Park and Go: Belfast Airport Parking - Airport History

Please find below a brief history of Belfast Airport which we hope that you will find useful. If you wish to make a booking then please click on the appropriate link on your left. Alternatively you can call our office, where one of our helpful staff will only be happy to help.

In November 1917, Aldergrove was selected to be the Royal Flying Corps training establishment during the First World War. With the end of the war, Aldergrove remained open for Royal Air Force aircraft and for the fledgling civil traffic to and from Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland's first ever regular, sustained civil air service started on 31 May 1933. The route was Glasgow to Aldergrove and the flight was operated by Midland and Scottish Air Ferries. It later became Northern Ireland's civil airport.

On 20 August 1934 Northern Ireland's first London service began to Nutts Corner, operated by Railway Air Services. The flight left from Croydon and went via Birmingham and Manchester to Belfast.

In September 1963 Operations were transferred from Nutts Corner to Aldergrove. The first passenger flight to land that day was a BEA Viscount from Manchester.

HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother reopened Aldergrove as a civil airport on 28th October 1963 and inaugurated the present terminal building. The first regular jet service, by a British United BAC 1-11 to Gatwick, started on 4th January 1966.

Number of terminals: 1
Number of passengers: 4 million
Number of airlines: 10
Number of destinations: approximately 30
Number of runways: 2