flyintobhx.co.uk - The Airports history

70 year ago

1939 1948 1949 (Aer Lingus) 1954 1960 1967 1971 1980 1984 (25 years) 1990 1997 2000 2005 2008 (new pier)

from 1939
Birmingham’s “Elmdon” Airport was constructed by the City of Birmingham on a site eight miles south east of the city centre and opened on the 1st May 1939. The first arrival was the Lord Mayor in a two-seater Swallow aircraft to be followed that same afternoon with the first scheduled flight, a De Havilland Dragon Rapide from Liverpool.

A formal opening attended by HRH The Duchess of Kent and the Prime Minster, the Rt Hon Neville Chamberlain, was held on the Saturday 8th July 1939 by which time no less than eight destinations were being served from Birmingham.

Unfortunately this early success was short lived as within two months the Second World War broke out and the Air Ministry requisitioned the site. During the war years the airfield was used for both flight training and flight testing of Lancaster and Stirling bombers built in nearby factories.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1948
The airport reopened for civil flights on the 8th July 1948 but in the austere post war years it was not until 1949 that scheduled services recommenced a daily service to Paris operated by a British European Airways Dakota. Over the following years scheduled services and passenger numbers grew steadily and in the 1950’s the first “package tour” flights were introduced to the continent.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1949 (Aer Lingus celebrations)
60 years ago, on Monday 2nd May 1949 - Aer Lingus opened a direct passenger service between Dublin and Birmingham, a route that they continue to operate to this day! Needless to say this makes Aer Lingus the longest established airline at BHX having served the airport for continuously sixty of its seventy years.

Click here for the history of Aer Lingus at Birmingham.

Aer Lingus

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1954
By 1954 services to Dublin, Belfast, Jersey, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Northolt were established using Dakotas, Vikings and Viscounts. The airport now offered two hard runways - both just over 4000ft in length, restricting the use of larger, four engine aircraft. By 1959 the main runway was extended by 800ft and the first jet airliner to visit was a Comet from Lyneham in April 1961. Viscounts were now dominant on expanding services and the BEA route to Jersey was proving very popular.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1960
In the 1960s, Constellations, Vanguards and Electras were appearing, but the runway length still restricted operations by these larger aircraft. In 1964 the go-ahead was given to extend the main runway to 7,398ft. In Spring 1966 when part of the new extension was available jet flights began with One-Elevens and Spanish Convair 990s. Noise complaints increased as more jets used the airport - including DC-8s, DC-9s, Tridents and Boeing 707s.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1967
In 1967 the main runway was extended to allow the regular use of jet airliners for the first time and this resulted in a further increase in routes and passenger traffic.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1971
In April 1971 BOAC VC10s began services to New York, though it was poorly supported and closed in October 1972. During peek periods the terminals became crowded and it was obvious that expansion was required as the wide-bodied jets started appearing. The first wide-body was a Laker DC-10 in 1972 followed by the first Jumbo jet, a Qantas example, arriving in June 1978. The first regular 747 flights were operated by CP Air to Toronto in 1979.

By the mid 1970’s the airport was handling over a million passengers a year and the existing terminal on the “Elmdon” site was already bursting at the seams. A long planning and consultation exercise thus began to build a completely new terminal on a site on the eastern side of the airfield adjacent to the main railway line to London and the recently built National Exhibition Centre (NEC).
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1980
The first Concorde arrived in 1980 operated by Air France. Approval had now been given to construct a new terminal close to the NEC, work beginning in 1981. The new terminal was opened by The Queen in May 1984, opening the door for new routes and an increase in passengers. Birmingham’s own airline, 'Birmingham Executive', was born in 1983, opening many new routes into Europe. It later became Birmingham European until being taken over by Maersk of Denmark and then established as a British Airways franchise.

In 1984 work to enlarge the terminal began and in 1989 construction began on a new airport hotel. From 1986 an expanded cargo facility could now operate near the old terminal site. In 1987 the airport became Birmingham Airport plc.

Passenger traffic grew strongly in the 1980’s and in 1988 work commenced on a second terminal “Eurohub” adjacent to the “Main” terminal with both terminals subsequently being joined together by the “Millennium Link” and both re-named to 'Terminal 1' and 'Terminal 2'.

