NEWCASTLE AIRPORT GUIDE (NCL)

QUICK FACTS Name: Newcastle International Airport IATA Code: NCL ICAO Code: EGNT Opened: 1935 Terminals: 1 Runways: 1 Destinations served:80+ Passengers: 3.5m (2009)

HISTORY

The history of Newcastle Airport can be traced back to as far back as 1925, when the Newcastle Aero Club was first established. It was around this time that the airfield was built in Cramlington, northern Newcastle, for a total construction cost of £35,000, which equated to a fortune in the mid-1920. It was only a decade later, on the 26th July 1935, that the Newcastle Airport was opened to the public as a commercial flight hub. The official ceremony was conducted by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Phillip Cunliffe-Lister.
 
Despite the auspiciousness of the occasion, the infant flight hub did not yet feature its extensive current-day Newcastle airport parking facilities, nor much else for that matter. In 1935, the Newcastle Airport consisted only of a single runway - which was yet to be paved - a clubhouse, hangar bays for aircraft, repair workshops and a parking garage for motor vehicles. No glass and concrete terminal building, no streamlined Newcastle Airport parking facilities, no Starbucks Coffee and certainly no luxury lounges for business travellers. In fact, rows of empty oil drums filled with fuel were used to guide aircraft in their landings at the infant Newcastle Airport!
 
In the 1940s, World War II - as with so many of the United Kingdom’s other airports - saw the conversion of the airfield at Newcastle into a military base for the RAF. Subsequent to the war, the airport was handed back to the community for public and commercial use with former RAF pilot Jim Denyer as appointed Airport Commandant in 1952. Denyer’s tenure as manager of the Newcastle Airport lasted for an incredible 37-year reign, in which he oversaw the development and expansion of the Airport’s services and facilities, including the construction of the Newcastle Airport parking system. This development also saw the diversification and expansion of the Newcastle Airport’s domestic and international flight program, which added Ireland, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf (Germany) to its list of destinations.

Under the supervision of ex-RAF pilot Jim Denyer, the 1960s and 1970s saw dramatic improvements at the Newcastle Airport. These changes that were to see the flight hub gain international recognition were largely initiated and implemented by the East Regional Airport Committee. By 1966, a new terminal building was constructed and passenger numbers shot up to 700,000 per year. It was also at this time that the Newcastle Airport Parking facilities were renovated in order to accommodate for the growing number of passengers. Nowadays, the Newcastle Airport parking, terminal building and airfield caters for more than five million passengers annually!