A Brief History

Glasgow Airport goes back to 1932, when the site at Abbotsinch, Renfrewshire, was opened and occupied by the Royal Air Force in 1933

On 11 August 1943 Abbotsinch was handed over to the Royal Navy and it became HMS Sanderling.

In the 1960s, Glasgow Corporation decided that a new airport for the city was to be constructed. The original site of Glasgow's "main" airport was 3 km (2 miles) east of Abbotsinch the site now being occupied by a Tesco supermarket and the M8 motorway.

Designed by Basil Spence and built at a cost of £4.2 million the airport was completed in 1966, with BEA beginning services using De Havilland Comet aircraft but political rows over Glasgow and Prestwick airports continued, with Prestwick enjoying a monopoly over transatlantic traffic, while Glasgow Airport was only allowed to handle UK and intra-European traffic.

In 1975 the BAA took ownership of Glasgow Airport. Conveniently, the restrictions on Glasgow Airport were lifted, and the transatlantic operators immediately moved from Prestwick; Glasgow Airport being renamed Glasgow International Airport.

An extended terminal building was created by building the new structure so that the original Basil Spence building is actually inside it. The original concrete arches which once looked onto Caledonia Road now form the facade of the check-in area.

Glasgow International Airport now has 33 gates, bringing its capacity up to nine million passengers per year. In 2003, BAA completed redevelopment work on a satellite building, in order to provide a dedicated check-in facility for low cost airlines, principally easyJet and MyTravel Airways.

Traffic

The airport is home to the Scottish regional airline Loganair, who have hangar facilities as well as their head office located on site.

BA has a maintenance hangar at the airport, capable of carrying out overhaul work on Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft, as well as a cargo facility. Glasgow is also one of the bases for Flyglobespan.