Concorde at Birmingham

Concorde was a visitor for the official opening of the "new" terminal in 1984.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1984 (celebrating 25 years)
On the 4th April 2009 the airport was celebrating 25 years! On this date, the airport saw the start of the "modern era". On Wednesday 4th April 1984 the "new" terminal site opened for business - over the previous night a major operation had taken place to relocate all the airlines, their aircraft and equipment from the Elmdon site to the new facility on the eastern side of the airfield.

The 'new' terminal site

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1990
The main runway could now offer 2600m (8,530ft) for take off, helping to attract scheduled flights to the USA. American Airlines started services to Chicago using Boeing 767s shortly followed by Continental with Boeing 757s and DC-10s to New York. Charter flights became available to the Dominican Republic and recently Mexico.

In 1991 the Eurohub was opened, used by British Airways and it's partners. Noisy jets were very rare by 1998 with the replacement of older 737s and BAC 1-11s with new generation aircraft. Passenger numbers increased year by year so large-scale development plans were drawn up. This will increase the size of both terminals and the parking areas. Air Traffic Control facilities have improved with the installation of ground surface radar for use in low visibility.

By the late 1990s air transport movements have increased at a high rate to 111,000 and at peak times during weekday mornings their is now one movement every 60 seconds. In 1999 there were up to 13 charter aircraft based at the airport daily during the Summer and on busy Summer mornings up to 7 wide-bodied transatlantic flights were handled. 7 million passengers were handled during 1999, currently increasing at a steady annual rate. This is quite an achievement when you consider that no 'low cost, no frills' airline is based at Birmingham, where as other airports have seen passenger figures swell with the arrival of such airlines.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 1997
In 1997 a further restructuring of the airport company took place with a new holding company - Birmingham Airport Holdings Limited being formed - and the West Midlands District Councils reduced there shareholding to 49% through a share sale to the private sector. This allowed the Airport to access funding outside the Governments Public Sector Borrowing Requirements that had previously constrained the borrowing capability and therefore capital expenditure programme available to the airport.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 2000
On March 3rd 2000, Her Majesty, The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened a £40 million terminal development, which provided a two-storey arrivals concourse linking the two passenger terminals for the first time, and a new pier with three glass-sided air bridges, 16 new check-in desks, a new baggage reclaim hall with 6 carousels, 12 new catering and retail outlets, and new Customs and Immigration halls.

A joint venture between Aer Rianta International - a subsidiary of Aer Riante, the Irish Airport Authority - and Bridgepoint Capital - formely NatWest Ventures - took a 40% stake in the Airport Company which now effectively became a public/private Partnership. The shareholding has subsequently increased to 48.25% and in December 2001 Macquarie Airports Group announced it had acquired Bridgepoint Capitials interest in the Airport company.

On December 18th 2000 one of the World's major airlines, Emirates started daily flights to Dubai with the Airbus A330-200 allowing convenient access to Asia and Australia.

In January 2002 the airport changed the names of its two terminals to Terminal 1 (Main Terminal) and Terminal 2 (Eurohub).
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 2005
The airport welcomed low-cost flights with bmibaby and Monarch Scheduled opening up bases in 2005, the airport also saw Emirates launch its second daily service to Dubai.

The airport has seen major works being carried out within and around the terminal building with a large extension to the departure lounge, alterations to customs, a new-look for Terminal 2 check-in, runway re-surfacing, new taxiway turn-off for Runway 15 and recently major works for further remote parking stands for Terminal 2 opposite parking stands 1-7.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

from 2008
The new 'International Pier' will replace the current out-dated facility constructed in 1984. It is the single biggest investment that the Airport has made in over 20 years.

The new Pier will be a three storey construction; 240 metres long and 24 metres wide. Departing passengers will be accommodated on the top level, with arriving passengers on the middle level and office accommodation for airline and handling agents on the ground floor. The new facility will provide air-bridged aircraft parking for seven wide-bodied aircraft and enough space to serve 13 smaller aircraft at any given time. The Pier will also provide vertical segregation to separate inbound and outbound passenger traffic, in line with national security requirements. New gate lounges for passengers will also be created. The pier is anticipated to be fully completed by November 2009.