Cardiff Airport - History

History

The history of the airport extends back to the early 1940s, when the Air Ministry requisitioned land in the rural Vale of Glamorgan to set up a wartime satellite aerodrome and training base, named RAF Rhoose, for Royal Air Force (RAF) Spitfire pilots. Construction work commenced in 1941, and the airfield officially began life on 7 April 1942 when it was taken over by No 53 Operational Training Unit. After WW2 the airfield fell into disuse and was abandoned.

The man who decided Rhoose could be the site of Cardiff Airport was David Rees-Williams (later Lord Ogmore) a Bridgend-born solicitor who had served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Artillery during the WW2 and who. in 1945, been elected MP for Croydon South. In 1951 Rees-Williams was appointed, briefly, Minister of Aviation and identified what he called a "great need for a commercial airport of international standards" in South Wales. He later told the House of Lords "a decision had to be taken whether to do nothing at all (which was the desire of some) or whether Pengam Moors, the existing airport for Cardiff, should be improved at a cost of some millions of pounds, involving the alteration of the course of the Rumney River or, thirdly, whether an entirely new airport should be constructed or acquired in the vicinity of the capital of Wales."

Rees-Williams thought diverting the river at Pengam would be a problem, and feared that the tall chimney stacks of the nearby East Moors Steelworks could pose a safety hazard to aircraft. The Welsh Civil Aviation Consultative Committee then proposed he should look at the "abandoned Royal Air Force airfield at Rhoose" as a possible alternative. On inspecting it Rees-Williams found it "in a poor condition, with a large number of bombs stacked on the runways, and buildings in an extreme state of dilapidation". However he considered Rhoose could be suitable for civil aviation "if the necessary money and time were spent upon it". The Government accepted his proposal and the Ministry of Aviation promptly began converting the abandoned airfield into a civilian airport. In October 1952 the new Cardiff Airport was opened by Rees-Williams's successor as Minister of Aviation Alan Lennox-Boyd.

Also in 1952 Aer Lingus started a service to Dublin. Civilian flights from the old Cardiff Municipal Airport at Pengam Moors were transferred to Rhoose on 1 April 1954. A new terminal building followed, along with flights to France, Belfast and Cork. An escalation in holiday charter business resulted in passenger throughput exceeding 100,000 in 1962.

On 1 April 1965 the Ministry of Aviation handed over the airport to Glamorgan County Council and it was renamed Glamorgan (Rhoose) Airport. The council started a five-year plan to develop the airport including a new control tower, terminal building and a runway extension.

In the 1970s, the supersonic airliner Concorde made a few flights into the airport on special occasions. These were limited by the length of the runway, meaning it could only land lightly loaded, and only take off without passengers and with a minimal fuel load. In the 1980s, its name was changed to 'Cardiff-Wales Airport'.

1986 saw a further extension of 750 ft (229 m) to the runway, costing in the region of £1 million, thus attracting more business to the airport in the form of new-generation jet aircraft. Development of transatlantic links were made with charter flights to Florida, in addition to the previously-established links with Canada. The runway extension, enabling the airport to handle 747 jumbo jets, was instrumental in attracting the British Airways (BA) Maintenance facility to the airport. The maintenance hangar is one of the largest in the world at 250 m × 175 m (820 ft × 574 ft), providing heavy airframe and engineering maintenance for the British Airways fleet and third party carriers.

In April 1995, due to planned Local Government re-organisation in Wales, the Airport Company was privatised, with shares being sold to property and development firm, TBI plc, which has now been converted back to a private company called TBI Ltd (a subsidiary of Abertis and Aena International. TBI Ltd also controls Luton Airport, Stockholm Skavsta, Belfast International Airport, SABSTA (which owns three Bolivian airports) and is concessionary to Orlando Sanford International Airport.

In December 1995, Heli-air Wales began training Helicopter Pilots from the Airport's southside, and are widely accredited with pioneering Helicopter Training in Wales. Heli-air Wales moved operations to Swansea Airport in 1999, and are still trading there to this day.

The airport is not only the main maintenance base for British Airways but also home to a variety of aerospace-oriented firms and colleges, and therefore a major contributor to the economic development of the region.

The airport was used by 2.1 million passengers in 2008, falling to just over 1.6 million passengers in 2009, according to the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority, a reduction of 18.2% since 2008, making it the 20th busiest airport in the UK in terms of passenger numbers. Based on UK Civil Aviation Authority statistics, Cardiff Airport is currently the worst performing of all major UK airports in passenger support terms.

The airport was the main base for three local airlines; Cambrian Airways from 1935 to 1976, Airways International Cymru until the airline ceased schedules operations in 1988, and Air Wales until the airline ceased scheduled operations in March 2006.

In 2006 the Irish low cost carrier Ryanair withdrew from the airport ending 5 years of service on the Cardiff to Dublin route daily.

Flybe has completed the installation of three new self-service electronic check-in kiosks at the airport, offering passengers an additional choice at check-in. Flybe is the first airline to invest in this technology at the airport.

On 2 March 2009 the airport management revealed a name change for the airport along with initial development plans to improve the image of the facility. Following a brand review involving consultation with a number of key stakeholders the name Cardiff Airport and Maes Awyr Caerdydd replaced Cardiff International Airport.

However, it emerged that the Airport had applied for £5 million of payments from the Welsh Assembly Government to deal with unspecified development at the terminal. This attracted immediate public criticism and requests that the airport's owners, Abertis, match such an investment with a £6 million route development programme.

Cardiff Airport has also had several problems with wild fly-grazing horses around the airfield and the Redwings Sanctuary in Norfolk were needed to assist in the rescue of 23 unclaimed horses that had been left on the site.