We have already seen the ten busiest airports from around the world, but here in the UK, we have some pretty busy a places, in fact, with all airports combined London has the world’s busiest city airport system by passenger count year after year! But in this list we break them up into airport names and here is just ten with the most passengers going through it every year…
Belfast-International
10 – Belfast-International – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: Belfast International has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. The airfield was previously shared with the Royal Air Force base RAF Aldergrove which closed in 2008. The base is now known as Joint Helicopter Command Flying Station, Aldergrove and both runways are now owned by the airport. The airport is owned by ADC & HAS, the same company which owns Stockholm Skavsta, Orlando Sanford International Airport, Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, Mariscal Sucre International Airport and Juan Santamaría International Airport.
Belfast City Airport
9 – Belfast – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: Airlines with operating bases at the airport include EasyJet, Ryanair, Thomas Cook, TUI Airways and BMI Regional. The airport has a Civil Aviation Authority Public Use Aerodrome Licence (number P432) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction. The ground handling agents are Swissport and Menzies Aviation. Swissport handle most of the airlines including EasyJet, Ryanair, Thomas Cook, TUI Airways, BMI Regional and British Airways, while Menzies handle Aer Lingus, and Aurigny.
Glasgow Airport
8 – Glasgow – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: The airport is owned and operated by AGS Airports which also owns and operates Aberdeen and Southampton Airports. It was previously owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings (formerly known as BAA). The airport’s largest tenants are British Airways and Loganair, the latter using it as a hub. Other major airlines using GLA as a base include EasyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines and TUI Airways. Glasgow Airport was opened in 1966 and originally flights only operated to other places in the United Kingdom and Europe. Glasgow Airport began to offer flights to other places around the world, flights which previously used Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which was subsequently relegated as the city’s secondary airport catering for low-cost airlines, freight and charter operators.
Birmingham Airport
7 – Birmingham – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: The airport offers both domestic flights within the UK and international flights to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, North America and the Caribbean. Birmingham Airport is an operating base for BMI Regional, Flybe, Jet2.com, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines and TUI Airways. From May 2018 the airport will become a new long haul base for Primera Air.
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Edinburgh Airport
6 – Edinburgh – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: In 2013, a further extension to the passenger terminal was announced, taking the terminal building up to the Edinburgh Airport tram stop. The opening of the Edinburgh Trams in May 2014 created the first rail connection to Edinburgh Airport. Whilst the number of passengers has increased, the number of flights actually decreased in 2014 due to planes operating at higher capacity.
London-Luton Airport
5 – London-Luton – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: The airport is 2 mi (3.2 km) from Junction 10 of the M1 motorway. Aside from Heathrow, London Luton Airport has the fastest rail connection from Central London at 22 minutes from St Pancras station, via East Midlands Trains, however passengers are transported to the terminal by shuttle-bus from Luton Airport Parkway railway station.
London-Stansted Airport
4 – London-Stansted – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: The airport is owned and operated by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which also owns and operates three other UK airports. MAG agreed to buy the airport from Heathrow Airport Holdings, formerly BAA, on 18 January 2013 and the sale was completed for £1.5 billion on 28 February 2013. BAA had been required to sell the airport following a ruling originally made by the Competition Commission in March 2009.
Manchester Airport
3 – Manchester – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: Officially opened on 25 June 1938, it was initially known as Ringway Airport. In the Second World War, as RAF Ringway, it was a base for the Royal Air Force. The airport is owned and managed by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), a holding company owned by the Australian finance house IFM Investors and the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester, with Manchester City Council owning the largest stake. Ringway, after which the airport was named, is a village with a few buildings and church at the southern edge of the airport.
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London-Gatwick Airport
2 – London-Gatwick – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: The land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an aerodrome in the late 1920s. The Air Ministry approved commercial flights from the site in 1933, and the first terminal, “The Beehive”, was built in 1935. Scheduled air services from the new terminal began the following year. Major development work at the airport took place during the 1950s. The airport buildings were designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall between 1955 and 1988.
London-Heathrow Airport
1 – London-Heathrow – Total passengers: 75,711,130
Wiki Info: Heathrow Airport originated in 1929 as a small airfield (Great West Aerodrome) on land south-east of the hamlet of Heathrow from which the airport takes its name. At that time there were farms, market gardens and orchards there: there was a “Heathrow Farm” about where Terminal 1 is now, a “Heathrow Hall” and a “Heathrow House”. This hamlet was largely along a country lane (Heathrow Road) which ran roughly along the east and south edges of the present central terminals area.