Manchester Airport
1928 Manchester City Council was keen to establish a municipal airport, so a temporary airfield was built in Wythenshawe. The site for a new permanent airport was chosen as Barton, near Eccles.
1929 Wythenshawe Airport opened.
1930 Barton Aerodrome was completed
1934 Discussions open withed KLM about a Holland-to-North of England service. Barton Aerodrome was considered unsuitable for larger aircraft and the necessary improvements would be prohibitively expensive, so land at Ringway, South of Manchester, was earmarked for a new airport.
1935 Building work began at Ringway.
1938 Ringway Airport opened. Fairey Aviation Co acquired flight test facilities at Ringway.
WWII On 1st September, the last scheduled flight took place before the outbreak of the Second World War. Ringway Airport became a hub of engineering activity as a manufacturing centre for Fairey Aviation and for Avro. Three new runways and ten new hangars were built; the airport also became a training centre for over 60,000 parachutists.
1946 Passenger services resumed.
1949 Extended terminal facilities opened in converted wartime building.
1951 Main runway was extended from 1,280 metres to 1,798 metres.
1953 Sabena introduced the first scheduled service to New York.
1955 The first inclusive tour flight started to Ostend.
1962 New terminal opened - the first in Europe to incorporate a "pier" system, in which passengers remain under cover until ready to board the aircraft.
1969 Runway extended to 2,745 metres
1981 Runway extended to 3,048 metres, in order to attract long-haul operators offering worldwide destinations.
1986 World Freight Terminal opened.
1989 New Domestic Terminal opened.
1991 Published "Development Strategy for the year 2005", including plans to handle 30 million passengers a year by 2005.
1993 Terminal 2 opened, doubling terminal capacity. New railway station was opened.
1999 Manchester Airport acquired a majority shareholding in Humberside International Airport.
2001 Purchased East Midlands and Bournemouth Airport, to become the second largest airport operator in the UK. Second runway opened.
2004 New public transport interchange opened.
2005 22 million passengers in a year.
2007 Building work begins on a major refurbishment of Terminal One.
2013 MAG announced the completion of its acquisition of London Stansted Airport.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Manchester Airport history [1]