About Birmingham Airport
The original terminal at Birmingham airport opened on May 1st 1939, the first scheduled flight was from Liverpool by Dragon Rapide. By 1959 the main runway was extended by 800ft and the first jet airliner to visit was a Comet from Lyneham in April 1961. The first Concorde arrived in 1980 operated by Air France. Approval had now been given to construct a new terminal close to the NEC, work beginning in 1981.
In 1986 after the West Midlands County Council was abolished, ownership of the Airport transferred to a newly formed West Midlands District Joint Airport Committee still comprising the seven district councils of the West Midlands administrative area. The Airports Act 1986 introduced legislation requiring municipal airports with a turnover in excess of £1 million to become Public Airport Companies and on 1st April 1987, the ownership of the Airport transferred to Birmingham International Airport plc, a public limited company owned by the seven West Midlands district councils.
A new airport terminal was opened by The Queen in May 1984, opening the door for new routes and an increase in passengers. Birmingham’s own airline, 'Birmingham Executive', was born in 1983, opening many new routes into Europe. In 1991 the Eurohub was opened, used by British Airways and it's partners.
Passenger numbers increased year by year so large-scale development plans were drawn up, this included secure airport parking compounds and further airport lounges and general airport facilities to meet such growing numbers of passengers.
By the late 1990s air transport movements have increased at a high rate to 111,000 and at peak times during weekday mornings their is now one movement every 60 seconds.
In 1999 there were up to 13 charter aircraft based at the airport daily during the Summer and on busy Summer mornings up to 7 wide-bodied transatlantic flights were handled.
7 million passengers were handled during 1999, currently increasing at a steady annual rate.
As the Airport moves into the new millennium expansion continues. Long haul routes to Asia are increasing, two flights by 747 were operated by Pakistan International (now 6 A310s a week operate the service) and Uzbekistan now link Birmingham with Tashkent and New York JFK.
Work on the airport continues with more lounges, airbridges, multi-story car parks and taxiways.
On 18th December 2000 one of the World's major airlines, Emirates started daily flights to Dubai with Airbus A330s. This will allow convenient access to Asia and Australia.
The airport continues to freeze it's charges in a bid to attract new services. A new Maglev replacement, transport interchange, approach road and satellite terminal and new airbridges will all be constructed between 2001 and 2004 leaving the airport capable of handling 10 million passengers a year.
Heathrow ParkingGatwick ParkingStansted ParkingLuton ParkingEast Midlands ParkingBirmingham ParkingCardiff ParkingNewcastle ParkingManchester ParkingLeeds Bradford ParkingLiverpool ParkingEdinburgh ParkingGlasgow Parking