Humberside Airport

Humberside Airport
Humberside Airport Terminal
Code	IATA: HUY, ICAO: EGNJ
County	Lincolnshire
	Public
Owner	Bristow Group
Operator	Humberside International Airport Ltd
Location	TA094103 53°34’41"N, 0°20’54"W
Runway(s)	7,205 feet (Asphalt and concrete) 2,822 feet (Asphalt)
Website	humbersideairport.com

Humberside Airport (IATA: HUY, ICAO: EGNJ) is an international airport at Kirmington in Lindsey, the northern part of Lincolnshire, 10 nautical miles from three large towns: Grimsby to the east, Scunthorpe to the west, and Kingston upon Hull across the Humber in Yorkshire to the north.

The airport was owned by Manchester Airports Group (the largest British-owned airport group) from 1999 until 1 August 2012, when it was sold to the Eastern Group of companies. North Lincolnshire Council retains a minority of shares in the Airport.

History

The airport was previously a Royal Air Force base, RAF Kirmington, opened in 1941 during the Second World War, from which No. 166 Squadron RAF operated the Avro Lancaster. The site was abandoned after the war in 1945, and lay unused until 1974 when the local council re-opened the site as Kirmington Airport: it was changed to ‘Humberside Airport’ in the 1970s. The main runway, designated 03/21 (since redesignated 02/20) was extended to its current length in 1992, allowing operation of much larger aircraft.

In 2008, Manchester Airports Group reviewed its strategy for Humberside Airport, and planned to sell it, a decision later reversed as there has been little interest from potential bidders. In 2012 though the company sold its 83.7% share for £2.3 million to Eastern Group in order to focus on the larger airports in its portfolio.

Bristow Helicopters sold Eastern Airways in 2019, but retained its majority share of Humberside Airport.

Operations

The airport faces competition for flights from East Midlands Airport, Doncaster Sheffield Airport and Leeds Bradford Airport, all of which have a much wider range of scheduled passenger flights.

In October 2013 SAS Group began daily operations to Copenhagen, only to withdraw the service in April 2014 because of disappointing passenger numbers. However, Sun Air launched twice-weekly flights to Aalborg and Billund in April 2016, in order to support the off-shore wind industry in the Humber and Jutland locations. These flights were also suspended in December 2016.

The airport is also used to service the offshore gas storage and drilling operations for BP and Centrica Storage with over 5,000 air transport helicopter movements in 2016, the fourth highest in the UK. On 3 January 2013 it was reported that Bond Offshore Helicopters had been awarded a contract with Perenco and would start operating flights to Perenco's platforms in the Southern North Sea. This now means that the airport has three of the biggest UK Helicopter operators based at the airport.

From 1 April 2015 Bristow Helicopters commenced operations from a new UK Search and Rescue base at Humberside. In October 2016 Bristow Helicopters and Bond (now Babcock) moved their offshore operations to Norwich, leaving CHC and UNI-FLY as the remaining helicopter companies based at Humberside. CHC will commence a new contract for Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy) in April 2018, supporting North Sea wind farm construction.

Humberside saw significant growth in cargo throughput from 144 tons in 2007 to 1,132 tons in 2011, due to regular flights by Icelandair Cargo, however these ceased to operate in 2012 and cargo had reduced to 123 tons in 2016.

Humberside International has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P739) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. It has a very high amount of general aviation activity, with 5 resident flying clubs and organisations offering fixed wing and rotary training. Weston Aviation opened in May 2011 a fixed based operation: the first dedicated fixed based operation at the airport where the company has also opened a regional charter sales office to promote and develop the use of business and private aviation.

Ground transport

At Barnetby Station

A daytime bus service runs to the airport Monday to Saturday, hourly from Grimsby and half-hourly from Hull; named the "Humber Flyer" service. A local service, serving the villages surrounding the airport is run by Hornsby Travel (a Scunthorpe company) from Monday to Friday.

The airport lies close to the railway line between Doncaster and the coast at Grimsby and Cleethorpes, running a few hundred yards to the north of the terminal. There is no stop on the line at this point and passengers must alight at the small, rural and unmanned Barnetby railway station two and a half miles west of the airport, or proceed to Grimsby or Hull and use the bus service.

Other facilities

Eastern Airways has its head office in the Schiphol House on the airport property. Links Air was based at the airport, but moved to Doncaster Sheffield Airport in 2014.

BAE Systems opened an aircraft maintenance academy at the airport in the autumn of 2015. It is a partnership with the Resource Group and is known as the R J Mitchell Academy, after the designer of the Spitfire aircraft.

In 2010 a temporary hotel was erected for the use by the gas and oil rig workers. However, this operation is not designed or licensed to operate as accommodation for normal passengers. A new 100 bedroom hotel, operating under the Hampton by Hilton brand, opened next to Nightel in July 2017.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Humberside Airport)

• Humberside Airport