Glasgow International Airport

Encyclopedia : G : GL : GLA : Glasgow International Airport

{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Glasgow International Airport |- |align="center" colspan="4"|

Glasgow International Airport , located 8 miles (13 km) west of Glasgow, near the towns of Paisley and Renfrew, is the largest airport in Scotland, and seventh largest in the UK in terms of annual passenger throughput [link]. It was the first airport in Scotland to handle over one million passengers in one month.

The airport is owned by BAA plc, which also owns London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London Stansted, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton airports.

Contents

1 History
2 Today
3 Accidents
4 Airlines and destinations

4.1 Future Destinations

5 Holiday airlines
6 External links

History

The history of Glasgow Airport goes back to 1932, when the current site at Abbotsinch was used as an overspill airfield for the adjacent RAF base. The original site of Glasgow's "main" airport was 3 km (2 miles) east, in what is now the Dean Park area of Renfrew. The original Art Deco terminal building of Renfrew Airport has not survived, the site now being occupied by a Tesco supermarket and the M8 motorway.

In the 1960s, Glasgow Corporation decided that a new airport for the city be constructed at nearby Abbotsinch. It was a controversial plan, as central government had already committed millions into rebuilding Prestwick Airport fit for the "jet age". Nevertheless, the plan went forward and the new airport, designed by Basil Spence, was completed in 1966, with British European Airways beginning services using De Havilland Comet aircraft. The political rows over Glasgow and Prestwick airports continued, with Prestwick enjoying a monopoly over transatlantic traffic, while Glasgow was only allowed to handle domestic and intra-European traffic.

In 1975, the BAA took ownership of Glasgow Airport, and when BAA was privatised in the late 1980s, it consolidated its airport portfolio. Conveniently, the restrictions on Glasgow were lifted, and the transatlantic operators immediately moved from Prestwick. BAA then sold Prestwick off, and embarked on a massive redevelopment plan in 1989.

An extended terminal building was created by building the new structure so that the original Basil Spence building is actually inside it. The original concrete arches which once looked onto Caledonia Road now form the facade of the check-in area. Glasgow Airport now has 33 gates, bringing its capacity up to nine million passengers per year. In 2003, BAA completed redevelopment work on a satellite building (called "T2", formerly the St. Andrews Building), in order to provide a dedicated check-in facility for low cost airlines, principally easyJet and MyTravel Airways.

Today

The terminal has three piers, all of which are equipped with air bridges and their own duty free/world shopping areas. The central pier which was part of the original 1966 building is now used exclusively for domestic destinations, and is largely occupied by both British Airways and bmi. The East Pier, constructed in the mid '70s was originally used for international flights, but in recent years has been re-developed for use by easyJet and Loganair, as well as some charters. The West Pier, built as part of the 1989 extension project is the principal international and long haul departure point.

Glasgow International Airport is hampered against future growth by its location, which is constrained by the M8 motorway to the south, the town of Renfrew to the east, and the River Clyde to the north. At present the towns of Clydebank, Bearsden and Linwood all sit directly underneath the approach paths into the airport, meaning that further increases in traffic may be politically sensitive. Glasgow International also faces stiff competition from its old adversary at Prestwick, which has reinvented itself as a low-cost hub for budget airlines, and which has a direct rail link to Central Glasgow. However, the Scottish Executive announced in 2002 that a rail link from Glasgow Central station would extend out to Glasgow International Airport. The rail link known as Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) is expected to open late 2008 and give the airport four trains an hour to Glasgow Central.

Currently, the airport is easily accessed by road due to the adjoining M8 motorway and is served by a frequent dedicated express bus from the city centre.

The airport is home to the Scottish regional airline Loganair, a British Airways franchise operator, who have hangar facilities as well as their head office located on site. British Airways itself has a maintenance hangar at the airport, capable of carrying out overhaul work on Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft, as well as a cargo facility. Glasgow is also the main base for Flyglobespan and Air Scotland, though these carriers do not have major facilities on the airfield.

