Belfast Airport History
Belfast Airport History | |
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Northern
Ireland has a remarkable aviation history . It can be argued that civil aviation
really began in Northern Ireland in August 1910, when
Henry Ferguson, in
a 40bp monoplane of his own design, made the first flight in Ireland to carry
a brave lady passenger, Miss Rita Marr.
But it was due to the outbreak of the First World War which led to the development
of Aldergrove Airport and the short lived Malone Aerodrome. With the demise of
the Malone another route was pioneered in 1928 when a Shorts Calcutta flying boat
operated for a few weeks between Liverpool and Belfast Harbour. This new route
was to be the nucleus for the development of Belfast City Airport which was opened
by Neville Chamberlain on 16th March 1938. Aldergrove airport selected to be the
Royal Flying Corps training establishment during the First World War. After the
war Aldergrove airport remained open for Royal Air Force aircraft and for the
fledgling civil traffic to and from Northern Ireland.
1921: King George V and Queen Mary visited Northern Ireland. Aircraft landed at
Aldergrove with cameramen and reporters and returned to London with newsreel films
and photographs of the event.
1925: Northern Ireland's own Special Reserve
unit No 502 (Ulster) Squadron RAF was formed at Aldergrove.
1933: Northern Ireland's first ever regular, sustained civil air service started. The route was Glasgow to Aldergrove and the flight was operated by Midland and Scottish Air Ferries.
1933-1934: Aldergrove became Northern Ireland's civil airport.
August
1934: Northern Ireland's first London service began to Nutts Corner, operated
by Railway Air Services. The flight left from Croydon and went via Birmingham
and Manchester to Belfast.
During the second World War, Aldergrove remained an RAF base, particularly for the Coastal Command. 1946-63: The decision was taken to move civil flights back to Aldergrove because of less variable weather conditions than those at Nutts Corner. In recent years aircraft had been diverted from Nutts Corner to Aldergrove because of adverse weather conditions.
28
Oct 1963: HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother reopened Aldergrove as a civil
airport and inaugurated the present terminal building.
4 January 1966: The
start of the first regular jet service, by a British United BAC 1-11 to Gatwick.
By
1969: Belfast international airport was reaching new heights with airport passenger
numbers exceeding 1 million for the first time.
The History of the airport
continued with passenger numbers increasing to 3.7 million passengers a year,and
Belfast International Airport is the principal gateway to north of Ireland. The
airport operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is subject to reduced noise
procedures, with significant environmental constraints or airspace limitations.
The
most recent history of Belfast International Airport has been dominated by the
growth of the low cost airlines. Easyjet and BMI Baby have established a number
of routes across Europe from Belfast Airport, and have helped increase passenger
numbers at Belfast Airport to nearly 4 million.
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