Glasgow Airport History

Glasgow Airport is located 8 miles west of Glasgow city centre.
Currently Glasgow airport is the busiest of Scotland's three main airports with over 8 million passengers a year.

Glasgow Airport opened in 1966. The first flight from Glasgow Airport was a BEA jet service to London

The growth of Glasgow Airport was helped in 1973 when the main runway was extended from 6,720 ft to 8,720 ft to cater for larger jets.

Up until 1975 Glasgow Airport was privately owned by Glasgow Corporation. In 1975 Glasgow Airport was sold to the BAA, who are the Uk’s largest airport operator.

Following the purchase by BAA a large investment programme was undertaken at Glasgow Airport during 1976 which included a £2million extension of the terminal. This increased the airport's capacity to 3.5 million passengers a year.

In 1987 Work began on a major extension of the apron area at Glasgow Airport to increase the airport capacity at Glasgow to 6 million

In 1990 Glasgow Airport was for the first time allowed to service transatlantic flights. Air Canada and Northwest Orient switched their flights from Prestwick Airport for services to Toronto and Boston. American Airlines began Chicago services and later that summer British Airways introduced New York JFK with Tri-Star aircraft.

Glasgow Airport has grown steadily and now handles over 8 million passengers and 89,000 air transport movements a year.