Humberside Airport

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Humberside Airport
Humberside Airport logo.png
Humberside Airport Terminal.jpg
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerBristow Group
OperatorHumberside International Airport Ltd.
ServesEast Riding of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Kingston upon Hull
LocationKirmington, Lincolnshire
Elevation AMSL121 ft / 37 m
Coordinates53°34′28″N 000°21′03″W / 53.57444°N 0.35083°W / 53.57444; -0.35083Coordinates: 53°34′28″N 000°21′03″W / 53.57444°N 0.35083°W / 53.57444; -0.35083
Websitehumbersideairport.com
Map
EGNJ is located in Lincolnshire
EGNJ
EGNJ
Location in Lincolnshire
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
02/20 2,196 7,205 Asphalt & Concrete
08/26 860 2,822 Asphalt
Statistics (2020)
Passengers45,273
Passenger change 19-20Decrease 77.9%
Aircraft Movements10,347
Movements change 19-20Decrease 43.2%
Sources: UK AIP at NATS[1]
Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority[2]

Humberside Airport (IATA: HUY, ICAO: EGNJ) is an international airport at Kirmington in the Borough of North Lincolnshire, England, 10 NM (19 km; 12 mi) from three large settlements: Grimsby (east), Hull (north) and Scunthorpe (west), on the A18, the latter two places reached by longer roads, in the case of Hull via England's longest bridge that crosses the Humber. It was owned by Manchester Airports Group (the largest UK-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.[3]

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.[4] When the local area was renamed Humberside following local government re-organisation in England, the name was changed to Humberside Airport. 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, MAG announced that it was conducting a review of its strategy for Humberside Airport, and all options including disposal were under consideration. Initially it announced plans to sell Humberside Airport after nine years of ownership.[5] In December 2008, MAG announced it intended to retain Humberside Airport, due to a number of investments, such as the new £1.6 million perishables hub, coupled with a surge in passenger numbers and little interest from potential bidders.[6]

MAG sold its 83.7% share of Humberside in 2012 for £2.3 million to Eastern Group to focus on the larger airports in its portfolio.[7] It was later revealed that MAG had bought the airport for almost £8 million more in 1999.[3] Bristow Helicopters sold Eastern Airways in 2019, but retained its majority share of Humberside Airport.[citation needed]

Operations[]

The airport faces competition for flights from East Midlands Airport (70 mi (110 km)), Doncaster Sheffield Airport (28 mi (45 km)) which opened in 2005 and Leeds Bradford Airport (74 mi (119 km)); all of which have at 2021 a much wider range of scheduled passenger flights. Passengers at the airport peaked in the early to mid-2000s when the facility was used by around 500,000 per year. This fell to around 200,000 passengers in 2016.[2]

In October 2013 SAS Group began daily operations to Copenhagen, only to withdraw the service in April 2014 because of disappointing passenger numbers.[8] 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[9] and Centrica Storage[10] with over 5,000 air transport helicopter movements in 2016, the fourth highest in the UK.[2] 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.[11]

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 has one of the highest NEQ approval levels of any airport in Europe,[12] and saw significant growth in cargo throughput from 144 tonnes in 2007 to 1,132 tonnes in 2011.[2] This was due to regular flights by Icelandair Cargo, however these ceased to operate in 2012 and cargo had reduced to 123 tonnes in 2016.[2]

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[quantify] 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 (FBO). This will be the first dedicated FBO 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 in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Airlines and destinations[]

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Humberside:[13]

AirlinesDestinations
BH Air Seasonal: Burgas
Eastern Airways Aberdeen
Seasonal: Jersey[14]
KLM Amsterdam
TUI Airways[15] Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca

Statistics[]

Passengers and movements[]

Humberside Airport Passenger Totals 2000-2020 (thousands)
The memorial to 166 squadron at the door of the modern airport terminal
Number of Passengers Aircraft Movements Cargo
(tonnes)
2000 447,738 38,894 130
2001 435,473 39,858 157
2002 492,433 42,361 126
2003 517,692 39,318 945
2004 531,277 38,455 752
2005 460,930 36,839 114
2006 520,956 37,545 144
2007 468,522 38,797 144
2008 427,669 37,758 168
2009 336,649 35,060 241
2010 283,191 32,813 600
2011 274,609 26,599 1,132
2012 234,142 25,636 621
2013 236,083 27,178 153
2014 239,173 27,647 129
2015 221,203 25,665 148
2016 201,650 22,744 123
2017 190,936 18,282 93
2018 192,526 18,759 121
2019 204,463 18,228 117
2020 45,273 10,347 52
Source: CAA Official Statistics[2]

Routes[]

