History
Air transportation at the site of present day airport, then known as Seawell Airport, goes back as far as the late 1930s. In 1939 a plane from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines landed on the airport site. At the time there was merely a grassy strip as the runway. The strip was paved some time later and in 1949 the first Terminal building was built on the site, to replace a shed that was being used until then. This ushered in the Airport being formally known as the Seawell Airport.
During the 1960s the eastern flight-range just south-east of the airport became known as Paragon. This area of the airport became the initial base of a High Altitude Research Project known as Project HARP, Project HARP was jointly sponsored by McGill University in Canada and the United States military.
In 1983, the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Grenada prompted the United States to form yet another agreement with Barbados. As part of the deal, the U.S. expanded a part of the current airport infrastructure. This prepared Grantley Adams Airport to be used as a base. As part of the plan to maintain for lasting stability in Grenada, the United States also assisted in the establishment of the Regional Security System (RSS) at the eastern Grantley Adams airport flight-rage. The R.S.S. was (and still is) a security unit focused on providing security for the Eastern Caribbean.
Grantley Adams International Airport, as it is known today, handles most large aircraft including Boeing 747s. The airport was also one of the few destinations in the world where British Airways' Concorde aircraft made regularly scheduled flights, and also for repairs, before Concorde was retired. The flight time of Concorde from the United Kingdom to Barbados was less than 4 hours. The first Concorde visit to Barbados was in 1977 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. During the 1980s, the Concorde returned for commercial flights to Barbados and thereafter flew to Barbados during the busy winter season. On 17 October 2011, ZA006, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner arrived at BGI for testing. This was followed by an 24 October arrival of the Boeing 747-8i for further high humidity environment testing.
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