Newcastle International Airport

For other uses, see Newcastle International Airport (disambiguation).

Newcastle Airport
File:Newcastle International Airport Logo.png
IATA: NCL ICAO: EGNT Newcastle Airport Location of airport in England
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Newcastle Airport Local Authority Holding Company Ltd, Copenhagen Airports A/S
Operator	Newcastle International Airport Ltd
Serves	Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear Cumbria Northumberland
Location	Woolsington, Tyne and Wear
Elevation AMSL	266 ft / 81 m
Coordinates	55°02′15″N 001°41′30″W
Website	www.newcastleairport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 07/25 2,329 7,641 Asphalt
Statistics (2009)
Movements 69,254 Passenger 4,587,883
Sources: UK AIP at NATS Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority

Newcastle International Airport (IATA: NCL, ICAO: EGNT) is located in Woolsington in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 5 NM (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) north-west of the city centre. In 2009 it was the 12th busiest airport in the United Kingdom.

The airport is 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 Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P725) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.

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 1991, Airport Metro station opened, connecting the airport with Newcastle and later in 2002 Sunderland city centres using the Tyne and Wear Metro system. A new £27 million extension was opened in 2000 by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and the first low-cost airline arrived at the airport, with Go inaugurating a service to London Stansted following the collapse of locally based Gill Airways. 2001 saw the acquisition of a 49% stake in the Airport by Copenhagen Airports.

File:Newcastle airport previous logo.png

Airport logo used until 2000

In August 2004 an extended and refurbished Departure Terminal was opened. The refurbishment comprised a 3,000 square metre extension which included new shops, cafes and 1,200 new waiting seats.

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 a record 5.4 million passengers used the Airport, according to Civil Aviation Authority figures. Passenger figures were expected to approach seven million by 2009 , although due to the financial crisis of 2007–2010 and subsequent recession, the actual figure fell short of that number by around 2.5 million.

Rapid expansion in passenger traffic has led to increasing commercial utilisation of the south-side of the airport, which was previously used for general aviation, and is now 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 to be expanded with maintenance facilities including new hangar and apron areas. The Newcastle Aviation Academy is also located within this area.

Future plans

The Airport recently published a Master Plan that sets 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 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 October 2007 a new Air Traffic Control Tower was completed at a cost of £8.2 million, situated on the north side of the airfield. The now christened ' Emirates Tower ' was designed by REID architects, and bears resemblance to the control tower they designed for Edinburgh Airport. In the process the Newcastle VHF omnidirectional range beacon was permanently withdrawn from service, since the new tower would have interfered with its operation.

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. The airport hopes to expand annual passenger capacity to 10 million (double current capacity) by 2016 and to 15 million by 2030 .

It is expected that £70million will be invested in the airport during the current Master Plan period, which runs 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 medium-sized aircraft (Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 size), or 4 large aircraft (Boeing 767 or Airbus A330 size) plus 2 smaller aircraft (such as the BAe Jetstream 41).

Area served

The airport mainly serves Northumberland, Tyneside and Wearside. The airport competes with the smaller Durham Tees Valley Airport for passengers travelling from and to County Durham and Teesside. Passengers from Cumbria, North Yorkshire and southern Scotland also use the airport, the nearest similar sized airport being Leeds Bradford Airport to the south and the larger Edinburgh and Glasgow International airports to the north. In terms of passenger numbers, Newcastle is the third largest airport in the North of England, Manchester Airport being the largest and Liverpool Airport following.

Airlines and destinations

File:BAA321.JPG

BA Domestic Airbus A321 bound for London Heathrow

Air France operated by Brit Air at NCL

Airlines	Destinations
Air France operated by Brit Air	Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Air Malta	Malta
Air Transat	Seasonal: Toronto-Pearson
Astraeus Airlines	Seasonal: Mahón
BH Air	Seasonal: Sofia, Varna, Bourgas
British Airways	London-Heathrow
BA Cityflyer	Charter: Milan-Bergamo, Naples, Ibiza
Brussels Airlines operated by BMI Regional	Brussels
Cimber Sterling	Copenhagen
Eastern Airways	Aberdeen, Bergen [begins 28 March], Birmingham, Cardiff, Stavanger
Eastern Airways operated by Air Southwest	Cardiff, Newquay
EasyJet	Alicante, Barcelona, Belfast-International, Bristol, Faro, London-Stansted [ends 27 March], Málaga, Paris-Charles de Gaulle Seasonal: Geneva, Ibiza, Malta, Minorca, Nice, Palma de Mallorca
Emirates	Dubai
Flybe	Belfast-City, Exeter, Jersey, London-Gatwick, Southampton Seasonal: Guernsey, Hanover, Limoges, Rennes
Iberworld	Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca
Jet2.com	Alicante [begins 1 April], Cork, Dalaman, Faro [begins 2 April], Geneva, Heraklion, Kraków [begins 28 March], Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Murcia, Paphos, Prague, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Chambéry, Corfu, Ibiza, Málaga, Minorca, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Rhodes, Sharm el-Sheikh [ends 26 February], Split, Toulouse [begins 22 May], Grenoble
KLM	Amsterdam
Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings	Düsseldorf
Manx2	Isle of Man
Onur Air	Seasonal: Bodrum, Dalaman
Ryanair	Dublin, Oslo-Rygge Seasonal: Girona
Saga Airlines	Seasonal: Dalaman
Sky Airlines	Seasonal: Bodrum, Dalaman
Thomas Cook Airlines	Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Málaga, Monastir, Orlando-Sanford, Paphos, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Alicante, Antalya, Bodrum, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Izmir, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Mahón, Palma de Mallorca, Reus, Rhodes, Santorini, Skiathos, Zakynthos
Thomson Airways	Alicante, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Málaga, Monastir [ends 24 April], Palma de Mallorca, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Antalya, Bodrum, Cancún, Corfu, Dalaman, Enfidha [begins 1 May], Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Geneva, Girona, Heraklion, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Malta, Minorca, Naples, Orlando-Sanford, Paphos, Punta Cana, Reus, Rhodes, Salzburg, Skiathos, Thessaloniki, Turin, Zakynthos
Widerøe	Stavanger

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
FedEx Express operated by Swiftair	Glasgow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Royal Mail operated by Jet2.com	East Midlands, London-Stansted
Royal Mail operated by MiniLiner	Bristol

Other facilities

When Gill Airways existed, its head office was in the New Aviation House, on the airport property.

