Newcastle Airport

Newcastle Airport
IATA: NCLICAO: EGNT
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Newcastle Airport Local Authority Holding Company Ltd (51%), AMP Capital (49%).
Operator Newcastle International Airport Ltd
Serves Newcastle upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear
County Durham
Cumbria
North Yorkshire
Northumberland
Location Woolsington, Newcastle upon Tyne
Elevation AMSL 266 ft / 81 m
Coordinates 55°02′17″N 001°41′23″W / 55.03806°N 1.68972°WCoordinates: 55°02′17″N 001°41′23″W / 55.03806°N 1.68972°W
Website newcastleairport.com
Map
EGNT

Location in Tyne and Wear

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
07/25 2,329 7,641 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 4,516,739
Passenger change 13-14 Increase2.2%
Aircraft Movements 59,114
Movements change 13-14 Decrease1.4%
Sources: UK AIP at NATS[1]
Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority[2]

Newcastle International Airport (IATA: NCL, ICAO: EGNT) is located near the Woolsington area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi)[1] north-west of the city centre. In 2013 it was the 10th busiest airport in the United Kingdom.[2]

The airport is owned by seven local authorities (51%) and AMP Capital (49%). The seven local authorities are: City of Newcastle, City of Sunderland, Durham County Council, Gateshead MBC, North Tyneside MBC, Northumberland County Council and South Tyneside MBC. On 27 October 2012 Copenhagen Airport sold the stake in the airport to AMP Capital, which is an Australian-based Investment Management Company.

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 as Woolsington Aerodrome 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.

Newcastle Airport in 1972

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, in the same decade it was re-branded as Newcastle Airport. The 80's saw further investment in check-in, catering and duty-free shops. In 1991, Airport Metro station opened, connecting the airport with Newcastle city centre 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.

Newcastle Airport's control tower

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.[3]

In 2006 a record 5.4 million passengers used the Airport, according to Civil Aviation Authority figures.

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.

Plans

Newcastle Airport arrivals and check-in area

In 2013, the Airport published a Master Plan that sets out development proposals for the airport until 2030. In the near term, these include changes to the road network and the expansion of the freight facilities on the south side of the airport.

The developments planned include:

Area served

The airport mainly serves the City of Newcastle, the greater Tyneside area, Northumberland 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 second largest airport in the North of England, after Manchester Airport.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines Destinations
Aer Lingus Regional
operated by Stobart Air
Cork, Dublin
Air France
operated by CityJet
Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Air Malta Seasonal: Malta
BH Air Seasonal: Burgas, Varna
BMI Regional Brussels
British Airways London-Heathrow
Citywing
operated by Van Air Europe
Isle of Man
Eastern Airways Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Stavanger
easyJet Alicante, Amsterdam (ends 31 May 2015),[4] Barcelona, Belfast-International, Bristol, Faro, Geneva, Málaga, Malta
Seasonal: Corfu (begins 7 June 2015),[5] Jersey, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes (begins 4 June 2015),[5] Split (begins 2 June 2015),[5] Tenerife-South
Emirates Dubai-International
Flybe Belfast-City, Exeter, London-Stansted, Southampton
Seasonal: Newquay
Germanwings
operated by Eurowings
Düsseldorf
Jet2.com Alicante, Gran Canaria, Kraków, Lanzarote, Málaga, Prague, Tenerife-South
Seasonal: Antalya (begins 22 May 2015), Bodrum, Chambéry, Corfu, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Enfidha (begins 27 May 2015), Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal,[6] Heraklion, Ibiza, Larnaca (begins 27 May 2015), Malta (begins 21 May 2015), Mahón, Murcia, Newark,[7] Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Pisa, Reus, Rhodes, Rome-Fiumicino, Zakynthos (begins 27 May 2015)
KLM Amsterdam
Pegasus Airlines Seasonal: Dalaman (begins 25 May 2015)
Ryanair Dublin
Scandinavian Airlines Copenhagen[8]
Thomas Cook Airlines Enfidha, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tenerife-South
Seasonal: Alicante, Antalya, Bodrum, Bourgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Malta, Mahón, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes, Skiathos, Zakynthos, Santorini (begins 16 May 2015), Hurghada
Thomson Airways Alicante, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Málaga, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tenerife-South
Seasonal: Antalya, Barbados, Bodrum, Bourgas, Cancún, Corfu, Dalaman, Dubrovnik (begins 7 May 2015) Enfidha, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Geneva Heraklion, Ibiza, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Montego Bay, Mahón, Naples, Orlando-Sanford, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes, Salzburg, Turin, Zakynthos
United Airlines Seasonal: Newark (begins 23 May 2015)[9]
Wideroe Stavanger

Cargo

Airlines Destinations
FedEx Express
operated by Air Contractors
Glasgow-International, Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Royal Mail
operated by West Atlantic
London-Stansted
Royal Mail
operated by Jet2.com
East Midlands

Other facilities

When Gill Airways existed, its head office was in the New Aviation House, on the airport property.[10]

Also, the Newcastle Airport Freight Village which is located beside the Airport, bases Emirates SkyCargo, FedEx, Servisair Cargo and NorthEast Air Cargo company offices to deal with freight such as mail and cargo to export and import goods to and from Newcastle and across the world. It also houses Freight Forwarding Agents such as; Camair, DHL, Kintetsu World Express, Kuehne & Nagel, Nippon Express, Schenker International, Davis Turner Air Cargo and Universal Forwarding. The Airport is also home to the Newcastle Airport Fire Academy.[11][12]

Surface access

Metro

Airport Metro Station

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 all the main City Centre Metro Stations (approx 22 mins).

