Humberside Airport

History

The airport was previously a Royal Air Force base, RAF Kirmington, opened in 1941 during World War II, from which No. 166 Squadron RAF operated the Avro Lancaster. The site was abandoned after the war in 1945, and lay unused until 1974 when the local council re-opened the site as Kirmington Airport. When the local area was renamed Humberside following local government re-organisation in England, the name was changed to Humberside Airport. The main runway, designated 03/21 (since redesignated 02/20) was extended to its current length in 1992, allowing operation of much larger aircraft.

In 2008, MAG announced that it was conducting a review of its strategy for Humberside Airport, and all options including disposal were under consideration. Initially it announced plans to sell Humberside Airport after nine years of ownership. In December 2008, MAG announced it intended to retain Humberside Airport, due to a number of investments, such as the new £1.6 million perishables hub, coupled with a surge in passenger numbers and little interest from potential bidders.

MAG sold its 83.7% share of Humberside in 2012 for £2.3 million to Eastern Group to focus on the larger airports in its portfolio. It was later revealed that MAG had bought the airport for almost £8 million more in 1999.

According to Airports Council International, Humberside Airport was voted in 2010 the best European airport serving fewer than two million passengers annually.

Operations

The airport faces competition for flights from East Midlands Airport (70 mi (110 km)), Doncaster Sheffield Airport (28 mi (45 km)) which opened in 2005 and Leeds Bradford International Airport (74 mi (119 km)); all of these airports offer a substantially wider range of scheduled flights than Humberside Airport. Passenger numbers at the airport peaked in the early to mid-2000s when the facility was used by around 500,000 passengers per year, however this had fallen to around 275,000 passengers in 2011. Cargo throughput at Humberside, however, reached record levels in 2011 at over 1,100 tonnes, around 10 times the level seen in 2005.

In October 2013 SAS Group began daily operations to Copenhagen, only to withdraw the service in April 2014 because of disappointing passenger numbers. However, Sun Air launched twice-weekly flights to Aalborg and Billund in April 2016, in order to support the off-shore wind industry in the Humber and Jutland locations. These flights were also suspended in December 2016.

The airport is also used to service the offshore gas storage and drilling operations for BP and Centrica Storage with over 8,000 air transport helicopter movements in 2011, the fourth highest in the UK. On 3 January 2013 it was reported that Bond Offshore Helicopters had been awarded a contract with Perenco and would start operating flights to Perenco's platforms in the Southern North Sea. This now means that the airport has three of the biggest UK Helicopter operators based at the airport.

From 1 April 2015 Bristow Helicopters commenced operations from a new UK Search and Rescue base at Humberside. In October 2016 Bristow Helicopters and Bond (now Babcock) moved their off-shore operations to Norwich, leaving CHC and UNI-FLY as the remaining helicopter companies based at Humberside.

Humberside has one of the highest NEQ approval levels of any airport in Europe, and has seen significant growth in cargo throughput from 144 tonnes in 2007 to 1,132 tonnes in 2011. This was due to regular flights by Icelandair Cargo, which ceased to operate in 2012.

Humberside International has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P739) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. Humberside airport has a very high amount of general aviation activity, with 5 resident flying clubs and organisations offering fixed wing and rotary training. Weston Aviation opened in May 2011 a fixed based operation (FBO) at Humberside International airport. This will be the first dedicated FBO at the airport and the company has also opened a regional charter sales office at the airport to promote and develop the use of business and private aviation in the local Humberside region.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Humberside:

There are some more occasional leisure charter services to summer and winter destinations which are served only a few times throughout the year.

Bus

An hourly daytime bus service operated by Stagecoach runs from Grimsby and Hull to the airport from Monday to Saturday, which is named as the "Humber Flyer" service. A local service, serving the villages surrounding the airport is run by Hornsby Travel from Monday to Friday.

Rail

The airport lies close to the South Humberside Main Line, which runs between Doncaster and the coast at Grimsby and Cleethorpes, running a few hundred metres to the north of the terminal. There is no stop on the line at this point and passengers must alight at the small, rural and unmanned Barnetby railway station some 2.5 miles (4 km) to the west of the airport, or proceed to Grimsby or Hull and use the bus service.

Other facilities

The airline Eastern Airways has its head office in the Schiphol House on the airport property. Links Air was based at the airport, but moved to Doncaster Sheffield Airport in 2014.

BAE Systems opened an aircraft maintenance academy at the airport in the autumn of 2015. It is a partnership with the Resource Group and is known as the R J Mitchell Academy, after the designer of the Spitfire aircraft.

In 2010 a temporary hotel was erected for the use by the gas and oil rig workers. However, this operation is not designed or licensed to operate as accommodation for normal passengers. This is a temporary structure run by Nightel, a locally based niche business, there will be a permanent structure built in the next five years once demand for the facility has been confirmed. A 103 bedroom hotel, to be operated under the Hampton by Hilton brand, is due to open next to Nightel in the first half of 2017.

Accidents and incidents