Busiest routes to and from Humberside (2019)[16]
Rank Airport Total
passengers		 Change
2018 / 19
1 Amsterdam 134,946 Increase 6.2%
2 Aberdeen 19,326 Decrease 16.5%
3 Burgas 10,200 Increase 66.5%
4 Palma de Mallorca 8,988 Decrease 3.4%
5 Jersey 1,648 Decrease 27.2%
6 Enontekiö 1,083 Increase 29.5%
7. Akureyri 1,072 Increase 60.2%
8 Milan-Bergamo 704 n/a
9 Pajala 372 Decrease 1.1%
10 Ivalo 338 Decrease 5.1%

Ground transport[]

Barnetby Station with Alight here for Humberside Airport signage

Bus[]

A daytime bus service operated by Stagecoach runs to the airport Monday to Saturday, hourly from Grimsby, and half-hourly from Hull, which is named as the "Humber Flyer" service.[17] A local service, serving the villages surrounding the airport is run by Hornsby Travel (a Scunthorpe company) from Monday to Friday.[18]

Rail[]

The airport lies close to the South Humberside Main Line, which runs between Doncaster and the coast at Grimsby and Cleethorpes, running a few hundred metres 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 some 2.5 miles (4 km) to the west of the airport, or proceed to Grimsby or Hull and use the bus service.

Other facilities[]

The airline Eastern Airways has its head office in the Schiphol House on the airport property.[19] 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.[20][21] This is a temporary structure run by Nightel, a locally based niche business, there will be a permanent structure built in the next five years once demand for the facility has been confirmed.[22] A new 100 bedroom hotel, operating under the Hampton by Hilton brand, opened next to Nightel in July 2017.

Accidents and incidents[]

  • 9 October 2013 – The passenger of Cessna 172 G-BCYR made a successful emergency landing at Humberside following the death of its pilot in flight. The passenger had no flying experience and was talked down by flying instructors. He had been on a local flight from Sandtoft Airfield, Lincolnshire when the pilot died.[23] The incident formed the basis of a documentary broadcast in the United Kingdom by Channel 4 on 27 March 2014.[24]

References[]

  1. ^ Humberside - EGNJ
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "UK airport data". UK Civil Aviation Authority. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "New Humberside Airport owners pledge to put local needs first". Grimsby Telegraph. 3 August 2012. Archived from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  4. ^ "RAF History, Kirmington". Ministry of Defence. Archived from the original on 9 May 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  5. ^ "Humberside Airport to be sold off". BBC News. 25 April 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  6. ^ "MAG cancels Humberside Airport sale plan". Manchester Evening News. 16 December 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  7. ^ "Humberside Airport sold by Manchester Airports Group". BBC News. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  8. ^ "Flights from Humberside to Copenhagen scrapped". ITV news. 27 March 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  9. ^ "Asset Portfolio - The Ravenspurn North Field" (PDF). BP. Retrieved 11 April 2012.[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ "About Us - Key Facts". Centrica Storage. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Weston Cargo Aircraft Charter". Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  13. ^ humbersideairport.com - Destinations retrieved 8 October 2016
  14. ^ "Jersey Holidays Direct from Humberside Airport".
  15. ^ "Flight Timetable". tui.co.uk. 5 November 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  16. ^ "Airport Data 2016". UK Civil Aviation Authority. 3 March 2017. Tables 12.1 (XLS) and 12.2 (XLS). Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  17. ^ https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/East%20Midlands/Grimsby/EMID-TT-Grimsby-HumberFlyer-Jul19.pdf
  18. ^ "68 Wolds Villager" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  19. ^ "Home page". Eastern Airways. Retrieved 29 December 2011. Head Office Eastern Airways Schiphol House Humberside Airport Kirmington DN39 6YH
  20. ^ "New hotel at Humberside Airport about to get off the ground". Grimsby Telegraph. 14 July 2010. Archived from the original on 12 September 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013. It is the first on-site hotel at the airport and is designed solely for offshore oil and gas workers and other business personnel.
  21. ^ "Nightel". Humberside Airport. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  22. ^ "Cueing up to stay at airport's hotel". Hull Daily Mail. 30 June 2010. Archived from the original on 12 September 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013. Mr Green said: "The hotel is a temporary building because we need to be able to prove the market is there. ... We will get off the ground with this building then build a fully operative hotel when the time when necessary. 'Cueing' is exactly what the newspaper said
  23. ^ Thornton, Lucy; Bagot, Martin (9 October 2013). "Humberside Airport hero revealed: Modest pensioner who landed plane after pilot collapsed says I was 'just holding the stick'". Daily Mirror. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  24. ^ Mayday: The passenger who landed a plane. Channel 4. 27 March 2014. Event occurs at 21:00.

External links[]

Media related to Humberside Airport at Wikimedia Commons

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