Blackpool Airport

History

The airport site's first aviation use was in October 1909, when the UK's first official public Flying Meeting was held on a specially laid out site at Squires Gate, followed by another in 1910. By 1911 the site had become a racecourse and it was used as a military hospital during the First World War and until 1924. Flights from the site resumed in the early 1930s. Small UK airlines used the airfield during the mid-1930s. Railway Air Services commenced schedules to Blackpool from 15 April 1935, linking the airport with the Isle of Man, Manchester and Liverpool. Connections could be made at the two cities to London and the south and west of England. In June 1937, airline operations were transferred to Stanley Park Aerodrome. The sister of aviation pioneer Amy Johnson lived in Stanley Park, resulting in her often paying a visit; Johnson's last complete flight was a ferry flight for the ATA from Squires Gate to Oxford.

RAF Squires Gate

Work on enlarging and improving the airfield and facilities began in late 1937, but the aerodrome was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in 1938. Three bituminous runways were laid to support operations, with squadrons stationed at RAF Squires Gate during the Second World War including:

RAF Coastal Command also established an operational base on site, and expanded RAF Warton to act as a satellite airfield.

Training wing

The RAF also selected Blackpool as one of its training wings due to the availability of accommodation. With training based between Squires Gate and the British Army camps at Weeton and Kirkham, by utilising: the large number of guest houses; plus the beaches, pier and the Winter Gardens for exercising; 769,673 recruits received their basic training at Blackpool. The RAF also established two specialist training schools:

Vickers shadow factory

The Ministry of Aircraft Production erected a shadow aircraft factory during 1939-1940 in the north-east corner of the airfield to enable Vickers-Armstrong to operate an aircraft production facility at Squires Gate. This produced 2,584 Wellington medium bombers, several hundred of which were assembled and flown from Stanley Park Aerodrome before landing at Squires Gate for testing and delivery. The first was completed in September 1940 and the last in October 1945, when the factory closed.

The factory was reopened by Hawker Aircraft in the mid-1950s to augment the production of Hawker Hunter jet fighters, under contract SP/6ACFT/9817/CB 7a. Many Hunters were also built for the Swedish Air Force.

Post-war years

Scheduled flights were resumed by Isle of Man Air Services in summer 1946. Lancashire Aircraft Corporation and other private airlines established their bases at the airport from 1946 onwards. By 1949, the airfield was controlled by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and renamed Blackpool Airport.

Development of the airport between 2005 and 2010

In recent years the airport has been steadily expanding, accommodating helicopter operations for British Gas, and attracting scheduled flights from budget airlines, Jet2 and Ryanair and also scheduled services by smaller operators to the Isle of Man. Since World War II, the airport has also been a centre for private, club and general aviation.

In 2005, Jet2 became the first major low cost airline to base an aircraft at Blackpool Airport. This created around 50 new jobs and boosted passenger numbers. It used to serve seven destinations from the airport – five in Spain and the Canaries (Palma, Alicante, Murcia, Tenerife South, Málaga) and one in Portugal (Faro). Jet2 also offers a domestic service to Belfast

Also in 2005, Monarch set up a new route to Málaga, three times a week. After a year though the airline ceased services, blaming low passenger numbers as the reason. However, Jet2.com had earlier announced that it would be operating flights to Málaga.

Until January 2006 an Avro Vulcan bomber (serial number: XL391) was on static external display close to the entrance to the airport. XL391's last operational role was at Ascension Island during the Falklands conflict in 1982, however, it only flew as a backup aircraft and never actually went to the Falklands. It was put up for sale in October 2004 on eBay and purchased by Manchester pub landlord Chris Ollerenshaw (for £15,102.03) who had intentions to transport it to his pub and display it in his beer garden. However, after finding out that the condition of the aircraft was so poor that moving it would be extremely challenging and that it would cost over £20,000 in addition to the reported £1000 a week storage charge, Mr Ollerenshaw pulled out of the deal and later relinquished ownership of the plane back to the airport. The Vulcan was then sold on for scrap for £4,800 and was scrapped and completely removed from the site on 12 January 2006.

During 2006, British North West Airlines, the smallest airline based at Blackpool has, according to its website, stopped trading for both charter and scheduled flights. Flights to the Isle of Man are now operated by Citywing, who are now flying the route up to three times a day with an onward connection to Belfast City. Citywing has brought low fares to the Isle of Man and Belfast routes and passenger numbers on these route vastly increased in January 2007.

