1943-2007

The Beginning

Humberside Airport is on the site of RAF Kirmington, a 2nd World War airfield under the auspices of Bomber Command. In January 1943 the base became the home of 166 Squadron which initially flew Wellington MK111’s until they were replaced by Lancaster bombers. Operational activity by the squadron ceased on 25th April 1945.

At the end of the war the airfield became farmland before the return of small scale flying in the 1960's. Operations included local air-taxi company, Humber Airways. Lindsey County Council bought the site in 1969, upgrading it to meet Civil Aviation Authority standards. Further investment came from British Steel, who used the airport as the base for their fleet of executive aircraft.

In 1972 the original Eastern Airways was established at the airport; Eastern Airways was the trading name of Lease Air, a subsidiary of the Leighford Group and operated initially as an air-taxi operator, before also offering executive charter flights from 1973. By 1979 Eastern Airways had amassed a fleet of 2 Douglas DC-3s, 2 Piper Navajos, 7 Piper Aztecs and 1 Ce 310.

On March 26th 1974, Alderman Albert Cox, Chairman of the Lindsey Planning Committee declared Kirmington (Lincolnshire) Airport officially open, the initial development work having been completed. 6 days later following local government reorganisation, the airport was renamed to Humberside Airport and the newly formed Humberside County Council became the airport’s owners. In 1974 the airport served 5,934 passengers.

1975 saw a new passenger terminal open, and the first scheduled flight commenced on 7th April to Amsterdam, a service that has operated ever since. The route was operated by Air Anglia who opened an outstation at the airport. Later in the month a weekend link to Jersey was established and this was followed by other routes to Birmingham, Glasgow, London Heathrow, Norwich and Teesside.

The 1980's - Eastern Airways, DC-3's to Heathrow and Genair

In January 1980, Air Anglia became part of Air UK who continued to serve Humberside. However operations soon decreased with routes to Birmingham and Teesside ending. In 1981 Eastern Airways replaced Air UK’s Glasgow and London Heathrow via Norwich routes, initially using DC-3’s before a Shorts SD330 took over from July; 1981 also saw the airline add a HS 125 executive jet to it’s fleet. Air UK’s presence was reduced to single weekday services to Aberdeen and Amsterdam.

In September 1982, General Relay, owner of Liverpool based Genair, announced the purchase of Eastern Airways and Teesside based Casair. The three airlines were merged under the Genair name and the merged entity was based at Humberside with operations beginning on October 24th. Joint Managing Directors were Bob Marshall and Bryan Huxford, the latter of whom became a pivotal figure in the modern day Eastern Airways. The fleet comprised 5 SD330’s, 1 SD360 and 4 Embraer 110 Baindeirantes. Humberside Airport benefited from new routes to Belfast, Edinburgh and Norwich while frequencies were increased to London Gatwick, London Heathrow and Glasgow. Fast moving developments saw Genair join British Caledonian’s Commuter Services network in November 1982.

By Summer 1983, Air UK had increased their Amsterdam service to three times a day on weekdays alongside the single weekday Aberdeen service. For Summer 1984 a single rotation to Amsterdam had been added on Saturdays and Sundays.

April 1984 saw Bryan Huxford leave Genair, while as part of a network expansion Humberside gained new Genair routes to Esbjerg and Jersey. A weekday service was also provided in Summer 1984 to London Stansted. Overall the Genair Humberside Summer 1984 route network included Esbjerg, Glasgow, Guernsey, Jersey, London Heathrow, London Stansted, Norwich and Teesside. However by July operating debts were £4 million and $12 million was owed aircraft lessor Greyhound Leasing Group. These debts led to Genair ceasing operations on July 14th, 1984. Air UK resumed the Humberside-London Heathrow link alongside existing routes to Aberdeen, Amsterdam and Edinburgh. For Summer 1985 Air UK served Aberdeen, Amsterdam (by now operating four times a day on weekdays), Edinburgh, Esbjerg, Jersey, London Heathrow and Norwich.

