Newquay Cornwall Airport, is on track for 400,000 passengers this year, a tenfold rise from the 1990s when the then Brymon Airways had a throughput of 80,000 passengers, of which half were in transit.
In the past it was often considered a backwater for UK passenger flights in spite of its 9000ft (2745m) runway, one of the longest in the country. The airport was formerly known as Newquay Civil Airport and is officially still part of RAF St Mawgan (due for final closure next summer).
Situated near Watergate Bay and 5mi from Newquay, 8mi from Padstow and 20mi from Truro, it is the only surfaced scheduled airport in Cornwall, the alternative for large jets being Exeter, nearly 90mi away. Plymouth City Airport, just across the county border in Devon and about one hour”s drive, is limited to 50-seat turboprops and can only take the BAe 146 series lightly loaded.
Newquay Cornwall Airport commercial manager, Karen Medweth said: ”Our summer schedule is busier than ever before and we”re delighted that we are on-track to meet our growth target of 400,000 passengers in 2007. The airlines operating at Newquay offer some great fares and packages, making accessibility to the region very attractive for holidaymakers and business travellers alike.”
Air Southwest, the Brymon successor, is the largest operator at Newquay Cornwall Airport offering more than 50 flights a week, providing in excess of 2,500 seats. Complementing its established scheduled services from Gatwick, Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin, Leeds and Manchester, new this season are four flights a week from Cork. These services have already proved so popular that the airline has extended their availability for a further month to meet demand.
British Airways, new on the Gatwick route this summer, provides a daily Boeing 737 service from the south London airport and complements the four times daily Air Southwest operation, some of which go via Plymouth.
Flybe returned to Newquay in March with five weekly services to and from Edinburgh and for the first time this service will operate through the winter months to meet demand. A new route from Belfast City commenced in May and last month flybe announced the start of a flight to Geneva, for the ski season, effective from 15 December 2007 operating every Saturday until 29 March 2008.
Bmibaby flies daily between Manchester and Newquay and likewise Ryanair to Stansted. Skybus continues to operate up to seven rotations a day between the Isles of Scilly and Newquay.