Glasgow International Airport (Scottish Gaelic: Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu) (IATA: GLA, ICAO: EGPF) (formerly Glasgow Abbotsinch Airport) is an international airport in Scotland, located 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) west of Glasgow city centre, near the towns of Paisley and Renfrew in Renfrewshire. In 2011 the airport handled nearly 6.9 million passengers, a 5.1% annual increase, making it the second busiest in Scotland, after Edinburgh Airport, and the eighth busiest airport in the United Kingdom. It is the primary airport serving the Greater Glasgow conurbation and is also the principal transatlantic and direct longhaul entry airport into Scotland.
The airport is owned and operated by BAA, which also owns and operates five other UK airports, and is itself owned by ADI Limited, an international consortium, which includes Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and GIC Special Investments, that is led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group. The airport's largest tenants are British Airways and Loganair (currently franchising using Flybe), the latter using it as a hub. Other major airlines using GLA as a base include BMI Regional, Flybe, EasyJet, Jet2, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways.
Glasgow Airport was first opened in 1966 and originally only facilitated flights to other places in the United Kingdom and Europe. The British Airports Authority (BAA) took control of the airport in 1975 and when BAA was privatised in the 1980s, Glasgow Airport began to offer flights to other places around the world, flights which previously were facilitated by Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which was subsequently relegated as the city's secondary airport catering for low cost airlines and charter operators.
The airport was the target of a terrorist attack on June 30, 2007, when a Jeep Cherokee loaded with propane canisters was driven into the main terminal building, causing some damage.
Read more about Glasgow International Airport: History, Today, Plans, Airlines and Destinations, 2011 Traffic Statistics, Accidents and Incidents, Ground Transport
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“My first reading of Tolstoy affected me as a revelation from heaven, as the trumpet of the judgment. What he made me feel was not the desire to imitate, but the conviction that imitation was futile.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“It was like taking a beloved person to the airport and returning to an empty house. I miss the people. I miss the world.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)