Elsewhere a new weekday Humberside-Teesside-Glasgow service was commenced on 5th November 1984 by a restarted Casair on behalf of Air Ecosse, using a Cessna 404 Titan; by the following year the route had become twice daily. In October 1986, Air Ecosse's Humberside network included Teesside, Leeds Bradford and London Gatwick. 

A new west apron opened in 1986, and the airport became a private limited company following a change in the Airports Act. Annual passenger numbers had reached 109,744. In the Summer of 1986, British Air Ferries and Guernsey Airlines had provided Saturday links to Jersey and Guernsey respectively.

The airport’s Summer 1987 timetable shows Air UK providing Humberside-Norwich-London Heathrow, Norwich-Humberside-Edinburgh-Aberdeen and Humberside-Amsterdam links alongside a Saturday Jersey service. Casair provided competition to Aberdeen with a single daily flight on weekdays returning via Newcastle, alongside their twice daily Humberside-Teesside-Glasgow service. Cimber Air had started flights to Humberside, providing a weekday link to Esbjerg instead of Air UK. On Summer Saturdays Air UK had competition to Jersey from British Air Ferries and Guernsey Airlines, while the airport also had a weekly seasonal charter flight to Palma/Majorca. As can be seen Air Ecosse had ceased to serve Humberside by this time.

All Summer 1987 services continued into Winter 1987-1988, with Casair also starting a weekday Belfast service and adding a second frequency on their Aberdeen route. In March 1988 Casair ceased operations, and for Summer 1988 Air UK made amendments to their operations, one of their two Aberdeen services was routed via Teesside instead of Edinburgh, and a 3rd, non-stop, frequency added. This pattern of operation continued until at least Summer 1989, with Cimber Air’s Esbjerg service operating until at least this time as well. However the Esbjerg service was later passed to Newair before stopping in the early 1990's. 1989 saw a new airline was set up at the airport, Skyrover. They began flights to Dusseldorf. The summer service was a huge success but by winter, loads had decreased and the airline stopped flights.

The Early 1990's – Goodbye Heathrow, hello Air Hong Kong B747 (once)

The start of the decade saw a big blow to the airport as Air UK stopped its London Heathrow flights in March 1990 due to high landing charges. Amsterdam, East Coast and Jersey services operated by Air UK were unaffected.

April 1990 brought better news with a runway extension approved by the Minister for Aviation Patrick McCoughlin, who authorised £8 million of borrowing to fund it. Work commenced in 1991, bringing the runway length to 2200m. The extension opened in 1992, leading to the start of regular charter flights to European holiday destinations (though Hispania had operated some Majorca flights in the late 1980’s). The first season of summer charter flights saw services to Palma and Tenerife with tour operators Airtours and Thomson. To mark the runway extension, an Air Hong Kong B747 visited the airport, Around this time the airport used to hold yearly airshows and there were various visits by Concorde.

The charter programme continued to grow over the next few years with some destinations more successful than others. Airlines involved in operating flights at included Air Malta, Airtours, Britannia and Monarch. Destinations included Corfu, the Costa Brava, Cyprus, Izmir, Malta, Rhodes and Turkey as well as the slightly less exotic Alicante, Gran Canaria, Palma, Menorca and Tenerife.

Ambition but failure in regional routes

1992-3 saw a based Jetstream 31 flying to Glasgow three times a day on weekdays, once daily to Belfast International and a weekend Dublin service. The routes were initially operated by Brymon Airways around the time of their merger with Birmingham European Airways, though later changed to operating under the British Airways brand as part of a franchise arrangement with the operating carrier being Maersk Air UK.

1994 saw another attempt to expand regional scheduled services from Humberside. EuroDirect Airlines started flights in August to Aberdeen (in competition with Air UK), Bournemouth, Brussels, Dublin and London Stansted using Jetstream 31 and ATP aircraft. Onward connections were available to Exeter and Paris CDG at Bournemouth and to Hamburg at London Stansted.

