Airport History - Birmingham Airport Car Parking from SkyParkSecure
Birmingham Airport & Local Area Information
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History of Birmingham Airport
- The Beginning
- The 1940’s
- The 1950’s
- The 1960’s
- The 1970’s
- The 1980’s
- The 1990’s
- Into the 21st Century
Q. What does the Queen, the Euro Hub and September the 11 th 2001 all have in common?
A. They all are in the History of Birmingham Airport
1931 – On May 31, the Birmingham Airport opened with pomp, ceremony and the greatest air show that the city had ever seen. Hundreds came to witness the Birmingham debut of commercial passenger service with a stop by American Airways along its Atlanta to Fort Worth route.
1946 – The airport reopened after the war and civil flights recommenced.
1954 – There were services to Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Jersey but the length of the runways restricted the use of larger aircrafts.
1966 – The expansion of the main runway led to an increased number of jets using the airport and the need for expansion became evident as international flights became available.
Late 1970's – The opening of the National Exhibition Centre just minutes away helped promote the airport.
1984 – The Main Terminal was opened by The Queen giving opportunity for more routes and an increase of passengers using Birmingham Airport.
1986 – Birmingham Airport Authority was established by the Birmingham City Council. This event would prove to be a prelude to the continued growth and significant revitalization of Alabama's largest commercial airport.
1987 – At the time of creation of the Airport Authority, the Birmingham Airport offered only 38 daily departures. By December of this year, 43 cities could be reached by non-stop and /or direct service from one of eight airlines (American, Eastern, Piedmont, Northwest, USAir, Delta, Southwest and United).
1988 – The Birmingham Airport offered 65 daily departures and served 1.9 million passengers.
1991 – To accommodate such expansion a second terminal was opened in. The Eurohub was to be used by British Airways and its partners and be the first terminal in the world to combine domestic and international passengers. Passenger numbers continued to increase annually as did development to both terminals and facilities.
1993 – This year saw Birmingham marked the completion of a $50.4 million terminal renovation, flights were up to 77 departures per day, serving nearly 2.1 million passengers that year. Direct service was added to destinations in Mexico and Canada and on October 20, 1993 the name was officially changed to Birmingham International Airport.
2000 – The Birmingham Airport peaked with 3,067,777 passengers served and 81 daily departures non-stop to 28 cities and direct to 48 cities.
2001 – This year set the stage for another record year when the tragic terrorist attacks occurred on September 11.
2002 – This year saw 8 million passengers pass through the airport, an increase of 2.8% from the previous year.
2003 – Numbers continued to rise as 9 million passengers passed through.