With the growth of the airport, a new carrier, the ACMI company, Jetstream Executive, operating under the name, Jetstream Express, introduced flights in 2007 from the airport to Belfast City Airport (from May), Aberdeen Airport (from June) and Southampton Airport (from July). The Belfast route was in competition with Jet2.com, who operate twice daily between Blackpool and Belfast International Airport. Two Jetstream 31s were based at the airport. However, in June 2007 a notice appeared on the Jetstream Express website stating – "With immediate effect, Jetstream Express have ceased operating the routes to Blackpool, Aberdeen, Southampton and Belfast", adding that all flights were withdrawn as the routes have not proved viable.

In 2007, Jet2 cancelled its Prague and Amsterdam services blaming insufficient passenger numbers as the reason to suspend the route.

The airport was owned and operated by City Hopper Airports Limited, which also owns Wolverhampton Airport and Biella Airport in Italy, until January 2007, being placed under new management after one of its two major shareholders bought out its partner. MAR Properties Ltd agreed terms to take over full control of Blackpool and Wolverhampton Airports. In May 2008, it was announced that Balfour Beatty, who also owned Exeter Airport and Derry Airport, had purchased MAR Property's 95% stake in the airport; the remaining 5% stake was held by Blackpool Borough Council.

On 6 May 2008, Balfour Beatty bought the 95% stake of the airport off CityHopper Airports Ltd for £14million. The construction company also owns Exeter Airport and they stated that one of their top priorities is to re-establish a link to London, which Blackpool lost in 2007 when Ryanair discontinued its Stansted route.

On 18 July 2008, the Blackpool Gazette announced that Jet2 planned to suspend its daily service from Blackpool to Belfast International for the winter. A dip in passenger numbers and the rising price of oil has taken its toll on the service. According to the newspaper, Jet2 will restart the daily Belfast service from March 2009.

In the summer of 2008 Ryanair announced a large cut in capacity at a number of airports, including Stansted, from October 2008 to March 2009, although Blackpool was not affected by these cuts. However, on 25 November 2008 Ryanair announced the intention to withdraw all flights from 5 January 2009 following the airport's introduction of a £10 per person Airport Development Fee.

After the £10 Airport Development Fee was introduced at the start of 2009, a new airline was sought to replace Ryanair on its very popular route to Dublin. Aer Arann were their successors and commenced operations shortly after. The short hop over the Irish Sea is operated 4 times a week by either an ATR 42 or the larger ATR 72 turboprop aircraft. The route has proven to be very popular and has the possibility of catching a connecting flight to New York directly from Dublin. The airline has since entered a franchise agreement with Aer Lingus and the route now operates under the Aer Lingus Regional brand. The flight is fully operated by Aer Lingus Regional but has a codeshare partnership with sister company Aer Lingus and Etihad Airways from the United Arab Emirates.

Development of the airport between 2011 and 2014

During 2011 the airfield underwent a number of changes. Runway 07/25 was closed as an active runway and was re-opened as Taxiway C, running the full length of the old runway. The previous Taxiway C was closed and its northern part, between Runway 10/28 and the old Runway 07/25, was opened as an extension of Taxiway E. Another notable change has been the relocation of the airport's Fire Services which have been moved from north of the fuel farm to a more central position, between the terminal and some of the flying clubs, on the Taxiway B ramp.

On 28 January 2012 plans were unveiled to launch a twice-weekly service to Albert - Picardie Airport with Danish Air Transport using ATR-72. The new route was planned to start in the last week of April, however, the flights were cancelled before the route was officially opened.

During June 2012 Jet2.com announced plans to fly to Dalaman and Ibiza from May 2013. About a week later, the company also added Lanzarote to its destination list. Jersey had been replaced by Ibiza for the 2013 season which brought the Jet2.com destination list up to 10.

In the first week of August 2012 BBC Radio Lancashire announced that the North West Air Ambulance, based at the airfield, would be relocated to the Royal Preston Hospital so that specialist doctors could be flown quickly to an incident. The move has yet to be made as the helicopter is still based at the airfield.

At the beginning of November 2012 it was announced by Jet2.com that they would fly to Lanzarote all year round. This was a further development to the schedule which saw the addition of three new destinations to airport. The addition of Lanzarote to the winter schedule now sees the company flying to three destinations during the winter months.

Following Jet2.com's announcement that it would offer a year-round service to Lanzarote, the airline also revealed plans to operate the service with a larger aircraft starting in October 2013. This announcement came at the start of April, just before the summer season began. The aircraft they will use is the larger 737-800; something which has not been seen at Blackpool since Ryanair discontinued their 737-800 services in January 2009.

