Newcastle International Airport

This article is about the airport in England, for other airports with this name, see Newcastle Airport (disambiguation).

Newcastle Airport File:Newcastle International Airport Logo.gif
File:Nia22.jpg
IATA: NCL ICAO: EGNT
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Local Authorities, Copenhagen Airports A/S
Serves	Newcastle upon Tyne
Elevation AMSL	266 ft / 81 m
Coordinates	55°02′15″N 001°41′30″W
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 07/25 7,641 2,329 Asphalt

Newcastle Airport (IATA: NCL, ICAO: EGNT) is the tenth largest airport in the United Kingdom. It is located in Newcastle upon Tyne, about 6 miles (11 km) north-west of the city centre.

Though in Newcastle, the airport itself is actually owned by seven local authorities (51%) and Copenhagen Airport (49%). The seven local authorities are: Durham County Council, Gateshead MBC, City of Newcastle, North Tyneside MBC, Northumberland County Council, South Tyneside MBC and City of Sunderland.

Newcastle International Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P725) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. It was also voted the North's favourite airport in a survey by Wanderlust.

History

The Airport was opened on 26 July 1935 by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Phillip Cunliffe-Lister. Incorporating a clubhouse, hangar, workshops, fuel garage and grass runway, at the time it cost £35,000 to build.

Although during World War II 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 shops. 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 acquisition of a 49% stake in the Airport by Copenhagen Airports.

In August 2004 Newcastle saw the opening of the extended and refurbished Departure Terminal. The refurbishment saw a 3,000 square metre extension which included new shops, cafes and 1,200 new waiting seats.In July 2005 it was announced that American Airlines were to start a new direct service to New York JFK Airport. Due to high fuel prices American Airlines cancelled these plans.

Newcastle was the first regional airport in the UK to install common-use self-service kiosks in the terminal, allowing passengers to check-in themselves without the need to queue at a conventional desk. In 2006, the Airport was the fastest growing regional airport in the UK by Civil Aviation Authority figures, with passenger numbers increasing rapidly year-on-year. Passenger figures are expected to approach seven million by 2009.

Rapid expansion in passenger traffic has caused the south-side of the airport, which was previously used for general aviation, to be more commonly used for freight, mail and corporate flights. This is partially due to difficulties obtaining departure and arrival slots for light aircraft traffic, which need to be separated from larger aircraft to protect against wake turbulence. As part of the Airport Master Plan, the south-side area is being expanded with maintenance facilities including new hangar and apron areas. The Newcastle Aviation Academy is also located within this area.

An Emirates Airline A330-200 arrived at the Airport at 12:04 on 01 September 2007, commencing the airlines daily flight schedule to Dubai. A full water-cannon salute was provided by the Airport Fire Service, with aircraft A6-EKQ being used for the first return trip.

Current events

Emirates Airline was the first airline to offer scheduled long-haul flights out of Newcastle. On 1 September 2007 the airline began daily direct services to Dubai using their A330 aircraft. Connections to other destinations including Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and China will be provided. This will provide an alternative for passengers to other European transfer points such as London Heathrow. Flyglobespan is also offering long-haul flights to Toronto-Hamilton in Canada. As of January 16, a new airbridge had been fitted to the first floor of the piers eastern end in preparation for the new service. This brings the total number of airbridges to three, the others being used mostly by British Airways and Thomsonfly. An EasyJet aircraft was used for initial tests.

On 3 May 2007 Emirates SkyCargo appointed Servisair as their cargo handling partner and swissport as their baggage handling partner for the new Newcastle to Dubai route. The construction of a new 187-bedroom, 4-star Ramada hotel began in June 2007, with work expected to last around 18 months.

Statistics

The airport has seen tremendous growth in recent years, with the CAA recently naming it as the fastest growing regional airport in the UK. The Airport handled 5.43 million passengers in 2006.

	Number of Passengers	Number of Movements	Freight (tonnes)	Mail (tonnes)
1997	2,592,000	81,279	1,219	3,489
1998	2,920,000	81,299	678	3,631
1999	2,934,000	79,291	776	3,409
2000	3,147,000	82,940	526	3,720
2001	3,376,358	82,524	783	2,859
2002	3,387,222	79,173	1,438	2,368
2003	3,903,340	75,113	924	2,576
2004	4,707,818	77,721	799	7,756
2005	5,187,182	55,494	199	7,820
2006	5,431,976	58,940	306	7,884
Source: United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority [1]

Future plans

The Airport recently published a Master Plan that set out development proposals for the airport until 2016. In the near term, these include building a multi-storey car park to replace the current short-stay parking, a new 187-bedroom on-site hotel (currently under construction) and the expansion of the freight facilities on the south side of the airport. Feasibility studies are being carried out to evaluate the longer-term proposals that include:

• extending the runway at its eastmost end,
• converting the junction with the A696 into a grade-separated junction to cater for the expected increase in traffic levels, and,
• the building of a heavy rail link to connect the airport with the National Rail network.

