Day: June 7, 2011

A bit of general info on the airport. It is located on the outskirts of Birmingham, England about 10 kms east southeast of the city’s center. The airport was originally opened in 1939 and was known by the name “Elmdon Airport” because it was located in the village of Elmdon. With the outbreak of the Second World War the airport was taken over by the Air Ministry. It was during this time that two hard surface runways were constructed; 06/24 and 15/33. After the war it was returned to civilian use but remained under Government control until 1960 when it was once again taken over by the City of Birmingham, in 1987 ownership was once again transferred, this time to Birmingham International Airport plc. In 1984 a new terminal was opened on the east side next to the Birmingham International railway station giving it a capacity of 3 million passengers, the facilities were further expanded in 1994 with the opening of the “Eurohub” terminal doubling its passenger handling capacity. Runway 06/24 was closed in 2007 leaving the airport with a single runway 15/33 which is 8,527 ft long. As the seventh busiest airport in the UK it saw approximately 8.5 million passengers go through its facilities in 2010. There are plans in the works to further expand both the airport’s facilities and runway.