On 13 May Jet2 announced, via their website, that they had re-added Menorca to Blackpool Airport's destination list. The weekly flight would depart from Blackpool from 21 May 2014 and would be available to book throughout the summer.

Following the end of the 2013 summer season it was announced that Jet2 was cancelling their Belfast flight because of continuous falling passenger figures. The loss of the Belfast service brought Jet2's destinations at the resort airport down to 10, leaving Citywing as the only airline operating a daily flight to Belfast via the Isle of Man.

Statistically 2013 was the best year for passenger movements through the airport since 2009, with 262,630 passengers using the facility. The increase was directly linked to the introduction of three new summer Jet2 destinations, Dalaman, Ibiza and Lanzarote, which increased the passenger count by around 10% over the previous year.

On 4 April 2014 it was announced, via an update on the Dart Group website, that holidaymakers from across Lancashire would enjoy further choice in the summer of 2015, with a new Spanish destination from the airport. The new route, starting from May 2015, would be Reus in eastern Spain. This would take the total number of Jet2 destinations to 11 and the number of destinations to mainland Spain to four.

During the last week of August 2014, Balfour Beatty announced that it was to put the airport up for sale. Local newspaper the Blackpool Gazette reported that the company had "decided to sell its operating interests in the site as part of a wider decision to sell all its interests in regional airports." The news came six years after the company bought a 95% stake in the airport for £14m.

On 7 October 2014 it was announced that the airport would close on 15 October 2014 as a buyer could not be found. The final flight was Citywing V9117 to Isle of Man. The last commercial flight to depart was Flight EGL62X to Exeter International Airport, operated by Capital Air Charter.

On 18 November 2014 Squires Gate Airport Operations (a firm set up by parent organisation and airport owner Balfour Beatty) bought the airport from Balfour Beatty. It was understood the operations would not be on the same scale as those before 15 October, when the airport closed with debts reaching £34m and with the loss of 100 jobs.

Re-opening of the airport and development from January 2015

According to Citywing's website, Blackpool is once again a bookable destination with the service restarting on 1 April 2015. This will mark the start of commercial air operations at Blackpool Airport once again after a short break.

In March 2015 the government announced that a new enterprise zone will be created at Blackpool Airport, using some airport land and some adjoining land. Existing operations at the airport will not be affected. Blackpool Airport has now reopened flying to Isle of Man and Belfast but in a smaller building.

It was announced in January 2016 that planning permission had finally been given, despite protests from local residents, to demolish the existing former terminal and replace it with a new Energy College for Blackpool & Fylde College. The current Citywing terminal (former Blackpool Airport admin building) is also due to be moved to a new location nearer to the main runway, although details of this have not yet been finalised. The former main terminal had been fully renovated and modernised in 2005 and was capable of handling 2 million passengers a year. The terminal has been left empty and unused since the airport closed in October 2014 and all the interiors and equipment were auctioned off in 2015. Demolition of the terminal is scheduled to commence on 1 February and take 4 weeks to complete, at which point construction of the new College will begin.

As of March 18, 2016 the old Terminal has been completely demolished and is now being cleared to make way for the new Energy College. The New Citywing terminal has been fully opened in the old Jet2 ramp offices and now houses a check-in desk, reception lounge, toilets and a small departure lounge. The new facility also has access to security so passengers no longer need to walk outside and through the Vehicle Security Point. The former Administration building has been relocated next to the Citywing Terminal and is now used solely for airport staff. There are currently no further plans to build a new Terminal closer to the runway.

Airlines and destinations

The airport had previously seen service to 12 other destinations across Europe which were operated by Aer Lingus and Jet2.com but these flights have since been cancelled when the airport initially closed in October 2014. Citywing recommenced service to Blackpool in April 2015 and now operate flights twice daily to Belfast via the Isle of Man.

Offshore helicopter operations

For many years Blackpool has been the base of an offshore helicopter operation, flying crews to and from the Irish Sea oil fields. All offshore flights are operated through the purpose built terminal which is located next to the former main passenger terminal. Originally flights were operated by CHC Helicopter until operations were taken over on 1 January 2010 by Babcock Aviation. Babcock operate 2 Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin helicopters, G-REDF and G-REDG, 7 days a week to 5 oil platforms in the Irish Sea. The contract that was signed is due to end in 2019.

Accidents and incidents

Transport