The first passenger flights in Gda?sk were operated in the year 1919 from an airfield in the Langfuhr district of the Free City of Danzig (now the Wrzeszcz district of Gda?sk). It was possible thanks to a transformation of that military location into a civilian facility. The airport was at that time additionally used for airmail services and by the police. In the next years, the airport continued acquisitions of further areas which allowed it to expand and invest in modern infrastructure. The technical development of Gdansk Wrzeszcz Airport (Danzig-Langfuhr Airport) was followed by the launching of regular routes to Warsaw, Berlin, Moscow, Königsberg and other important cities of the region. The flights were operated by numerous international aviation companies. The first Polish route was served between Gda?sk, Warsaw and Lviv by Aerolloyd beginning in September 1922. The company initially used Junkers F.13 aircraft on that route. This domestic service was the beginning of the company which later became LOT Polish Airlines, which is still Poland's national carrier. As the airport facilities became outdated at the end of the 1960s (including runway lights which forced airport authorities to impose a ban on overnight flights), a new location near the village of R?biechowo was chosen. The airport had to be built somewhere else also because of further urban development. New areas were needed in order to make it possible for the public investors to construct new buildings for the growing population of Gda?sk. Furthermore, a new, longer runway was necessary in order to allow larger jet airliners to take off and land safely as the era of modern jet aircraft began. The old airport in Wrzeszcz was officially closed on 1 May 1974, and a large housing estate was built on its grounds. Nowadays, only a few remaining elements of the old Wrzeszcz airport infrastructure can be found, including remnants of its main north–south oriented runway in what is now the Zaspa district. After the closure of the old airport, the new one was built, and it opened in 1974 near the village of R?biechowo (on westernmost land incorporated into the Gda?sk borough of Matarnia in 1973). The airport acquired its current name in 2004. There was some controversy as to whether the name should be spelled Lech Walesa (without diacritics, but better recognisable in the world) or Lech Wa??sa (with Polish letters, but difficult to write and pronounce for foreigners, the closest English phonetic approximation being "Vawensa"). Since 1993, Gda?sk Airport has been owned 31.45% by the authorities of Pomeranian Voivodeship, 29.45% by the city of Gda?sk, 1.14% by the city of Gdynia, 0.35% by the city of Sopot and 37.61% by Polish Airports State Enterprise. In 2006, the airport served for the first time in its history more than 1 million passengers per year. In 2010, the passengers numbers exceeded 2 million. After the construction of a new modern passenger terminal with extended capacities (the opening took place in April 2012 ahead of the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships), the airport continued its development and it served for the first time over 3 million passengers in a single year in 2014. In summer 2015, airlines flying to and from the airport served over 50 regular routes as well as charter and cargo flights.