History

The airport's origins go back to the Spanish civil war, when it was necessary to construct a new aerodrome in Salamanca. On 15 October 1936, Lieutenant Colonel Lecea accompanied soldier Luis Hernández on a visit to a plot of land located in the place known as Mata-can, in the municipality of Encinas de Abajo. The land was considered ideal for an airfield.

In the summer of 1937, at the request of general Kindelán, the airline Iberia was revived and based its headquarters in Salamanca. The first service between Tetuán and Vitoria began operating on 16 August, using Junkers Ju-52 loaned by Lufthansa. On 1 May 1939, Iberia equipment and installations were moved to Madrid-Barajas.

On 16 July 1940, the plenary of the municipal government of Salamanca handed over the land at Matacán to the Air Force, on the condition that it could also be used for civil air traffic. Six years later, in July 1946, the airport was officially opened to all national traffic and international civil traffic and technical stopovers for commercial traffic.

At the beginning of 1953, it was decided to build the landing strip in accordance with directorate 04/22 and to construct a taxiway.

On 24 May 1974, The National Aeronatical School (ENA) was established, with its headquarters in Salamanca. The aim of the centre was to train commercial pilots. During the 1970s, the low volume of commercial air traffic Salamanca received was taken care of by the local military base.

In 1990 a new Microwave landing system MLS was installed, still in its experimental stage.

Finally, in October 2005, the new Terminal began operating, housing the departure and arrivals areas, the passenger service area and the remainder of the airport departments.