The coating apparatus has an air shielding device to prevent a curtain of coating liquids, which free-falls from a coating head, from being disturbed by an air carried along by a traveling web. The coating apparatus also has a device to move the air shielding device. Before and at the start of coating, the air shielding device is kept far from an impingement position where the free-falling curtain impinges onto the web. Just after the start of coating, the air shielding device is moved close to the impingement position. This prevents the air shielding device from being contaminated with splashes of the coating liquids, and the like.