Coventry Airport

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Coventry Airport
IATA: CVT - ICAO: EGBE
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		TUI AG
Serves		Coventry
Elevation AMSL		267 ft (81 m)
Coordinates		52°22′11″N, 01°28′47″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
05/23	6,586	2,008	Asphalt

Coventry Airport (IATA: CVT, ICAO: EGBE) is located about 6 km south of Coventry city centre, in the village of Baginton, Warwickshire, England, and about 1 km outside Coventry boundaries. Coventry airport is a main hub for Thomsonfly.com, part of the TUI Group. The airport is owned by the CAFCO-C, and is currently waiting for the results of a Public Local Inquiry to build a permanent terminal and passenger facilities to serve up to 2 million people per annum.

1 History
2 Airport Facilities
3 Airlines and Destinations
- 3.1 Scheduled
- 3.2 Charter
4 Gallery
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

In 1933 Coventry City Council decided to develop a civic airport on land that they owned to the south-east of the city in Baginton. Coventry Airport was opened in 1936. Armstrong Whitworth, aircraft manufacturers based nearby at Whitley Aerodrome, built an aircraft factory on the airport site soon afterwards.

During World War II the airport was utilised as a fighter station, RAF Baginton, by the Royal Air Force, and was damaged in the Luftwaffe bombing of Coventry in 1940.

After the war the airport was returned to civil use as a passenger and freight terminal. In the 1950s Jersey Airlines operated De Havilland Heron and Douglas Dakota aircraft on services to the Channel Islands.^[1] In the 1960s British United Airways flew Dakota, Carvair (which also carried passengers' cars) and Handley Page Heralds to the Channel Islands.^[2]

In late-1980s, Coventry City Council sold the airport lease to Air Atlantique.

From 5 November 1994 to 4 May 1995 live veal calves were exported from Coventry Airport to Amsterdam for distribution across Europe, and the locality became a focus for animal rights demonstrators. On 21 December 1994 a Boeing 737 used for exporting calves crashed in Willenhall Wood, Willenhall, Coventry near to houses, on approach to the airport in bad weather, and all 5 people on board were killed.^[3] The aircraft was owned by Air Algerie and on lease to Phoenix Aviation. On 1 February 1995, Jill Phipps, an animal rights activist aged 31 years, was crushed to death under the wheels of a lorry carrying live veal calves into Coventry Airport.^[4]

In February 2004 the lease was sold to TUI AG, who started scheduled flights from the airport in March 2004 under the brand Thomsonfly. The new service was controversial because it operated out of new temporary passenger facilities built without planning permission. Warwick District Council lost a court action in which it attempted to get an injunction against Thomsonfly. The result was that the service was allowed to continue.^[5] A second Public Local Inquiry to determine a planning application for a 10,000 sqm permanent terminal for up to 2 million passengers per annum ended in July 2006 and the results are expected in the first half of 2007.

[edit] Airport Facilities

Airport Shop
Bar
Car Hire - Thrifty Car Rental, Budget
Car Park
Foreign Exchange
Max Beans Cafe & Bar
Refreshments

[edit] Airlines and Destinations

[edit] Scheduled

Thomsonfly (Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Faro, Grenoble, Ibiza, Jersey, Málaga, Palma, Paris-Orly, Pisa, Salzburg, Valencia)
Wizzair (Katowice [Starts 29 July])