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City of Derry Airport (IATA airport code LDY; ICAO airport code EGAE) near Lough Foyle is seven miles north east of the city of Londonderry in Northern Ireland. Passenger numbers in 2004 were almost 239,000.
The airport has its origins in World War II when an air base was established at Eglinton. It was a Fleet Air Arm base called HMS Gannet and was mainly used to provide convoy air cover for the North Atlantic Fleet. After the war the base remained a military establishment until the 1950's when the Ministry of Defence returned much of the land to the original landowners.
Some limited commercial activities were undertaken at the airfield during the 1960's when Emerald Airways operated a Glasgow service. During the 1970's the only flying at Eglinton was carried out by Eglinton Flying Club which is still based at the airport. In 1978 Derry City Council decided to purchase the airfield with a view to improving the transport infrastructure for the North-West of Ireland. The airport has slowly developed since then. Loganair introduced the first scheduled flight between Derry and Glasgow in 1979 and it still operates today. This route was the only route for ten years until British Airways introduced a daily Manchester service in 1989.
A major redevelopment programme was undertaken by the Council from 1989 to 1993 with grant aid from the European Regional Development Fund. £10.5 million was spent upgrading all of the facilities at the airport including runways, taxiways, access roads, navigation equipment and runway lighting, as well as a new purpose-built terminal and fire station. The new terminal was officially opened in March 1994. The name of the airport was officially changed form Eglinton to the City of Derry Airport. At that time there were still only two scheduled routes carrying about 40,000 passenger each year. 1995 saw the arrival of Jersey European Airways.
During 1998 and 1999 safety improvements were undertaken at the airport with funding coming from both the British and Irish governments and Derry City Council, as the airport serves much of North-West Ireland. These improvements meant that larger aircraft could use the airport and Falcon Holidays started holiday charter flights in May 1999 and Ryanair followed with scheduled flights in July 1999. This Ryanair sevice to London (Stanstead) grew substantially and British Airways also started a number of routes. In June 2004 Aer Arann commenced services to Birmingham and Manchester.
Airlines and Destinations
The following scheduled airlines use City of Derry Airport (at January 2005):
Passenger Numbers
According to City of Derry Airport, passenger traffic through the airport has been as follows:
- 2000 ..... 172,501
- 2001 ..... 199,543
- 2002 ..... 204,390
- 2003 ..... 217,112
- 2004 ..... 238,874
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