Belfast airport History

In 1917 Aldergrove was chosen by the Royal Flying Corps as a training base and continued in this capacity throught the First World War. At the end of the war the base remained open for the Royal Air Force and also dealt with some civilian flights.

In 1933 Northern Irelands first civilian air service began from Glasgow to Aldergrove and was operated by Midland and Scottish Air Ferries and the following year the airport became Northern Ireland's first civilian airport.

In 1934 the first London service began that ran via Birmingham and Manchester. During the Second World War the airport was used for military purposes until the end of hostilities meaning a resumption of civilian flights in 1946.

It was not until 1963 that significant upgrades were made to the facilities at the airport in the form of a new terminal building and an official opening as a civilian airport and this was followed in 1966 by the first jet services being run from the airport.

During the 1970's the airport made several important steps forward, it was in this decade that the first Boeing 747 flew from the airport and in 1970 the Minister of Development announced a long-term expansion plan for the airport.

In 1983 the second stage of the long-term expansion was completed in the form of a dedicated international pier, relocating the check-in desks and a moving walkway system. It was also in 1983 the the airport was named Belfast International to befit its international operations.

In 1987 the brand new Executive Aviation Terminal was officially opened and this co-incided with passenger numbers hitting the 2 million mark.

Privatisation followed in 1994 followed by a buy-out by TBI in 1996. In 1998 Easyjet began operating from the Belfast Airport and in 2004 passenger numbers reached the 4.5 million mark. In 2005 the TBI ownership of the Belfast Airport ended and was taken over by ACDL who still run and own the airport today.