1961 to 1989: Orientation towards East / Southeast

From the early 1960s, the Dresdeners were able to fly to Berlin, Erfurt, Barth and Heringsdorf on holiday, later there were also Interflug connections to Budapest, Moscow, Leningrad, Sofia, Burgas, Varna and Constanta, on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. By the end of the 1970s, the airport in Dresden-Klotzsche had thus regained international importance.

In April 1980, the entire network of domestic flights in the GDR was abandoned, because it proved to be unprofitable. The international routes to the holiday resorts in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, however, were maintained, and new ones were established to Sochi, Simferopol, Tbilisi, Kiev and Minsk.

From October 1963, the airport also served as the base for a cargo squadron of Nationale Volksarmee (NVA, the East German Army). Consequently, three users shared the airport: commercial aviation, Air Force Cargo and the Air Force repair works who used the runway to fly in their jets for maintenance.

From early 1988 until September 1989, extended reconstruction work was carried out. NVA, who was owner of the entire runway, taxiways and apron at that time, had the runway renewed. Its width was reduced to 51 metres to comply with international standards. At the same time, Interflug took over the entire terminal building, the public areas were then expanded and refurbished. The terminal was re-opened just as events came to a head politically in autumn 1989.