Historical Post
Cardiff Airport's history, from Spitfires to jumbo jets
The city has had an airport to call its own since 1931, and until 1954 air travellers flew from the original site at Pengam Moors, on the eastern side of the city.
The foundations of the current airport - some 15 miles from the city centre in the neighbouring Vale of Glamorgan - were laid in World War II with the need to train Spitfire pilots.
Bulldozers began clearing the site at Rhoose in 1941, and RAF Rhoose went fully operational in April 1942 as a satellite of RAF Llandow, which had taken over a pre-war airstrip. The RAF’s 53 Operational Training Unit arrived at Llandow in 1941, and having to train pilots from many Allied countries put the runways there under great pressure, so Rhoose airfield was opened.
One of the first aircraft to use Rhoose airfield was a Spitfire of 53 OTU which landed on its belly! Its engine had failed and it needed to land quickly. The pilot, Sgt Davey of the Royal Canadian Air Force, walked away unhurt. He lost his life flying in the Middle East in 1942.
The Spitfires of 53 OTU were based at Llandow and used runways there and at Rhoose until May 1943, when they moved to RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire. Rhoose lay dormant until February 1944, when No 7 Air Gunnery School moved in temporarily while repairs were carried out at its main base, RAF Stormy Down, west of Bridgend. It left in August 1944.
53 OTU, RAF Llandow, February 20, 1943
Meanwhile the airfield became somewhat congested because No 587 Squadron Target Tugs was also using it, for Anti-Aircraft Cooperation duties, before returning to RAF Pengam Moors in May 1944.
By late 1944 the war situation had changed significantly, and preparations were made to shut down RAF Rhoose because it was no longer needed. Rhoose came under the wing of No 40 Group Maintenance Command and in November 1944 became a sub-site of No 241 Maintenance Unit (MU) based at Newport Docks.
Rhoose was also used for storage. No 59 MU, which had been formed in Gloucestershire, absorbed Rhoose as an explosives storage site from June 1945. The entire unit later moved to Rhoose but was disbanded in 1947. The airfield closed in 1948.
From 1948 Rhoose airfield was disused for several years while Llandow became a terminal for commercial civilian flights. In 1950 a plane arriving from Dublin crashed near Llandow’s runway with the loss of 80 lives.
Cardiff Airport in the '50s, showing the wartime dispersals alongside the northern taxi-way and the white dots marking the edges of the grass air strip
Its commercial value was recognised in the following years when the main runway was opened in 1952 to accommodate the Aer Lingus service to Dublin.
Before and after the war, Cardiff had scheduled flights to various destinations, including Paris, from Splott aerodrome, south east of the city centre. The remaining flights transferred from Splott to Rhoose in 1954.
The original 1950s terminal at 'RHOOSE' airport
Passenger facilities were improved and further routes added, and in 1962 more than 100,000 passengers passed through the airport.
In 1965 the airport at Rhoose was transferred from the Ministry of Defence to Glamorgan County Council. Its first trans-Atlantic flight took off in 1971.
Prince Philip opened the airport's new terminal building in 1972. The development included a control tower and the runway was doubled in length to cater for larger, wider, passenger jets on transatlantic runs.
As the range of charter flights grew, passenger numbers for these services passed 250,000 in the early 1980s.
In 1986 a further 750ft was added to the runway, allowing it to handle Boeing 747 jumbo jets.
Successive runway extensions enabled the airport to meet demand for larger aircraft. The 2.4km-long runway also caught the eye of British Airways, which in 1993 opened one of the world’s largest maintenance hangars here. The facility at BAMC carries out heavy maintenance on aircraft, belonging to BA and others.
Passenger numbers for scheduled flights from the airport reached 100,000 per year in 1990 and overall passenger numbers at the airport were approaching 750,000 a year in 1993.
In 1995 the airport was sold to TBI, a Welsh property company. It reverted to public ownership in 2013, when it was bought by the Welsh Government for £52m. It continues to operate as a limited company.
