Early years

Air traffic used to take place at the Südbahnhofmarkt in the center of Linz where the zeppelin Estaric I took off on 30 October 1909. In 1925 air traffic was established between Linz and Vienna. Starting in 1934, the air traffic operation was based in the Linz-Katzenau district (nowadays industrial center), which was later terminated by the NSDAP after 1938. The airport was then moved to Hörsching.

The following table shows some of the units of the Luftwaffe (air force in Nazi Germany), which were deployed from 1943 to 1945.

Since 1956 regular passenger air traffic takes place. Since 1966 daily flight connections to Frankfurt Airport are available.

Development since the 1970s

In 1972 a passenger terminal was built and was officially opened in 1976. Since 1985 the flight path is equipped with an Instrument landing system, category IIIb. In the years 1998 to 2003 the passenger terminal was adjusted and enlarged. In 2005 a new instrument landing system (ILS) was put into operation at runway 08/26.

Until 1989 the supersonic jet Concorde landed several times at the airport. Since the 90s some cargo flights were dispatched by the high-capacity transporter Antonov An-124 Ruslan. In 2003 the world's largest cargo aircraft Antonov An-225 landed in Austria, and it returned once again in 2021. On 2 June 2010 a Lufthansa Airbus A380-800 landed at Linz Airport, coming from Vienna and left for Munich.

Amerer Air operated from Linz airport from 1995 until 2009 and was the only cargo company in Austria. In June 1994 the cargo terminal 1 was completed. In October 2013 the cargo terminal 5 was put into operation. 6 million euros were invested in the new cargo terminal.

With more than 100 companies, Linz Airport is the largest business park in Upper Austria. The Flughafen GmbH employs about 160 people.

According to a 2025 study by economist Teodoro Cocca of University Linz, the airport accounts for around 1,700 full-time jobs at the airport itself and across the surrounding region. The study was commissioned by the state of Upper Austria.

Linz Airport is the fifth largest airport in Austria by passenger numbers after Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz. The airport is a shared property. 50% belongs to Upper Austria state and 50% belongs to Linz city.

At the end of 2025, business representatives from Upper Austria proposed a model to take over the City of Linz’s shares in the airport, thereby partially privatizing it.

In February 2015, Austrian Airlines announced that they would reduce the domestic route between Linz and the capital Vienna from six down to two daily flights, as most travellers are expected to use the new and improved rail link between the two cities. Since the inauguration of the new rail services in December 2014, the direct journey from Linz central station to Vienna International Airport takes a mere 1:47 hours without change of trains. In September 2016, Austrian Airlines cut down the Linz-Vienna route again to only one flight per day and direction, stating extremely poor passenger numbers. Most travelers between Linz and Vienna now use the aforementioned rail link, as nearly one Railjet per hour departs for Vienna on which Austrian Airlines sells AirRail tickets as well.

Because of geopolitical crises and terrorist attacks in holiday destinations, the demand for package holiday has declined all over Europe. The blue danube airport noted a drop in the destinations of Egypt and Turkey. In cooperation with ARGE "Flieg from Linz", Ibiza and Burgas were therefore included in the summer program 2016 and Tenerife in the winter program. Due to an increasing demand, services to Greece and Egypt will be extended in 2018. Besides this, there will be direct flights to Rostock and Monastir again on a weekly basis starting from 2018.

In the first six months of 2018 the airport recorded a significant increase in numbers and a positive effect on passenger development. More than 200.000 passengers used Linz Airport for their trips. Compared to the first half of 2017, traveler traffic increased by 16.8%, which makes 30,879 passengers in total. The holiday travel segment grew by 42.2%.

The connections via Frankfurt raised as Lufthansa operates by larger aircraft. Palma de Mallorca has become accessible five times a week, twice by Eurowings and three times by Laudamotion. The airport was able to expand its offer towards the Baltic Sea, making it the only federal airport in Austria to offer this destination. Other newly popular destinations are Turkey, Egypt and Greece. Due to an entire airstrip lockdown of the Salzburg Airport from end of April until end of May 2019, the daily Salzburg-Istanbul flights from Turkish Airlines are going to be translocated to Linz. The operation of this field trial could result a regular flight connection between Linz and Istanbul.

In summer 2019 Bulgarian Air Charter had launched its premiere from Linz airport with destinations to Bulgaria and Greece. Due to new and future destinations, the number of seats in charter flights was to be increased by 20%, from 80,000 to 95,000 seats.