Road transport

The Airport is connected to the A1 trunk road by the A696 dual carriageway. A half-hourly bus service (X77 / X78 / X79) links the Airport to the nearby villages of Ponteland and Darras Hall, as well as to the 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 on Sunday daytimes.

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 and two near by. The Britannia Airport Hotel is situated at the end of the short stay car park outside the front of the terminal, The second hotel on the airport grounds was completed in 2011 and is operated by the Doubletree by Hilton brand, with 179 bedrooms and a 4 star rating.[13]

Adjacent to the Hilton Doubletree is the Premier Inn, with another Premier Inn located at Callerton, near the general aviation terminal.

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 numbers declined in the subsequent four years due to the financial crisis of 2007–2010, with around 4.4 million passengers passing through the airport in 2013 (below the 2004 total), although cargo volumes have broadly increased to record levels since 2005.[2]

Newcastle Airport Passenger Totals 1997-2014 (millions)
Updated: 25 April 2015.[2]
Number of passengers[2]
Number of movements[14]
Freight
(tonnes)[2]
Mail
(tonnes)[2]
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 77,882 199 7,820
2006 5,431,976 81,655 306 7,884
2007 5,650,716 79,200 785 8,483
2008 5,039,993 72,904 1,938 10,901
2009 4,587,883 69,254 2,597 9,758
2010 4,356,130 66,677 3,650 9,062
2011 4,346,270 64,521 3,059 8,532
2012 4,366,196 61,006 2,956 7,929
2013 4,420,839 59,962 3,701 6,512
2014 4,516,739 59,114 4,450 4,738
Emirates Boeing 777 at Newcastle Airport in 2014
Thomson Airways Boeing 737 at Newcastle Airport in 2014
British Airways Airbus A321 bound for London Heathrow
Air France operated by Brit Air at NCL
RAF Tornado at Newcastle Airport
Busiest domestic routes to and from Newcastle Airport (2013)[2]
Rank Airport Passengers handled % Change
2012 / 13
1 London Heathrow481,307Decrease1
2 Belfast International192,513Steady0
3 Bristol175,587Increase2
4 Southampton91,064Increase5
5 London Gatwick81,813Decrease3
6 Belfast City 41,700Increase7
7 Aberdeen30,759Increase24
8 Exeter29,945Steady0
9 Jersey17,878Increase45
10 Cardiff12,546Decrease12
Busiest international routes to and from Newcastle Airport (2013)[2]
Rank Airport Passengers handled % Change
2012 / 13
1Amsterdam356,172Increase25
2Alicante253,499Increase9
3Palma de Mallorca240,281Increase3
4Dubai199,025Increase23
5Málaga182,736Increase15
6Tenerife South170,898Increase8
7Paris Charles de Gaulle141,018Decrease23
8Dublin139,339Decrease9
9Dalaman137,281Increase22
10Faro122,164Increase2
11Lanzarote83,296Increase10
12Ibiza76,618Increase13
13Barcelona65,557Decrease7
14Sharm el-Sheikh59,353Decrease7
15Paphos51,488Decrease20
16Las Palmas51,208Decrease1
17Enfidha45,729Increase5
18Murcia45,451Decrease10
19Mahon42,473Increase4
20Corfu41,907Decrease1

Accidents and incidents

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Newcastle - EGNT
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 CAA: UK Annual Airport Statistics
  3. "New and dropped routes". Easyjet.
  4. 5.0 5.1 5.2 "New routes for summer 2015". Easyjet.
  5. "Jet2.com launches new flights from Newcastle International Airport". Chronicle Live. 2013-12-04. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  6. "Get more of New York with Jet2.com!". jet2.com.
  7. Michael Brown (2012-11-01). "Newcastle to Copenhagen flights are launched". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  8. "SNEAK PEEK: A look inside the United Airlines Boeing 757 that will fly from Newcastle to New York". Evening Chronicle UK. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  9. "Contact Us." Gill Airways. 23 April 2000. Retrieved on 22 September 2010.
  10. "Cargo & Freight". Newcastle Airport. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  11. "Fire Training Courses". Newcastle Airport. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  12. Newcastle Airport Hotel
  13. Number of movements represents total aircraft takeoffs and landings during the year.
  14. Report on the accident to Piper PA60-602P, N64719 on 30 November 2000, UK AAIB
  15. Robinson R22 Beta, G-BSXN on 11 February 2004, UK AAIB
  16. Tornado GR4A, ZA 371 on 5 August 2008, UK AAIB
  17. Report on the accident to Rockwell Commander 112, G-FLPI on 25 May 2009, UK AAIB

External links

Media related to Newcastle Airport at Wikimedia Commons