Cardiff Airport History

Cardiff Wales Airport History

The History of Cardiff International Airport dates back 60 years to the early 1940's when land in the rural Vale of Glamorgan was set up as a wartime satellite aerodrome and training base for the R.A.F Spitfire pilots.

Cardiff airport officially opened in April 1942, when it was taken over by No 53 Operational Training Unit. Cardiff Wales airport did not get recognized until the early 1950's when Air Lingus started a service to Dublin Ireland in 1952.

A new terminal building followed, along with airlines flying to France, Belfast, and Cork. This increased holiday charter flights which led to passenger numbers exceeding 100,000 in 1962.

In 1965 Cardiff airport was transferred from Ministry of Defence to Glamorgan City Council. Further development of the airport went ahead with
development of the current Terminal Building, and Control Tower, and also the main runway was doubled in length to 7,000ft, which enabled the airport to accommodate for the much wider bodied aircraft.

Increased growth in the popularity of charter traffic to the Mediterranean saw passenger levels soar to 250,000 in the early 1980’s. New links were also established between Cardiff and Canada.

1986 Cardiff Airport added further extension to the runway, costing in the region of £1 million, this attracted more business to the airport, with the new generation of Jet Aircraft. Then further transatlantic links were made resulting in flights to Florida, in addition to the previously established links with Canada.

The runway extension enabled Cardiff airport to handle 747 jumbo jets, this attracted the British Airways Maintenance facility to Cardiff International airport. The maintenance hangar is one of the largest in the world, this provides heavy airframe and engineering maintenance for the British Airways fleet and third party carriers.

The early 1990’s saw a significant boost to the Airport’s scheduled services when Manx Airlines established their European Air Route Hub at Cardiff Airport , offering daily services to key business destinations within Europe and the UK. Consequently scheduled passenger levels exceeded 100,000 for the first time in a single year.

In 1992 airport passengers soared by 22% to 743,219 by the end of the financial year 92/93. Additional charter and scheduled services contributed to the rise in traffic, as did major increases in aircraft capacity.

Early 1993 serious expansion projects went ahead designed to boost capacity of the terminal building, and an overall operation commenced in early 1993. The projects included redevelopment of the landside forecourt area, expansion and complete modernization of the International departures Lounge, plus modification to other parts of Cardiff airport.

The now booming airports passenger numbers started to increase and in August 1994 the Airport celebrated by achieving the 1 million mark for passengers through its airport terminals, for the first time ever.

Cardiff Airport still today continues to be successful, and is now ranked as one of the UK's most successful regional airports.
Passengers travelled to 51 destinations from Cardiff International Airport in 2002.

The top ten most popular destinations from Cardiff International in 2002 were:

• Palma de Mallorca
• Amsterdam
• Dublin
• Alicante
• Malaga
• Tenerife
• Lanzarote
• Ibiza
• Gran Canaria
• Paris
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