Accidents

On 3 September 1999, a Cessna 404 carrying 9 Airtours staff from Glasgow to Aberdeen on a transfer flight, crashed minutes after take off near the town of Linwood. Eight people were killed and three seriously injured. No one on the ground was hurt. A fatal accident inquiry into the accident later found that the aircraft developed an engine malfunction during take off. Although the captain decided to return to the airfield, he mistakenly identified the working engine as the faulty one and shut it down, causing the aircraft to crash.

On 19 September 2003, a private, chartered plane carrying the Dixie Chicks clipped the side of a terminal building at the airport shortly after landing on the eve of their Australian Tour.

Airlines and destinations

Aer Lingus (Dublin)
Air Berlin (London-Stansted)
Air Malta (Malta)
Air Scotland (Alicante, Athens, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca)
Air Transat seasonal (Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver)
AJet (Larnaca [seasonal])
American Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare [seasonal])
bmi (Copenhagen, Jersey, Leeds/Bradford, London-Heathrow, Manchester)
bmibaby (Cardiff, Nottingham East Midlands)
British Airways (London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow)
* BA Connect (Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Southampton)
* British Airways operated by Loganair (Aberdeen, Barra, Benbecula, Campbeltown, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Inverness, Islay, Isle of Man, Kirkwall, Londonderry, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Tiree)
BritishJET (Malta)
Continental Airlines (Newark)
easyJet (Alicante, Belfast-International, Berlin-Schoenefeld, Bristol, Geneva [seasonal], London-Luton, London-Stansted, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca)
Emirates (Dubai)
Flybe (Belfast City, Birmingham, Exeter, Guernsey, Jersey, Norwich, Southampton)
First Choice Airways (Alicante, Arrecife, Bourgas, Faro [seasonal], Funchal, Málaga, Orlando-Sanford, Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Paphos, Reus [seasonal], Tenerife-Reina Sofia)
Flyglobespan (Alicante, Athens, Barcelona, Faro, Geneva [seasonal], Heraklion, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Mahon, Málaga, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Pula, Prague, Orlando-Sanford, Tenerife-Reina Sofia)
Icelandair (Keflavik)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
* KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam)
Pakistan International Airlines (Islamabad, Lahore)
Pegasus Airlines (Bodrum)
TravelCity Direct ( Orlando-Sanford [Seasonal])
US Airways (Philadelphia [seasonal])
Zoom Airlines (Calgary, Halifax [seasonal], Ottawa [seasonal], Toronto, Vancouver)

Future Destinations

easyJet (London-Gatwick, starts 2 October 2006)
Top Jet Air (Gran Canaria, starts 1 November 2006) (Re-branded Air Scotland)
Top Jet Air (Lanzarote, starts 2 November 2006) (Re-branded Air Scotland)
Flyglobespan (Fuerteventura, starts 7 November 2006)
Virgin Atlantic (Orlando [seasonal], starts Summer 2007)

Holiday airlines

In addition to the scheduled services listed above, a number of holiday companies operate exclusive charter flights from Glasgow to a number of destinations in Europe, North America and Africa. The popular resorts of the Mediterranean, Canary Islands, Cyprus, the Greek Islands and Florida form the majority of destinations for these flights.

A number of airlines operate holiday flights from Glasgow, including First Choice Airways, Britannia Airways, Excel Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines, MyTravel Airways, Monarch Airlines, Futura Airlines, Spanair and Balkan Holidays.

External links

Airports of the United Kingdom
: City \| Gatwick \| Heathrow \| Luton \| Stansted \| Southend
: Birmingham \| Blackpool \| Bournemouth \| Bristol \| Doncaster-Sheffield \| Durham Tees Valley \| Exeter \| Leeds-Bradford \| Liverpool \| Manchester \| Newcastle \| Norwich \| Nottingham East Midlands \| Southampton Coventry \| Humberside \| Land's End \| Newquay \| Plymouth City \| St. Mary's
: Aberdeen \| Edinburgh \| Glasgow International \| Glasgow Prestwick \| Inverness Barra \| Benbecula \| Campbeltown \| Dundee \| Fair Isle \| Islay \| Kirkwall \| Lerwick \| Stornoway \| Sumburgh \| Tiree \| Westray \| Wick
: Cardiff
: Belfast City \| Belfast International \| City of Derry
Crown Dependencies: Alderney \| Guernsey \| Isle of Man \| Jersey
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