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The Airport officially opened on April 7th 1942 and was occupied by 53 Operational Training Unit/RAF operating Supermarine Spitfires. It was soon apparent that the site had commercial potential and a service to Dublin with Aer Lingus commenced in 1952. Soon a new terminal was built on the Southside of the airfield and flights to France, Belfast and Cork were on offer to the paying public.
Rhoose Airport terminal c1960 - Picture credit Michael Jones
In the 1970’s the airport changed it’s name from “Rhoose Airport” to “Glamorgan Rhoose Airport” however the airport was limited to the size of aircraft it could operate due to the length of the runway. In 1986 another 750ft of asphalt was added which now gave the airport the capability to handle Transatlantic flights, by this time the name had changed again to “Cardiff-Wales Airport”, a new terminal on the Northside was also completed during this period.
Flights to Canada had been avilable since the 70's with CP Air, and Worldways using DC-8's and with the runway extention becoming available later larger aircraft such as the Boeing 747 could operate direct, even Concorde made a few visits operating pleasure flights over the Bay of Biscay.
Many different Airlines have used the airport over the years, Cambrian Airways, Dan Air, Britannia Airways, Aviaco, Transeuropa, and Jersey European (now Flybe) are just a few of them.
Rhoose Airport c1960 - Picture credit Michael Jones
The Airport is now known as “Cardiff International Airport” and its primary operators are bmi Baby, Flybe, Aer Arann, KLM and Thomson Airways.
British Airways has a base here on the North West side of the airfield where they carry out maintenance on Boeing 767, 777 and 747 aircraft.
A more detailed look at individual Airlines/Operators etc will be the subject of articles posted to the BLOG.
