Our history

Birmingham City Council decided in 1928 that the City required a municipal airport. However, the depression cut these plans short. In 1933 plans were prepared which identified Elmdon, Birmingham, as the preferred site which lies eight miles south-east of the City.

In May 1939, services to Croydon (with connections to the Continent) Glasgow, Liverpool, Ryde, Shoreham, Manchester and Southampton began.

The Airport, known as ‘Elmdon Airport’, was officially opened by HRH The Duchess of Kent on 8th July 1939, and was owned and operated by Birmingham City Council until the outbreak of the Second World War when civil aviation ceased and the Airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and used as an Elementary Flying School and Fleet Air Arm by the RAF.

It was also used for flight testing and as a delivery base for Stirling and Lancaster bombers. During this time the Air Ministry built two hard surface runways (2469 ft and 4170 ft respectively) to replace the original grass strip.

Still under Government control, the Airport re-opened for civil flying on 8th July 1946, exactly seven years after the official opening. The City of Birmingham took over responsibility again in 1960 and in April 1974, the newly formed West Midlands Metropolitan County Council took over the Airport, which incorporated the seven Metropolitan areas of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. In 1949, scheduled services began with British European Airways to Paris and flights to the continent steadily grew with services to Zurich, Düsseldorf, Palma, Amsterdam and Barcelona starting between 1955-1960.

The terminal extension, known as the International Building, was opened during 1961 and an extension to the main runway took place between 1967-1970 to allow turboprops and jets to use the airport. VC10 services began to New York and by the early 1970’s the airport handled one million passengers a year through a very congested passenger terminal. In 1974 the newly formed West Midlands Metropolitan County Council took over the airport (the seven West Midlands districts incorporated: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton).

To handle the growing number of flights and passengers, construction on a new Airport terminal on the other side of the runway began in 1981 with a capacity for 3 million people. It was opened in 1984 by Her Majesty the Queen and handled record passenger numbers during the first few years. In 1986, after the West Midlands County Council was abolished, ownership of the Airport transferred to a newly formed West Midlands District Joint Airport Committee, still comprising the seven district councils of the West Midlands administrative area. The Airports Act 1986 introduced legislation requiring municipal airports, with a turnover in excess of £1 million, to become Public Airport Companies and on 1st April 1987, the ownership of the Airport transferred to Birmingham International Airport plc, a public limited company owned by the seven West Midlands district councils.

July 1991 saw the opening of Birmingham Airport's second terminal - the Eurohub. A concept already developed in the United States for domestic operations, Eurohub took the 'hub and spoke' principle a stage further by solving the complications of Customs and Immigration control which previously demanded separate terminals. It was the first terminal in the world to combine domestic and international passengers.

In 1993, Government public sector borrowing restrictions meant that future development could only be funded by using private sector finance. The local authority owners therefore decided to reduce their shareholding to below 50% in order to restructure Birmingham Airport into a private sector company thereby making it possible to finance its £260 million development programme which began in 1997. In August 1995 the seven West Midlands District Council shareholders agreed to begin detailed negotiations and in March 1997, when the Airport was handling some six million people a year, the restructuring of the ownership of the Airport Company was completed by Aer Rianta, in partnership with Nat West Equity Partners, taking a significant minority shareholding of 40%. The restructuring also saw the Acquisition by the Airport Company of the private sector shares in EuroHub (Birmingham) Limited. By the year 2000, the Airport was handling more than 7.5 million people a year and the shareholding arrangement changed again, when Aer Rianta and Bridgepoint Capital (formerly Nat West Equity Partners) increased their investments in the Airport. The additional shares were acquired by John Lang Investments Limited and National Car Parks Limited who respectively held a 4% and 4.25% shareholding. In 2001 Macquarie Airports Group Limited acquired Bridgepoint Capital Limited shares.

