[5] It is located approximately 5 km north of Nuremberg's city centre and offers flights within Germany as well as to European metropolitan and leisure destinations, especially along the Mediterranean Sea, on the Canary Islands, in Turkey and in Egypt.

Being thus left without a "proper" usable civilian airport — from 1950 to the completion of the new permanent airport passenger flights serving the area had to land at a private airfield (49°28′54″N 10°57′12″E / 49.481667°N 10.953333°E / 49.481667; 10.953333) of a Fürth based company near the current endpoint of the U1 subway line, Fürth Hardhöhe station[12][13][14] (A small plaque in the access tunnel to the subway station records that history.

[17] The local entrepreneur and partial heir to the de:Rudolf Wöhrl SE, Hans Rudolf Wöhrl is associated with the airport in multiple roles, not least his involvement in the 1974 founding of the first private competition to Lufthansa on the German domestic market de:Nürnberger Flugdienst (NFD) which had a base of operations at Nuremberg Airport and ultimately wound up as part of Eurowings in 1992.

[28] In April 2013, Air Berlin permanently shut down its winter seasonal hub in Nuremberg which had been maintained for several years.

In October 2016, Ryanair announced it would open a base at Nuremberg Airport consisting of two aircraft while four additional routes were inaugurated.

[31] In the same month, Air Berlin announced it would close its maintenance facilities at the airport due to cost cutting and restructuring measures.

[32] Shortly after, Germania announced it would open a new base at Nuremberg Airport consisting of one aircraft which served several new leisure routes.

In January 2018, Eurowings announced it would establish a base at the airport consisting of one aircraft and four new routes as well as increased frequencies.

[34] After the demise of Germania in early 2019, TUI fly Deutschland announced it would base aircraft in Nuremberg to take over several leisure destinations.

[39][40] The company further expressed their commitment to the region with a special aircraft livery Boeing 737-800 honouring local football team 1.

[46] This leads to the circumstance that every domestic route from Nuremberg has been cancelled, with the sole exception of Lufthansas hub-feeder to Frankfurt Airport which is operated five times per day.

[55] British Airways also ended its operations to Nuremberg in early 2024, previously offering a hub connection to London Heathrow.

[56] In June 2021, Lufthansa announced the termination of its route to Munich Airport, a flight covering around 170 km (110 mi) taking less than 30 minutes, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and after facing longstanding criticism from an environmental standpoint.

[59] In 2021 Ryanair announced the re-establishment of their previously closed base at NUE in light of re-emerging demand after more and more destination countries had relaxed or removed COVID-19 restrictions.

[60][61] The 737-MAX groundings, cited as a reason for the abandonment of the base in 2019, had also ended by that point in time, increasing the number of planes Ryanair had available.

[63][64][65] While many flights serving NUE are targeted to holidaymakers living in the region and in adjacent parts of Saxony, Thuringia and the Czech Republic, Nuremberg itself is also a destination for both business and leisure travel.

Another market of note are river cruises along the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal which can be boarded at the port of Nuremberg some 10 kilometres (6 mi) due south from the airport as the crow flies.

[68] The newly freed up space on the upper floor has been converted to offices of travel bureaus selling their products and services right at the airport.

Daylight dominates the transparent construction made of steel and glass drafted by Nuremberg architects Grabow and Hoffmann.

[71] When the Cold War ended and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nuremberg won back its central location in Europe.

In addition, several headquarters of internationally operating companies are located in the region, for example Siemens, Adidas, Bosch, Puma and Faber-Castell.

[72] Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS), which is in charge of air traffic control in Germany, moved into the 48-metre-high (157 ft) tower in November 1998.

The ride to the Hauptbahnhof (Central Railway Station) and the nearby Altstadt (historic old town) only takes 13 minutes.

Access for private automobiles is via Marienbergstraße and Flughafenstraße whereas public transit buses can use a slightly more direct route (see below).

The bus route replaces a former fight, that was withdrawn during the pandemic and not reinstated after restrictions were lifted in part due to criticism by environmentalist groups.

[150] Because of the airport's close-in location and its direct connections to local streets, it is also possible to walk or ride a bicycle from nearby neighborhoods right up to the terminal.

[159][160][161][162] In addition to local citizens, Lord Mayor Florian Janik (SPD) whose city of Erlangen partially sits in the flightpath has formally lodged a complaint against night-time operations at the airport.

A direct route to the airport with a tunnel under the runway to reduce traffic through city district Ziegelstein is favored and spatial planning has already been completed.

However, further planning has been delayed as environmental organization Bund Naturschutz and local citizens group Nein zur Flughafen-Nordanbindung!

[165] As ultimately the candidate of the CSU, de:Marcus König, won the election, the plans appear to be shelved for at least the 2020-2026 mayoral term.