Manchester Airport Celebrates 70th Anniversary

Manchester Airport is to celebrate its 70th anniversary on the 25th of June 2008.

The rest of the year will see several functions and events taking place to mark the occasion. Not only this but the brand new Concorde hangar that is under construction will also be completed.

Manchester's original civilian airport was Barton. This proved unsuitable however due to flooding causing several serious problems. As a result of this the Manchester corporation had to look elsewhere and a suitable location was found at the site of the Fairey Aviation Company at Ringway. In a few years the area had been completely transformed into a commercial airport, but with the outbreak of the Second World War Ringway was to have a significantly more important role.

During 1940 - 1945 many of Britain's paratroopers and glider pilots trained at the airfield, and by the end of hostilities in 1945 the withdrawal of the military saw Manchester Airport able to look to expand. This began in 1949 with the conversion of the old parachuting school into a terminal to deal with the increasing number of passengers the airport was having to cope with.

With the increase in passengers numbers in the 1960's a new and larger terminal was need that was duly constructed with the addition of two passenger piers. Over the next twenty years many modifications and improvements were made to Manchester Airport to keep it in line with the increasing demand that was being placed upon it.

By 1993 a second terminal had been added as well as improved transportation links such as a motorway and direct rail system giving access to passengers from further afield than Manchester Airport had been able to deal with previously.

Today the airport operates to over 220 destinations and in 2007 this was more than any other UK airport.

Published by: Jon Vickery