Gatwick Airport’s 50th Birthday
Gatwick Airport was fifty years old in June this year. I wonder what those jockeys and racegoers who used to fly in to the field in order to attend the race meetings in the adjacent race course would make of the terminal buildings and aircraft movements today.
Gatwick is now the busiest single runway airport in the world. It began its life as an airfield on 1st August 1930 as the home of the Surrey Aero Club and was the home airfield for an Avro 504, Avro Avian and a de Havilland Gipsy Moth belonging to the club owner Ronald Waters. Two years later Waters sold the airfield to the Redwing Company and the Redwing Flying School joined the Surrey Aero Club at the site.
The airfield was sold on in 1933 and the new owner formed Airports Limited. A commercial aviation licence was granted in 1934 by the Air Ministry and in 1935 new rail link to London was opened the following year. Flights to Paris and Belfast were provided by Hillman’s Airways who later merged with United Airways and Spartan Airways to form Allied British Airways Ltd.
The year 1936 saw the opening of the world’s first circular terminal, “The Beehive”, which included a subway tunnel linking it to the new railway station. This allowed passengers to remain undercover throughout their journey from London Victoria to the terminal building. By 1937 military maintenance sections and and engineering company had moved in along with a military flying school.
During World War Two the airfield was in extensive use by numerous squadrons that included aircraft types such as; Mustangs, Spitfires, Blenheims, Ansons, Defiants, Hurricanes and many more. After the war it remained under the control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation for a few years until the Government approved plans to develop the are as an alternative airport to Heathrow. The development took nearly three years and the new airport was opened by HM The Queen in June 1958.
Development and expansion has continued apace since its opening in 1958 with the addition of new piers (totalling six to date), runway extensions, office blocks, and terminal shopping and amenity areas. Plans for further improvements include a new train station and baggage facility.
Let’s hope they learn from the fiasco earlier this summer at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.
