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Newcastle International Airport is the 9th largest airport in the United Kingdom. Its IATA airport code is NCL and its ICAO airport code is EGNT.
Newcastle Airport is owned by 7 local authorities (51%) and Copenhagen Airport (49%). There were 3,408,000 passenger movements in 2001, 3,387,000 in 2002, 3,903,000 in 2003 and 4,748,579 (provisional) movements in 2004. The Airport is expecting to handle over 5 million passengers in 2005.
The main handling agents at the Airport are Groundstar/Swissport UK and Servisair/Globeground.
There are two hotels on the Airport site, the Britannia Airport Hotel (http://www.britanniahotels.com/hotel_home.asp?Page=113) and a Travelinn (http://www.travelinn.co.uk/TI/index.jsp?page=inn&id=152).
Destinations
Newcastle Airport offers services to the following destinations (at December 2004):
Domestic
International
- Alicante, Spain (Easyjet)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (KLM)
- Barcelona, Spain (Easyjet)
- Berlin, Germany (Easyjet)
- Brussels, Belgium (SN Brussels Airlines)
- Budapest, Hungary (Easyjet)
- Cologne/Bonn, Germany (Hapag-Lloyd Express) #
- Copenhagen, Denmark (Easyjet and SAS)
- Dublin, Ireland (Ryanair)
- Geneva, Switzerland (Easyjet)
- Hanover, Germany (Hapag-Lloyd Express)
- Málaga, Spain (Easyjet)
- Milan, Italy (Ryanair) #
- Munich, Germany (Hapag-Lloyd Express) #
- Nice, France (Easyjet)
- Paris, France (Air France and Easyjet)
- Prague, Czech Republic (Easyjet)
- Palma (Easyjet and Air Scotland)
- Rome, Italy (Easyjet)
- Stavanger, Norway (Wideroe Flyvelskap)
# starting February/March 2005
Charter destinations include Athens, Corfu, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Faro, Fuerteventura, Naples, Sharm-el-Sheik, Toronto and Tenerife amongst others. Ski destinations include Innsbruck, Grenoble and Salzburg.
Location
The Airport is located near the small village of Woolsington, with the full title of the airport being Newcastle Woolsington International Airport.
Newcastle Airport is connected to Newcastle and Sunderland city centres by the Tyne and Wear Metro service.
The Airport is connected to the A1 trunk road by the A696 dual carriageway. A regular bus service (101 (http://www.tyneandweartimetables.co.uk/library/101-arrnorthumbria-01-04-01.pdf)) also runs from the airport to Newcastle and South East Northumberland. A half-hourly service (76/77 (http://www.tyneandweartimetables.co.uk/library/076-077-stgnewcastle-31-08-04.pdf)) runs between the airport and Newcastle City Centre, with a limited service (102 (http://www.tyneandweartimetables.co.uk/library/102-stgnewcastle-31-08-04.pdf)) linking the Airport with the Metrocentre shopping centre.
The latitude and longitude of the airport are 55.02N 00.141W.
History
The Airport first opened on the 26th of July, 1935 by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Phillip Cunliffe-Lister. Incorporating a clubhouse, hanger, workshops, fuel garage and grass runway, at the time it cost £35,000 to build.
Although during World War Two the main airport in the region was located at Cramlington in Northumberland, following the war a decision was taken to concentrate development on the present airport site. Accordingly, in the early 1950s, ex-RAF fighter pilot Jim Denyer was appointed as Airport Manager and within a few years over 5,000 people were using the Airport each year to travel to destinations such as Jersey and the Isle of Wight.
The 1960s saw tremendous growth in passenger numbers at the Airport. This was mainly due to British people taking foreign holidays to places such as Spain instead of holidaying within the UK. A new runway was built, along with an apron and a new air traffic control tower. These new additions were opened by the then-Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.
In the 1970s, with passenger figures approaching one million per year, the Airport status was changed to Category B, making it a regional international airport. The 1980s saw further investment in check-in, catering and duty free facilities. In 2000 a new £27 million extension was opened by Prime Minister Tony Blair and the first low-cost airline arrived at the airport, with Go-Fly inaugurating a service to London Stansted following the withdrawal from the route by the now defunct Gill Airways. 2001 saw the aquisition of a 49% stake in the Airport by Copenhagen Airports.
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