Malmö Bulltofta Airport ( sv, Malmö-Bulltofta flygplats; ) was the main airport for the city of

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...

, Sweden, from 1923 to 1972. Located in the Malmö city district of

Kirseberg Kirseberg (literally "Cherry hill") was a city district ( sv, stadsdel) in the north of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with Centrum, forming Norr. In 2012, Kirseberg had a population of 14,959 of the municipality's ...

, the area has since been converted into a major park and commercial development, and this part of Sweden is now served by

Malmö Airport Malmö Airport, until 2007 known as ''Sturup Airport'' ( sv, Sturups flygplats) is Sweden's fourth busiest airport, handling 1,975,479 passengers in 2019. The airport is located in Svedala Municipality, approximately east of Malmö and south ...

, and

Copenhagen Airport Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup ( da, Københavns Lufthavn, Kastrup, ; ) is an international airport serving Copenhagen, Denmark, Zealand, the Øresund Region, and southern Sweden including Scania. It is the second largest airport in the Nordic ...

, Denmark. Bulltofta airport's history began in 1914, when the Bulltofta heath was the site of a 3-team ballooning competition. Plans to develop the airport began in 1917 and construction was completed in 1923. Service began in 1924 with the routes Malmö–Copenhagen, the world's shortest, and Malmö–

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

(Germany). During the 1930s, Bulltofta became an important European airport, with flights to Great Britain, France and the Netherlands. This, despite the runways remaining unpaved until 1952. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the airfield served as the base for the

Scania Wing Scania Wing ( sv, Skånska flygflottiljen), also F 10 Ängelholm, or simply F 10, is a former Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located in southernmost Sweden. History The tenth wing initially started as a detachment located at Svea Win ...

(F 10), whose main task was to intercept German and Allied aircraft violating Swedish airspace. Because of the proximity of Malmö to the German coast, Sweden's declared neutrality, and an agreement between the American

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

and the Swedish government, many heavily damaged Allied bomber aircraft came to land at Bulltofta instead of attempting to make it back to their own airfields in England. These emergency landings occurred mostly during the spring and summer of 1944. The 1950s and 1960s saw the arrival of

mass tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

and jet aircraft, which Bulltofta Airport was too small to accommodate, and it had become a source of

noise pollution Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is ma ...

for the surrounding area. A new airport was needed further away from Malmö. Completed and opened in 1972,

is located 28 kilometres (17 mi) east of Malmö, in Sturup. Also in 1972, Bulltofta Airport was involved in a hijacking incident.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malmo Bulltofta Airport Defunct airports in Sweden Airports established in 1923 1972 disestablishments in Sweden Transport in Malmö Buildings and structures in Malmö 1923 establishments in Sweden Airports disestablished in 1972