Aberdeen Airport - History

History

The airport opened in 1934, established by Eric Gandar Dower, intended to link the northern islands of Scotland with London.

During Second World War the airfield became a Royal Air Force station - RAF Dyce. It was the site of the Dyce Sector Operations Room within No. 13 Group RAF. Although fighters were based there throughout the Battle of Britain to provide protection from German bombing raids from Occupied Norway, it was mainly used as a photographic reconnaissance base.

Anti-shipping operations by Coastal Command were carried out from RAF Dyce as well as convoy escort.

The airfield was bombed by the Luftwaffe on 26 July 1940 and 27 August 1940, no damage was reported. A decoy site ('Q' Site) was located at Harestone Moss near Whitecairns. The aim of this site was to create the impression of an active airfield during the night. The decoy worked on around four occasions, where several raids resulted in bombs being dropped on the decoy site. The decoy site had a small underground bunker that housed a generator, this was used to power a decoy 'flarepath' in addition to rotating lamp to be used to give the impression of a taxiing aircraft.

A Spitfire IIa crashed at the east side of the airfield on 19 November 1941 during attack practise with a target glider being towed. F/O Zaoral is buried in the old Dyce graveyard, where some German aircrew are also buried that crashed in Aberdeen in 1940.

A significant wartime event occurred in May 1943 when a German, Junkers Ju 88 fighter-bomber landed here; it was flown to Scotland by its crew, who wanted to defect to the Allied side. The surrender of this aircraft was of great intelligence value at the time, as it was fitted with the latest FuG 202 Liechtenstein BC A.I radar. The aircraft survives and is displayed in the RAF Museum in London.

On 17 August 1943, a Mosquito crashed following a stall in the circuit, crashing onto a house in Dyce village; another Mosquito on 10 April 1944 crashed on approach to the airfield.

On the 26th of December 1944, A Messerschmitt BF109G signalling intentions to surrender crash landed at the airfield.

On May 16, 1945, two pilots were killed when a Wellington bomber crashed on landing wrecking a goods train in Dyce Station.

During air raids in the Second World War, aircraft were moved to East Fingask beside Oldmeldrum. One RAF building still remains at East Fingask, where aircrews waiting for the "All Clear" before returning to Dyce airfield. Virtually nothing remains from the war era at the airport due to expansion and development of the industrial estates around it.

The original airport terminal was located at the East Side where the Airport Social club and Bond Offshore helicopters are located, a new terminal was built along with a new control tower to handle the increase in air traffic.

The airport was nationalized in 1947 and was transferred to the control of the British Airports Authority (BAA) in 1975. From 1967 and 1970 there were regular flights to Moscow and Toronto; these were later stopped due to cost related problems.

With the discovery of North Sea oil, helicopter operations began in 1967, linking the growing number of oil rigs to the mainland. As Aberdeen became the largest oil-related centre in Europe, the airport became the world's largest commercial heliport. Today, Aberdeen Airport handles more than 37,000 rotary wing movements carrying around 468,000 passengers annually. Helicopters account for almost half of all aircraft movements at the airport.

Until March 2005, aircraft were not allowed to take-off or land between 22:30 and 06:00 local time due to noise constraints. The city council overturned this ban, however, despite some Dyce residents' objections, and the airport is now open 24 hours a day to fixed-wing aircraft with a quota count of QC4 or below, and the overnight restrictions still apply to helicopters.

General aviation (light aircraft) flight training for private pilots licenses takes place from the East Side of the airport and based in the ground Handling agents premises. The ground handling agent there also manages the VIP flights and corporate jets that park on the Eastside Apron.

The air ambulance (fixed wing) is based on the eastside apron in a dedicated hangar, the company operates King-Air aircraft from Aberdeen.

Aberdeen, being a major city in the Oil industry has a number of oil company charter flights, these have included flights to South America and also Korea (via Abu Dhabi). Flights from the USA are regular visitors and a military flight from Afghanistan has also landed.

On 6 October 2011, a 124-metre extension to the main runway at the airport was opened, almost eight months ahead of schedule.