Plans for an airfield were drawn up together with the city of Mainz and, following preliminary discussions in 1925 and 1926 with the Reich Ministry of Transport and the Inter-Allied Rhineland Commission, were approved on August 16, 1927 with the granting of an official concession. Construction work began on September 1 of the same year. On September 8, 1929, the airfield was officially opened with a "major flight day".

The operating company was Mittelrheinische Flughafen GmbH. The site was only used for civil air traffic for a few years; in October 1936 it was transferred to the German Air Force and in 1945 to the US Air Force. During the airlift to West Berlin in 1948/49, the so-called "raisin bombers" also took off from here.