Coventry Airport

In 1933, Coventry City Council decided to develop a civil airport on land that it owned to the south-east of the city in Baginton. Coventry Airport was opened in 1936. Armstrong Whitworth, an aircraft manufacturer based nearby at Whitley Aerodrome, built an aircraft factory on the airport site soon afterwards.

During the Second World War, the airport was used as a fighter station, RAF Baginton, by the Royal Air Force. It was damaged in the 1940 Coventry Blitz bombing raid by the Luftwaffe.

The following units were here at some point:[5]

• A detachment of No. 6 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit RAF (December 1940)[6]
• No. 32 Squadron RAF
• A flight of No. 63 Operational Training Unit RAF (September - October 1943)[7]
• No. 79 Squadron RAF
• No. 134 Squadron RAF
• No. 135 Squadron RAF
• No. 308 Polish Fighter Squadron
• No. 403 Squadron RCAF
• No. 457 Squadron RAAF
• No. 605 Squadron RAF
• Camouflage Flight RAF (October - November 1939) became No. 1 Camouflage Unit RAF (November 1939 - September 1940)[8]
• Special Duties Flight RAF (1941)[9]

The site was used under No. 9 Group RAF, RAF Fighter Command, had a pundit code of NG with 3 grass runways and became a Sector Station from September 1940 before being downgraded to a satellite of RAF Honiley from August 1941.[10]

After the war, the airport was returned to civil use as a passenger and freight terminal. In the 1950s, Jersey Airlines operated de Havilland Heron and Douglas DC-3 aircraft on services to the Channel Islands.[11] In the 1960s, British United Airways flew DC-3s, Aviation Traders Carvairs (which also carried passengers' cars) and Handley Page Dart Heralds to the Channel Islands.[12]

Activity at the airport in the 1960s included glider flights, and in the 1970s several Open Days were held at Baginton. These featured historic aircraft, including on one occasion a de Havilland Puss Moth, a Bucker Jungmeister, and a Messerschmitt 108, as well as various commercial vendors.

During the 1980s, West Midlands based travel agents Hards Travel started using the airport with its Vickers Viscount and Dart Herald aircraft for holidays to Spain, Italy and Austria, flying to Beauvais in France and Ostend Airport, operating under the Janus Airways banner. The holiday brands used were Summer-Plan, and HTS Holidays.

In the late 1980s, Coventry City Council sold the airport lease to Air Atlantique. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Marconi operated a Raytheon Hawker and a 20-seat Gulfstream for staff travelling between its UK head office in Coventry and its Italian head office in Genoa, as well as its North American head office in Pittsburgh.[13]

Pope John Paul II visited the airport on 30 May 1982 as part of his six-day visit to Britain. He arrived in a gold and blue British Caledonian helicopter, and just after 10.00 a.m. he set off in a popemobile from the helipad to visit a crowd of about 350,000 people. He celebrated Mass and administered the sacrament of confirmation, and there was a carnival when he had lunch. He left in the helicopter at about 3.15 p.m.[14]

From 5 November 1994 to 4 May 1995, live veal calves were exported from Coventry Airport to Amsterdam for distribution across Europe, and the locality became a focus for animal rights demonstrators. On 21 December 1994, Air Algérie Flight 702P, a Boeing 737, used for exporting calves crashed in Willenhall Wood, Willenhall, Coventry near to houses, on approach to the airport in bad weather, all five people on board were killed.[15] The aircraft was owned by Air Algerie and on lease to Phoenix Aviation. On 1 February 1995, Jill Phipps, a 31-year-old animal rights activist, was crushed to death under the wheels of a lorry carrying live veal calves into Coventry Airport.[16]

A Wizz Air Airbus A320 starting the take off (2007)

Two Thomsonfly Boeing 737s and a Farnair Switzerland ATR 42F on the ground

In February 2004, the airport lease was sold to TUI AG, which started scheduled international flights from a temporary passenger terminal building in March 2004 under the brand Thomsonfly using two Boeing 737s. The operation drew vociferous opposition from environmental campaigners, some local residents and Warwick District Council, but was supported by Coventry City Council.[17] Warwick District Council unsuccessfully sought an injunction to stop flights, claiming that the temporary facilities were built without planning permission.[18] Flights expanded through the following years, while the airport sought planning permission for a permanent passenger terminal and facilities. Thomsonfly expanded operations with more European flights and up to six aircraft based at the airport, while WizzAir also began regular flights to Poland.

After planning permission for a permanent passenger terminal was initially denied by Warwick District Council in 2004, two public inquiries took place, followed by an unsuccessful appeal by the airport owners to the UK government planning inspectorate, and finally to the High Court in 2008.[19] The planning battle affected the confidence of flight operators. On 1 September 2008, Wizz Air confirmed it would not continue its seasonal service from Coventry to Gdańsk and Katowice. On 15 October 2008, Thomsonfly confirmed that it would cease operations at Coventry Airport, citing its increased focus on charter services after its merger with First Choice Airways. Scheduled passenger flights from Coventry ended on 9 November 2008.[20] The airport continued with cargo operations, and was a base for executive jet services, general aviation and flight training, and the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.[21]

Control tower

In May 2009, Coventry Airport was put up for sale.[22] The owners outsourced security, and also air traffic control to Marshall Aerospace. On 1 December 2009, it was reported that a petition was made by HM Revenue & Customs in the High Court to wind up the company,[23] to the concern of local businesses.[24] A hearing was due to take place at London's Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday, 9 December 2009.[25] On 8 December 2009, the CAA closed the airport with immediate effect, issuing a Notice to Airmen announcing the withdrawing of its operating licence.[26] All commercial flying and flight training was suspended, although the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance continued to use the airport as a base.[27][28] The airport re-opened as an unlicensed airfield the following week, without air traffic control, to private traffic.

A Swiss firm announced its interest in acquiring the airport in early 2010, but did not conclude a bid.[29] Sir Peter Rigby's Rigby Group took over ownership of Coventry Airport on 28 April, and it was fully re-opened in summer 2010.[30][31]

As part of Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Britain in September 2010, it was announced that the centrepiece of the visit, the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, would take place on 19 September at the airport, following the success of the 1982 visit of Pope John Paul II.[32][33] However, it was subsequently announced in June 2010 that the preferred venue had changed to the smaller Cofton Park, in Birmingham.[34]

In February 2021, a joint venture partnership between Coventry City Council and The Rigby Group proposed to build a gigafactory producing batteries for electric cars on the Coventry Airport site. The project would create around 4,000 jobs in the factory. If the project attracts an investor and government funding, the airport would close, and the gigafactory would be operational by 2025.[35]

• Falconer, J (2012). RAF Airfields of World War 2. UK: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85780-349-5.
• Sturtivant, R; Hamlin, J; Halley, J (1997). Royal Air Force flying training and support units. UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 0-85130-252-1.