1990. One of the last Soviet units at the airfield appears to have been the 727th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment, which left in 1987. The political transition brought the revival of the airport and international civilian traffic was launched together with sports aviation. In May 1991, Soviet troops vacated the airport and handed it over to the Hungarian government. In 1994, the Debrecen Municipal Government realized the need to develop the airport and included it in its development plan. The city purchased the airport and has been steadily developing it. By 2004, the city of Debrecen had invested 3.5 billion forints to purchase, operate, and continually develop Debrecen Airport. On 18 June 2012, Wizz Air launched its scheduled service between Debrecen and London-Luton, initially with 3 weekly flights. In 2012–2013, Tatarstan Airlines operated a bi-weekly flight to Moscow-Domodedovo. After the disaster of Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 which forced Tatarstan Airlines into bankruptcy, the route was taken over by UTair Aviation. In 2014, due to souring Russia–European Union relations, a number of punitive sanctions were implemented vice versa that forced UTair to cancel the flight. In 2015, Wizz Air established a cadet pilot school at the airport under the company Pharma-Flight Kft which also researches and produces pharmaceutical products for flight staff. Wizz Air in 2015 announced they would base one Airbus A320 at Debrecen. The construction of a new "innovation and incubation centre" at the airport which would host the new terminal on its ground floor began in June 2015. and scheduled to open in 2017. In July 2024, Wizz Air announced it would close its Debrecen base by October 2024, leading to the cancellation of most routes.