Foundation and early years

The first passenger airport in Olsztyn Area was Olsztyn-Dajtki airport that served flights to Bydgoszcz, Warszawa, Gdańsk and Berlin from 1926 until 1958. Despite the eventual cessation of scheduled services between the aforementioned destinations, the airport is still operational as a flight school and general aviation airfield.

The airfield in Szymany originates from 1933. Back then it was located in Germany, just kilometres away from the Polish border. Being hidden within the woods, the airfield could be used as a temporary facility during the war. It was used this way in 1939 during the invasion in Poland.

In 1945, the small airfield was in the hands of the Soviet army. As they were not interested in the facility, they left it in autumn 1945. The former field held a 1200m by 60m (3937 ft by 197 ft) runway, of which the remains still remain clearly distinguishable near the current field as a large, rectangular clearing in the neighbouring forest. Now located in Poland, the Polish army acquired it. In the 1950s and 1960s it was expanded and assigned as backup airport. It was developed on a low stage for many years, in the second half of the 1970s it received a control tower and further buildings.

In the 1990s, when the cold war had ended, the airfield in Szymany lost its importance and was finally left.

Passenger operations from 1996 to 2003

In the 1990s, the airport readied to also handle passenger flights. To allow this, a civil airport operator was established in January 1996. A first civil aircraft landed in June 1996, an ATR turboprop aircraft operated by state-owned LOT Polish Airlines To serve these flights a small passenger terminal was opened and operated.

The majority of passenger flights to land in Szymany were charter flights from German destinations like Cologne, Dortmund, Hannover and Stuttgart. The flights were sporadic during the summer months.

The civil operator was owned through various municipal governments and state companies. It was not very successful and made very high losses. In 2003, passenger flights came to an end. The company ended its activity in 2004 with 3 million Zloty in debts.

In 2005, Szymany airport officials were in talks with Ryanair about launching flights from Szymany from 2006 on. The low-cost airline planned to connect Szymany with London and Germany using its Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The resumption of flights would have required renovation and expansion of terminal facilities and the runway, costing some five to six million Polish Zloty. The conferences to open the airport stalled, however, and as a result the airfield was left as it was, without any client/operator running flights to the airfield, save for the occasional business flight.

Involvement in CIA operations

The airport gained attention in the press in 2005, when it was alleged to have a connection with a so-called black site involved in the CIA's network of extraordinary renditions. Terrorist suspects were to be secretly held, and even tortured, in violation of Polish law, by the CIA. Flight records show that an airplane leased by the CIA flying from Kabul to Guantanamo Bay made a stop in Szymany. Officials from the airport have confirmed that some of these flights bypassed normal customs-clearing procedures, and that during the time of these landings, the airport regularly received visits by cars bearing markings associated with the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training school outside the nearby village of Stare Kiejkuty.

As recently as November, 2006, the European Parliament investigative commission led by Claudio Fava had been told, when asked for the flight logs of 11 specific flights observed to have transited through Szymany, that "[the records] have [not] been retained, have been faxed and destroyed, and finally said to have been saved in an unspecified place." The commission report also quotes Szymany officials as confirming six occasions in 2002 and 2003 when Gulfstream jets bearing civilian registration numbers had landed at the airport, bypassing customs clearance. Airport officials had been directly ordered not to approach the aircraft, and vehicles bearing military registration numbers affiliated with the nearby base at Stare Kiejkuty awaited the arrival of each aircraft.

In June 2008 a New York Times article claimed, citing unnamed CIA officers, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was held in a secret facility in Poland near Szymany Airport and it was there that he was interrogated and waterboarded before beginning to cooperate.

In February 2010 Polish officials recanted previous denials, and admitted that at least six CIA flights passed through Szymany in 2003.

Reconstruction as international passenger airport

Following several quiet years, ideas again come up to reconstruct the airport in order to resume passenger services. By the end of 2013, plans became very substantial. An investment of 200 million was planned that included extension and renovation of the runway from 2000 to 2500 metres, aprons, taxiways and a brand new terminal. 76 percent of the investment could be funded by the European Union with local government paying the remainder.