ON July 26, Newcastle International Airport celebrates its 75th anniversary. The region’s biggest airport has grown from a grass airstrip and a few huts in 1935, to the modern and dynamic gateway it is today, as Iain Laing reports.
IT has long been planned as a year of celebration for Newcastle Airport, but who could have predicted that 2010 would also bring so many unique challenges?
The year started with the most severe winter weather for 40 years, followed by a volcanic ash cloud that grounded flights across Europe.
But, whatever the weather has thrown at the airport, just as on numerous occasions in the last 75 years, the team at the airport have pulled together and kept the region moving.
The economic importance of the airport is well rehearsed, as demonstrated by the volcanic ash drama. Put simply, the airport connects. It connects people to jobs, family, holidays, honeymoons and global events such as the World Cup. It also connects businesses to markets, customers, head offices and conferences.
It is a lifeline and, as the region emerges from recession, it will provide a platform for growth across a range of sectors, including the new low-carbon sectors that hold such exciting prospects for the region.
The airport is a jobs-generator. It employs 3,000 people on site, and more than 5,000 in the surrounding areas of the North East. Annually it pumps £400m into the regional economy. It serves a population of over 2.5million people in the region while servicing a wider catchment area. A total of 4.6million passengers passed through its doors in 2009.
Throughout the recent downturn, and subsequent recovery, the airport has acted as a barometer. As the recession set in, passenger numbers declined, but as green shoots start to appear, a modest improvement in numbers is anticipated. Recently, it has introduced a number of new air services, built a new petrol station and a hotel opening is on the horizon.
Celebrations will be spread throughout the year to mark the airport’s landmark anniversary. Part of this will be the publication of a commemorative book launched on the anniversary itself. Readers can expect to be taken on an in-depth journey back through the decades of Newcastle Airport’s rich history; the book will also show never-seen-before photographs.
The story began with the establishment of Newcastle Aero Club in 1925, situated on an airfield in Cramlington to the north of Newcastle, from which stemmed Newcastle Airport. It was opened on July 26, 1935, in Woolsington by Secretary of State for Air, Sir Phillip Cunliffe-Lister. The new airport facility cost £35,000 to build and consisted of a grass runway, clubhouse, hangar, workshops and a garage. The runway lights were made up of a series of empty oil drums that could be filled with oil rags and lit in advance of an approaching aircraft.
The first scheduled service was a flight between Croydon and Perth, Scotland; it was operated by North Eastern Airways using an eight-seater Airspeed Envoy aircraft.
The 1940s saw the airport requisitioned as an auxiliary wartime base for the RAF during the Second World War. It was handed back in 1946 with a new wooden air traffic control tower built on stilts and supported by sections of railway lines. Former RAF pilot Jim Denyer was appointed the Aero Club’s chief flying instructor in the summer of 1951. A year later, he was appointed airport commandant and then manager, establishing himself as the driving force behind the development of the airport until his retirement in August 1989 after an incredible 37 years in charge. In that year Hunting Air Transport commenced flying to Bovingdon in London. Further routes to Dublin, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf were soon added.