On March 3rd 2000, Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened a £40 million terminal development, which provided a two-storey arrivals concourse linking the two passenger terminals for the first time, and a new pier with three glass-sided air bridges, 16 new check-in desks, a new baggage reclaim hall with 6 carousels, 12 new catering and retail outlets, and new Customs and Immigration halls. In December 2001 Macquarie Airports Group Limited acquired Bridgepoint Capital Limited shares. As a result, the proportion of shareholding in the Airport Company, up until September 2007 was as follows: Seven West Midlands' District Councils 49%; Aer Rianta 24.125%; Macquarie Airports Group 24.125%. The remaining 2.75% takes the form of an Employee Share Trust. Continuing its commitment to provide its passengers with greater facilities and easier access via public transport, Birmingham Airport opened the £11 million Air-Rail Link people mover system and the £7 million public transport Interchange in March 2003. Birmingham was the first airport in the world, and the only location in Europe to feature the Air-Rail Link, an Austrian-built cable-driven system, that has been operating successfully in Las Vegas since 1999. Its two trains each consist of two carriages and can carry up to 1600 people per hour between the rail station and passenger terminals with a journey time of just 90 seconds. On arrival at the rail station, passengers step into Birmingham International Interchange, a two-storey public transport facility, which makes the transfer between all modes of transport even easier.

More that 9 million people were using Birmingham Airport in December 2003, and at this time Birmingham was identified as the preferred location for growth in the Midlands in the Government’s White Paper, 'The Future of Air Transport'. Although the Government suggested that Birmingham would need a new short wide spaced runway and an extension to the existing runway by 2030, Birmingham Airport’s Management reviewed these proposals. It concluded, in its 2007 Master Plan, ‘Towards 2030, Planning a Sustainable Future for Air Transport in the Midlands’, that that the Airport would not require a second runway before 2030 but an extension to the existing runway, is the main priority for Birmingham Airport. In September 2007 Macquarie Airports Group and Aer Rianta sold their 48.25% in the Airport to the ‘Airport Group Investments Ltd’ (AGIL) for £420 million. AGIL is a limited company owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Victorian Funds Management Corporation. The current shareholding arrangement is as follows: Seven West Midlands district councils (49%), Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Australia's Victorian Funds Management Corporation (48.25%) and the Employee Share Trust (2.75%).

Following the extensive consultations that were held on the expansion of Birmingham Airport’s runway, a Planning Application was submitted to Solihull Metropolitan Council in January 2007 to extend the runway by 400 metres which would enable the airport to reach the West Coast of America, South America, the Far East and South Africa. On 15th December 2008, Solihull MBC’s Planning Committee unanimously supported the Application subject to agreeing appropriate mitigation measures to provide protection and reassurance for local people and the wider environment. Work on the runway extension commenced in July 2012 and it was brought into use in May 2014. This means that Birmingham Airport can now deliver long haul flights to the emerging economies of the world such as China, Brazil and South Africa. Indeed, the first direct charter flight to China outside the south-east took place in July 2014.

To handle future growth and aspirations to reach all corners of the globe the Airport embarked on a £45 million state-of-the-art extension to Terminal One in June 2007. The new 'International Pier' replaced the current out-dated facility constructed in 1984. It is the single biggest investment that the Airport has made in over 20 years.

In 2013, the Airport submitted a proposal to the Airports Commission in 2013 for a second runway to meet the need for additional airport capacity in the longer term. Whilst we were one of a group of 5 proposals (out of an original 52) from which the three shortlisted options was chosen, Birmingham Airport was ultimately not chosen.

Nevertheless, by the end of 2014, some 9.6 million people use Birmingham Airport and the future looks very bright. However, only 42% of the Airport’s catchment uses Birmingham in favour of taking flights from other UK airports so it is the Airport’s desire to expand the range of services available from Birmingham, and give the region’s business and leisure travellers the choice they want.

At the same time, we are mindful that any growth needs to be sustainable to protect the environment and the amenities of local residents and this will be reflected in any future proposals for growth.