A UK airport is set to close next year after operating for nearly 90 years.
Coventry Airport first opened in 1936, then called Baginton Aerodome and was used as an RAF base during WWII.
Today, the airport doesn’t operate scheduled passenger flights, and is mainly used for charter flights or training.
Along with charter flights, the Air Ambulance Service currently operates from the airport.
However, it is closing next year for good, being replaced by a massive new factory development.
What will instead open on the grounds is ‘gigafactory’ Greenpower Park which was given planning permission back in 2022.
A UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson confirmed: “Coventry Aerodrome has given formal notice to us of its plan to close the airport permanently with effect from 11 June 2026.”
The Midlands Air Museum also at the site won’t be affected.
Opening as an RAF base, Coventry Airport once even welcomed Pope John Paul II in 1982.
Also in the 1980s, Hards Travel operated flights to Spain, France, Italy and Austria as package holidays.
And from 2004 to 2008, Thomsonfly operated scheduled passenger flights to Europe.
Wizz Air also had flights to Poland from Coventry Airport, flying to Gdańsk and Katowice.
These were all scrapped after rejected plans to add permanent passenger terminal facilities.
This led to the airport closing in 2009, before reopening the following year after being bought by the Rigby Group.
A statement from the Rigby Group states: “This procedural submission, first envisaged when local planning approval for Green Power Park was granted in 2022, enables the next phase of infrastructure work for the site to proceed.”
Runway operations will slowly be phased out until the full closure next summer, followed by airspace approvals.
Another closed airport in the UK has revealed plans to reopen by 2027.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport closed in 2022 despite once having TUI and Wizz Air flights.
New plans will see a £193million reopening project, the City of Doncaster Council confirmed.
It will also be reopening for a one-day event next year, with tickets on sale.
And Manston Airport has plans to also reopen by 2027.
