Manchester Airport History

Manchester Airport History

Manchester Airport is one of Britain's and the world principal airports, with millions of passengers each year through its airport Terminals.
The North of England is well connected by its easy motorway route the M62 , so is used frequently by the northern people.
Manchester Airport is still to this day growing & thriving and has an exciting and promising future, but it has an equally illustrious past, which began in 1928.

Life for Manchester airport began in 1928 but over the years has seen plenty of air activity, starting in 1910 when Louis Paulhan decided to land his Biplane in a field near Burnage, for his feat he collected £10.000 from the Daily Mail , as he was the first man to fly from London to Manchester..

Aerodromes sprang up in and around Manchester Airport thereafter, in order to handle increasing air traffic, and in 1919, Britain's first ever scheduled air service commenced from a private airfield in Manchester, flying to Birkdale Sands in Southport, then on to South Shore, Blackpool. Manchester had no permanent airport but in 1926 , City fathers decided that unless Manchester had a permanent airport the City would suffer financially and commercially. Something had to be done so MPs decided that Manchester was to have its first Manchester airport.

1928 Barton, near Eccles, was chosen as the site of Manchester's new aerodrome. At the same time, Manchester City Council was keen to establish a municipal airport, so a temporary airfield is built in Wythenshawe.

1929 Wythenshawe Airport opens for business.

1930 Barton is completed, including a control tower and large hangar (both still standing today). The first scheduled service begins on the 16th June; Imperial Airways flies three times a week on the Croydon-Birmingham-Manchester-Liverpool route.

1934 Discussions open with KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) on a Holland-North of England service. Barton Aerodrome is considered unsuitable for larger aircraft and the necessary improvements would be expensive, so land at Ringway, South of Manchester, is earmarked for a new airport.

1935 Building work at Ringway commences.

1938 With the approach of World War 2 , the Air Ministry approves the formation of No. 613 (City of Manchester) Auxiliary Air Force Squadron at Ringway Airport. The squadron becomes a regular unit of the RAF later in the year.

!940 -45 Wartime years 600.000 Britain's Airborne Troop's trained here as glider pilots and parachutists.
A.V. Roe a prominent aircraft maker set up alongside Fairey aviation another manufacturer of aircraft's. Together they produced some of the famous military aircraft's and they all were made at Manchester airport..The prototype of the Lancaster bomber made its first flight from Manchester..

1949 New opportunities for civil expansion were made after the Second World War, and part of the old parachute school was converted to handle an increasing number of passengers. Two years later the runway was extended and in 1960 a terminal building, with air traffic control facilities and two passenger piers were added. Manchester airport got bigger its growing number could not be handled, so a third pier was erected along with a new departure hall and a longer runway.

1987 One million passengers a month is achieved for the first time.

1991 Manchester airport publishes its new 'Development Strategy for the year 2005', including plans for the 21st century Airport, designed to handle 30 million passengers per annum by 2005. Proposals for the Airport's second runway are included in this document.

1993 Terminal 2 is opened by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, doubling Manchester Airport's terminal capacity to around 20 million passengers a year. In the same year Manchester Airport railway station is opened in May, providing direct links to many towns and cities in the North of England.

1995 The Public Inquiry into the proposal to build a new runway closes in March.
The new British Airways maintenance hangar is completed at a cost of £27 million. Passenger throughout hits 15 million.

1997 Approval for the building of the second runway at Manchester airport is granted and work on building the second runway commences.

2000 Work starts on the £60 million Integrated Public Transport Interchange and the government gives the go ahead for a £289 million Metrolink extension to Manchester Airport.

2001
Manchester Airport completed the purchase of East Midlands and Bournemouth Airport to become the second largest airport operator in the UK. Manchester is expected to become the UK's second busiest airport in the next 15 years.

Manchester airport today Is the the third largest airport in the UK, one of the busiest in Europe and now established as one of the worlds top International Airport. It has in the region of 19 million passengers through its airport terminals per year. Manchester Airport is situated just over 10 miles South of Manchester city center, is accessible by car from Junction 5 off the M56 and is well served by an efficient and reliable public transport network.

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