Surface access

Light rail

Main article: Airport Metro station (Tyne and Wear)

Airport station on the Tyne and Wear Metro is directly connected to the terminal through an indoor walkway. The station is the northern terminus of the green line with frequent, direct services to Newcastle upon Tyne (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 (3) also runs from the airport to Newcastle (Kingston Park) and South East Northumberland. A half-hourly service (X77 / X78 / X79) links the Airport to the nearby villages of Ponteland and Darras Hall, as well as Newcastle City Centre. Services X77/X78/X79 are Monday to Saturday daytime services only, with the last journeys being made at around 18:00 hours. Service 74A operates a limited service to the City Centre at other times.

Heavy rail

The building of a heavy rail link to connect the airport with the National Rail network is planned (Before 2016).

Ancillary services

The main handling agents at the Airport are Swissport UK (previously Groundstar) who provide services for eighteen of the above 26 airlines and Servisair, their cargo division has a significant operation at Newcastle. Servisair have recently brought a new operation to Newcastle (14 February 2011); SmartHandling by Servisair, which is limited to providing services to Easyjet.

There are two hotels on the Airport site, the Britannia Airport Hotel and a Premier Inn, with another Premier Inn located at Callerton, near the general aviation terminal. The construction of a new 187-bedroom, 4-star hotel began in June 2007 and is due to open Winter 2010

Traffic statistics

The airport saw significant growth in the ten years to 2007, when passenger numbers peaked at 5.65 million, more than double the number handled ten years earlier. Passenger growth stalled in the subsequent two years due to the financial crisis of 2007–2010, with 4.59 million passengers passing through the airport in 2009 (below the 2004 total), although cargo volumes have consistently increased to record levels.

Number of passengers Number of movements Freight (tonnes) Mail (tonnes) 1997 2,642,591 81,279 1,219 3,489 1998 2,984,724 81,299 678 3,631 1999 2,994,051 79,291 776 3,409 2000 3,208,734 82,940 526 3,720 2001 3,431,393 82,524 783 2,859 2002 3,426,952 79,173 1,438 2,368 2003 3,920,204 75,113 924 2,576 2004 4,724,263 77,721 799 7,756 2005 5,200,806 55,494 199 7,820 2006 5,431,976 58,940 306 7,884 2007 5,650,716 58,395 785 8,483 2008 5,039,993 54,706 1,938 10,901 2009 4,587,883 69,254 2,597 9,758 2010 (provisional) 4,346,564 TBC TBC TBC

Ten busiest domestic routes from Newcastle Airport (2009)

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% Change
1	London Heathrow Airport	475,432	3
2	Belfast International Airport	192,673	6
3	Bristol International Airport	187,022	8
4	London Stansted Airport	140,979	30
5	London Gatwick Airport	110,593	9
6	Southampton Airport	110,338	6
7	Belfast City Airport	41,878	4
8	Exeter International Airport	39,029	19
9	Cardiff Airport	30,436	3
10	Aberdeen Airport	18,451	18

Busiest international routes from Newcastle Airport (2009)

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% Change
1	Palma Airport	256,959	5
2	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol	252,159	13
3	Alicante Airport	219,144	3
4	Paris CDG Airport	199,985	9
5	Málaga Airport	188,773	6
6	Dublin Airport	153,940	23
7	Dubai Airport	144,465	2
8	Tenerife South Airport	126,501	21
9	Faro Airport	114,383	3
10	Dalaman Airport	96,692	12
11	Barcelona Airport	87,634	12
12	Murcia Airport	81,018	0.5
13	Paphos Airport	77,730	0.1
14	Ibiza Airport	72,765	6
15	Arrecife Airport	65,761	8
16	Milas-Bodrum Airport	56,969	28
17	Girona Airport	51,662	24
18	Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport	51,608	78
19	Nice Airport	48,567	8
20	Las Palmas Airport	42,315	29

Accidents and incidents

• 30 November 2000 - A Piper Aerostar registered N64719 en route to Iceland crashed close to Fearnoch, on the north side of Loch Tay in Perthshire, killing the single crewmember. The aircraft had departed from Newcastle Airport. The accident report concluded that the aircraft gradually lost airspeed during an icing encounter, before stalling and the pilot losing control.
• 11 February 2004 - A Robinson R22 Beta lost height while in a hover taxi and impacted the ground causing major damage to the aircraft and minor injuries to the pilot and passenger.
• 5 August 2008 - A Royal Air Force Tornado GR4A overran the runway making an emergency landing after suffering a bird strike. The crew were uninjured although the aircraft suffered damage.
• 25 May 2009 - A Rockwell Commander 112 registered G-FLPI veered off the runway while landing. The nosewheel collapsed, the propeller and fuselage suffered damage, but the pilot was uninjured.

External links

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• Official website