In November 2005 the Airport announced to build a new Air Traffic Control Tower on the north side of the site, replacing the existing structure which was completed in 1966. The work commenced in May 2006 and the building is expected to be in use by December 2007 at a cost of £8.2 million.<ref> {{cite press release | title =Work on new £8.2m Air Traffic Control Tower takes-off. | publisher = Newcastle International Airport | date = 2006-05-23 | url =http://www.newcastleairport.com/General/News/workbeginsonnewairtrafficcontroltower.htm | accessdate = 2007-02-12 | quote = A new ATC was built in a superb lattice-work and aluminium/glass structure in association with Emirates, named The Emirates Tower. This brings the flight-operation and planning services to an optimum, thanks to the generous contribution by Emirates Airline. Work was completed and the tower began operation on September 13th, 2007

Plans were recently announced for a new office development south of the main airport runway. The 3 story scheme should create around 170 new jobs. With the revealed plans came the news that the airport is hoped to expand to 10 million (double current capacity) by 2016 and 15 million by 2030. This will likely warrant a new terminal.

It is expected that £70million will be invested in the airport during the current Master Plan period, which runds from 2006 to 2016. The airport also recently finished extending its remote parking for aircraft, resulting in an extra 5 parking stands that can accommodate 5 large aircraft (Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 size), or 4 large aircraft plus 2 smaller aircraft (such as the BAe Jetstream 41).

A new petrol filling station is to be constructed on the Airport site at the north side of the airport entrance, next to the junction with the A696. Work is due to begin during summer 2007.

Surface access

Light rail

Main article: Airport Metro station

The Airport is connected to the Tyne and Wear Metro service linking it directly with both Newcastle (22 mins) and Sunderland (55 mins) city centres.

Road transport

The Airport is connected to the A1 trunk road by the A696 dual carriageway. A regular bus service (101) also runs from the airport to Newcastle (Kingston Park) and South East Northumberland. A half-hourly service (X77 / X78 / X79) links the Airport the nearby villages of Ponteland and Darras Hall, as well as Newcastle City Centre.

Ancillary services

The main handling agents at the Airport are Swissport UK (previously Groundstar) and Servisair.

There are two hotels on the Airport site, the Britannia Airport Hotel and a Premier Inn, with a third 190 bedroom Ramada hotel currently under construction, also an additional Premier Inn is located at Callerton, near the general aviation terminal. There are also a large number of hotels in Newcastle and the surrounding area.

Airlines and destinations

Airport apron and terminal building

• Aer Arann (Galway)
• Aer Lingus (Dublin)
• Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• Air Malta (Malta, Sardinia)
• Air Southwest (Newquay [begins April 28 2008], Plymouth [begins April 28 2008])
• Air Transat (Toronto-Pearson [begins May 28 2008])
• British Airways (London-Heathrow)
• Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
• Cimber Air (Copenhagen)
• Eastern Airways (Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Isle of Man, Southampton, Stavanger)
• easyJet (Alicante, Barcelona, Belfast-International, Bristol, Geneva, Faro, Ibiza, Kraków, London-Stansted, Mahon, Málaga, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Prague, Rome-Ciampino)
• Emirates (Dubai)
• Flybe (Belfast-City, Exeter, Jersey, Limoges, Southampton)
• Jet2.com (Almeria, Arrecife, Bergen, Chambery, Cork, Kraków, Las Palmas, London-Gatwick, Mahon, Málaga, Menorca, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Tenerife-South, Valencia)
• KLM (Amsterdam)
• Lufthansa (Düsseldorf)
• Ryanair (Dublin, Girona, Milan-Bergamo)
• Thomsonfly (Alicante, Malaga, Palma, Tenerife-South) (Scheduled)
• Widerøe (Stavanger)

Charter Flights

• Air Malta (Malta, Sardinia)
• BH Air (Bourgas, Varna)
• bmi (Kefalonia, Venice)
• Flyjet operated by XL Airways France (Arrecife, Corfu, Heraklion, Kos, Málaga, Palma, Paphos, Sharm-el-Sheik, Tenerife-South)
• Monarch Airlines (Cancún, Orlando-Sanford, Puerto Plata)
• MyTravel Airways (Alicante, Bodrum, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Las Palmas, Mahon, Málaga, Malta, Palma, Reus, Tenerife-South)
• Thomas Cook Airlines (Alicante, Arrecife, Bodrum, Bourgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Ibiza, Izmir, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Málaga, Monastir, Palma, Paphos, Puerto Plata, Reus, Rhodes, Sharm-el-Sheik, Tenerife-South, Toronto-Pearson, Zakynthos)
• Thomsonfly (Alicante, Antalya, Arrecife, Bourgas, Cancun [begins May 5th 2008], Corfu, Faro, Gerona, Heraklion, Ibiza, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Luxor, Mahon, Málaga, Monastir, Naples, Orlando-Sanford [begins May 3rd 2008], Palma, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana [begins May 4th 2008], Reus, Rhodes, Salzburg, Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Verona, Zakynthos)
• XL Airways (Alicante, Chania, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Funchal, Heraklion, Kavala, Ibiza, Larnaca, Palma, Paphos, Rhodes, Santorini, Sardinia, Skiathos, Tenerife-South, Zakynthos)

Cargo/Mail Flights

• Atlantic Airlines operated by MNG Airlines (Bristol-Filton)
• FedEx operated by Farnair (Paris-Charles De Gaulle)
• Jet2.com (East Midlands, London-Stansted)

References

• United Kingdom AIP

External links

• Official Newcastle Airport site
• "Newcastle International Airport extension opened" (Press release). Copenhagen Airports. 2004-08-13. Retrieved 2007-02-12. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)