Swansea Airport

Swansea Airport
Swansea Airport control tower. (2008)
IATA: SWS – ICAO: EGFH
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Swansea Airport Ltd.
Location		Pennard Swansea
Elevation AMSL		299 ft / 91 m
Coordinates		51°36′19″N 004°04′04″W
Map
EGFH Location in Swansea
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
04/22	4,429	1,350	Concrete
10/28	2,812	857	Asphalt
Sources: UK AIP at NATS

Swansea Airport (Welsh: Maes Awyr Abertawe) (IATA: SWS, ICAO: EGFH) is an airport located at Fairwood Common on the Gower Peninsula 5 NM (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) west south-west of Swansea, Wales.

Operations

Swansea Airport has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P867) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Swansea Airport Limited). The airport is not licensed for night use.

The airport is mainly used to handle light helicopters and private planes. One of the Wales Air Ambulance helicopters is based there. Additionally, it is used by police helicopters.

An aeroplane training school and club called Cambrian Flying Club is based at the airport offering training on light aircraft. The flight school has a number of aircraft which are also used for practice and leisure these aircraft include, PA38s, PA28s and Cessna 172. The flight school operates tours of Gower and Wales from the air.

A helicopter training company called Heli-air Wales has been based at the airport for the last sixteen years, and is accredited with pioneering Helicopter Training in Wales.

A skydiving club - Skydive Swansea, affiliated with the British Parachute Association, is based at the airport flying on Britten-Norman Islander aircraft.

Also based at the airport is 636 VGS operating the Grob Vigilant motor glider which are used by the local Air Training Corps squadrons.

Facilities

Swansea Airport

Located on the eastern part of the site is the airport's only terminal building with seats for 25 passengers. The air traffic control tower is integrated into the terminal building. The airport has only two hangars, of which one is small and requires updating.

Access to the airport is adequate for the facilities it offers. It can be reached via the A4118 road, running through the Gower Peninsula. Overall it is quite distant from any major roads, taking around 20 minutes to reach from the nearest M4 junction, travelling on mainly suburban roads.

The fire brigade at Swansea is CAT 1, but believed to be able to do CAT 2 on request. The airport uses a small Dodge RIV.

History

Swansea Airport was built on what was originally common land during World War II. The aerodrome was opened on 15 June 1941 as RAF Fairwood Common, after taking nearly a year to develop. It was originally built to be a fighter station. The airport became a sector station within months of opening, taking on the responsibility of the air defence for the whole of South Wales.

The airfield fulfilled a variety of military roles during World War II, following which it was decommissioned by the RAF in 1946. It was not until 1956 that the RAF released the airport land to Swansea Corporation to allow the airport to be developed for commercial usage. In the following 20 years, a variety of airlines operated through the airport with varying degrees of success. Cambrian Airlines operated services to Jersey and Guernsey; and Morton Air Services operated a service to Gatwick. Scheduled regular flights then ceased in 1969. During the 1970s and 1980s, only ad-hoc and summer charter flights continued to operate.

The 1990s saw the arrival of Heli-air Wales to the airport, and so began the era of Helicopter Training in South Wales. In April 2000, Swansea entrepreneur Martin Morgan via his company Jaxx Landing Ltd., bought the remaining lease. Ambitious plans were put in place to upgrade the then run-down facilities. The airport changed ownership again in 2003, when the Morgans sold their interest in the airport to Swansea Airport Limited, owned by Air Wales owner and director Roy Thomas, who was appointed CEO of the airport company.

The airport was, for a short time, the headquarters of Air Wales before they ceased all operations from the airport to focus on more popular routes from Cardiff International Airport, although before their demise, the headquarters remained in Swansea, instead at a city-centre location.

Development of the airport

With the take over of the airport by Jaxx Landing, activity at the airport began to increase: the Welsh Air Ambulance service based a MBB Bö 105 helicopter at the airport in March 2001; and in June 2003, a second helicopter was added. In August 2001, gliders moved from Aberporth back to Swansea.

Air Wales used it between 2001 and 2004, offering flights to Dublin, Cork, Jersey and London. However, the venture was not successful. After 18 months of operation, Air Wales's owner Roy Thomas had invested more than £3.25 million of his personal fortune into the airport. The venture received only one tenth of the passengers needed to make the business viable. The final straw came when the CAA demanded that the airport's landing lights be overhauled at a cost of £350,000. Roy Thomas decided to pull out of Swansea Airport and concentrate Air Wales's operations at Cardiff International Airport instead.

Since 2004, there have been no scheduled flights operating from the airport.

The Welsh Assembly Government is currently conducting studies into improving the facilities at the airport as part of the transport infrastructure development strategy for the whole of Wales. The improvements may require some public sector support. Development proposals include: a new terminal building, new hangars, upgraded operating facilities, new fencing and a new access road.

Opposition to the development

There has been widespread local opposition against the idea of further development of the airport. The main concerns are: the impact on the internationally important Special Area of Conservation which almost surrounds the airport; noise from the increased number of flights at the airport; and the negative impact of the development of the airport on the local scenery, since Gower is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.