By October changes were being made to the schedules. Bournemouth flights where reduced from twice to once daily and Dublin flights to weekends only while the route to Stansted was dropped completely. However non-stop flights to Paris CDG and Hamburg were announced. A weekly Manchester flight was also operated as a positioning move. Routes to Aberdeen and Brussels continued as before.

December however saw yet more changes. Paris CDG, Bournemouth and Dublin were axed while the Hamburg service never started. Flights to Aberdeen and Brussels, which appeared to do well continued until the airline stopped flights in early 1995. 

It only took a few weeks before the Brussels link was re-established. It was operated by EuroDirect Belgium. They had operated as an associated company of Euro Direct Airlines but had managed to resume flights. The route was operated in partnership with the Belgium national airline Sabena until it sadly ended in 1996.

With the end of Stansted flights in October 1994, the airport lost a key business route to London. However in November a new start up airline, City Air Bus started regular Dornier 228 flights to London City. Sadly this service too failed in early 1995; in the same week the airline had planned to start a new route to Cardiff.

By 1996 once again Air UK was the airport’s only scheduled airline. In the Summer of 1996 they served Aberdeen via Teesside, Amsterdam and Jersey on Summer Saturdays; Norwich and Edinburgh services having ended at the end of Summer 1994. 1997 saw new hope as a new airline, Western Regional Airlines, planned to start flights from Humberside. The main and initial route was to be to Brussels, to be complemented by Belfast, Copenhagen and at least one Danish Regional Airport. The plan was to use a Beechcraft 1900 but sadly flights never started.

While at the time there was much promise with expansion of charter flights and by scheduled airlines, the number of routes that ended up being axed did not help the airports reputation. And the suspension and later departure of the airport managing director, plus a debate over the airport’s future ownership did not help matters.

The Late 1990's – Eastern Airways, Florida and Manchester

1996 saw the opening of a new helicopter terminal while facilities in the main terminal were upgraded and expanded, including a new restaurant.

The year also saw the county of Humberside abolished, with the former Humberside County Council’s shares in Humberside Airport split between East Riding of Yorkshire Council who got 39.1% of the shares, Hull City Council who got 26.1% and North and North East Lincolnshire Councils who split the remainder equally between them. By 1999 only North Lincolnshire Council retained its shares; the other three local councils sold their shares to Manchester Airport, giving them an 82.7% shareholding.

In 1997 Humberside’s main airline, Air UK, was taken over by their partner KLM. While the Amsterdam service remained domestic flights to Aberdeen (via Teeside) and Jersey were dropped. Initially British Regional Airlines, operating as British Airways, replaced Air UK on the Aberdeen route with a once daily non-stop service.

However, the demise of Air UK led to the set up of a new Eastern Airways during late 1997. Like the original airline, Eastern Airways set up base at Humberside and initially operated a twice daily non-stop Aberdeen service. This higher frequency forced the pull out of British Airways. Eastern Airways has since expanded significantly, and while it continues to only offer Aberdeen from Humberside, it has invested considerably in it’s head office, maintenance and training facilities at Humberside.

Humberside Airport also went long haul in 1997. Thomson Holidays, using a Britannia B767, offered two flights to Florida and one to the Dominican Republic, with a stop on the outward leg at Shannon in Ireland. Sadly these flights were not repeated again as a change of policy led to these special departure holidays being stopped.

1999 saw a significant new scheduled service from Humberside. Newcastle based Gill Airways, operating under an Air France franchise, started flights to Paris CDG on the 4th May. Furthermore during the year Gama Aviation converted a service on behalf of Bond Helicopters to Aberdeen from charter to scheduled status.

Changing Century - A focus on Charters and arrival of the Low Cost Airline

Unfortunately the Paris service didn’t last more than a year into the new century and ended on December 16th 2000 following financial problems at Gill Airways. 2000 also saw a short lived Norwich-Humberside-Glasgow service from Eastern Airways. Eastern then tried a Humberside to Edinburgh route in April 2002, but this ceased by Christmas. Also in the early 2000’s Gama Aviation ceased their Aberdeen service, though Eastern Airways remained on the route.

Charter flights continued to grow in the early 21st century. Although Cosmos had pulled out of the airport in the late 1990’s, the airport welcomed JMC (now Thomas Cook). Various tour operators added new routes including Lanzarote and Bodrum. Humberside was one of the country’s fastest growing airports, and in March 2003 broke the 500,000 passengers milestone for the first time. January 2003 saw a major extension to the airport restaurant, and a new bar was also opened to cater for the increased number of passengers using the airport terminal.

February 2003 saw the announcement of a regular freight service with Icelandair Cargo. Operating from Keflavik, the flights carried fish and initially operated twice weekly, but later increased in frequency. As well as their own B757-200F's, Icelandair Cargo used Bluebird Cargo 737F's and Aviapaslauga Tu-204C's on some flights.

October 2003 saw a sad event, as a passenger-carrying Concorde visited Humberside for the last time before retirement. In 2004 the BBC exposed security breaches at Humberside Airport, with a reporter able to gain access to the airfield.

With the opening of Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield airport at the former RAF Finningley site, and cutbacks at the airport’s main tour operator, Airtours, 2005 was bad year at Humberside. Instead of rising, like they had done for a number of years, passenger numbers fell. Thomson moved some charter flights to the new Doncaster airport and Airtours pulled others. Local Media expressed concern for the future of the airport. One positive however was the opening of a new base for the Humberside Police Helicopter, which moved from RAF Leconfield.

However 2006 saw a dramatic turn of fortune including the first based charter aircraft at the airport. Excel Airways based a B737-800 at Humberside for half the week in the summer season. Meanwhile the first regular intercontinental service started with a weekly Summer charter flight to Monastir in Tunisia. Furthermore Ryanair opened a new daily Dublin service in April using a B737-800, the first low cost service from Humberside Airport.

Then it all went wrong (again)

In a flashback to the mid 1990’s when regional routes never stuck around for long, Excel Airways and Ryanair soon announced they were pulling out of Humberside. Excel Airways had planned to base an aircraft all week at Humberside for Summer 2007 but in Autumn 2006 announced they would not be returning to Humberside in 2007. Summer 2007 also saw the loss of the Monastir flight.

Ryanair also left in October 2006 due to disappointing loads. Their Dublin route was attracting over 5000 passengers a month but on average this meant only half the seats on its B737-800 aircraft were full. This left Humberside with no low cost airline and once again only two scheduled routes – Aberdeen and Amsterdam – two routes which the airport has successfully managed to keep over the years when many others have come and gone.201

Sources

My own records and collections plus:

Books:

·         abc British Airports, 6th Edition - Alan J. Wright

Individuals:

·         Gordon Luck (via Air Humberside Forum)

·         John Tarran

·         Kirmingtonuser (via Air Humberside Forum)

Magazine Articles:

·         Genair, Official British Caledonian Commuter Carrier: Article by Matt Falcus in Airliner World August 2011, pages 62-66

Websites:

·         Air Ecosse Airline Timetable Image - http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/sm.htm [Accessed 14th February 2012]

·         Airport Website History Page - http://www.humbersideairport.com/huyweb.nsf/Content/OurHistory [Accessed 14th February 2012]

·         BBC Inside Out - http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series5/airport_security_humberside.shtml [Accessed 15th February 2012]

·         Dave Mark, Yorkshire Post - http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/around-yorkshire/local-stories/in-the-late-1960s-it-was-an-overgrown-airfield-given-over-to-farmland-and-its-history-as-a-bomber-station-largely-forgotten-but-as-it-celebrates-its-30th-birthday-humberside-airport-is-flying-high-dave-mark-reports-on-its-incredible-journey-1-2426439 [Accessed 13th October 2012]

·         Old Air Humberside Forum - http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/index.php?mforum=airhumberside 

·         Unofficial Humberside Airport website (unrelated to this site) - http://website.lineone.net/~humberside_airport/ (site may no longer be accessible)

Section last updated 31st March 2024.