Renfrew Airport was the domestic airport serving the city of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

until it was decommissioned in 1966. It was located in the Newmains area of

Renfrew Renfrew (; sco, Renfrew; gd, Rinn Friù) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Scotland's former ...

, approximately 2 kilometres east of

Abbotsinch Abbotsinch is an area in the town of Paisley, Scotland. It is today almost entirely occupied by Glasgow Airport. Traditionally in the parish of Renfrew (although not within its burgh boundary), Abbotsinch is bordered by the Black Cart Water to ...

Airfield which would eventually replace it. It consisted of a main terminal building and ancillary buildings, and a main runway which ran west south-west of the terminal. Aerial travel for Business or Pleasure - Thos Cook & Son - 1919 - pp 16+ (map)

Aerial travel for Business or Pleasure - Thos Cook & Son - 1919 - pp 16+ (map)

Military use

Already in existence as a military facility during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, it first handled scheduled flights in 1933 with the first regular destination being

Campbeltown Campbeltown (; gd, Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain or ) is a town and former royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies by Campbeltown Loch on the Kintyre peninsula. Campbeltown became an important centre for Scotch whisky, and a busy fishing ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it served as RAF Renfrew. The following units were here at some point: * No. 6 (Glasgow) Aircraft Acceptance Park (1918) became No. 6 (Renfrew) Aircraft Acceptance Park (1918-20) * No. 6 (Scottish) Aircraft Repair Depot (1918-?) *

No. 55 Squadron RAF No. 55 Squadron Royal Air Force, commonly abbreviated 55 Sqn RAF, is a formerly active flying squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was formed on , as a unit of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). No. 55 Squadron was the last RAF squadron to o ...

No. 80 Squadron RAF No. 80 Squadron RAF was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force squadron active from 1917 until 1969. It was operative during both World War I and World War II. Establishment and early service Founded on 1 August 1917 at RAF Montrose, equipped ...

No. 309 Squadron RAF No. 309 (Land of Czerwień) Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron was one of Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain, several Polish squadrons in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the World War II, Second World War. It was formed as part ...

* No. 602 Squadron RAF * No. 666 Squadron RAF * 823 Naval Air Squadron *

1831 Naval Air Squadron 1831 Naval Air Squadron (1831 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. The squadron was formed in 1943 in Rhode Island as a fighter squadron, before being disbanded, reformed and disbanded again after its return to Britai ...

Post war

Despite the construction of a new terminal building (with a

parabola In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-shaped. It fits several superficially different mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to define exactly the same curves. One descript ...

arch) in 1954, it became evident that the airport was unable to cope with the increasing demands for domestic air travel in the 1960s. The final departure took place on 2 May 1966 – its destination being the new

Glasgow Airport gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu , image = Glasgow Airport logo.svg , image-width = 200 , image2 = GlasgowAirportFromAir.jpg , image2-width = 250 , IATA = GLA , ICAO = EGPF , type = Public , owner = AGS Airports , hub = *easy ...

a few hundred metres away. The site is now occupied by a

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

supermarket and the M8 motorway; this straight and level section of motorway occupies the site of the

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

.Smith, Renfrew Opened in March 1968, the M8 connected the new Glasgow Airport to Bishopton in the west and Glasgow city centre (via Hillington) in the east. The entire airport was demolished in 1978. Arkleston Primary School (1972) and a Tesco superstore (1980) were built on the former terminal site, and the whole of the surrounding area is now covered with housing. The only trace left of the airport is the Flying Scotsman pub which was the Hertz car rental building, opposite the terminal building.

Services

The airport was served by airlines such as

Scottish Airlines Scottish Airlines (Prestwick) Limited was formed in 1946 as a subsidiary of Scottish Aviation Limited. The airline commenced worldwide passenger and cargo charter flights from bases at Prestwick and Stansted. It also participated in the Berli ...

Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish , meaning "air fleet" compare Welsh 'llynges awyr') is the flag carrier of Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 2015 and it is now a wholly owned subsidiary ...

Railway Air Services Railway Air Services (RAS) was a British airline formed in March 1934 by the Big Four railway companies (the GWR, LMS, LNER and SR) and Imperial Airways. The airline was a domestic airline operating routes within the United Kingdom linking up ...

and

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The a ...

, for destinations in Scotland and London.

Icelandair Icelandair is the flag carrier airline of Iceland, with its corporate head office on the property of Reykjavík Airport in the capital city Reykjavik. Linked from here It is part of the Icelandair Group and operates to destinations on both si ...

offered flights to Iceland and a number of destinations in Europe. Other airlines offering international flights were

Dan-Air Dan-Air (Dan Air Services Limited) was an airline based in the United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of London shipbroking firm Davies and Newman. It was started in 1953 with a single aircraft. Initially, it operated cargo and passenger ...

Sabena The ''Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne'' (French; ), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its ba ...

and

LOT Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to: Common meanings Areas * Land lot, an area of land * Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *Lot number, in batch production *Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...

Statistics

The airport handled 138,146 passengers in its first year of operations. By the end of the decade, the airport was handling more than half a million passengers annually; one million passengers passed through the airport for the first time in the year 1964. In the year of the airport's closure, it handled 1.4 million passengers.McCloskey, Keith. Glasgow's Airports: Renfrew and Abbotsinch. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press Ltd., 2009 1 combined with the new

In fiction

The airport features briefly in the second novel of a space opera series by

Angus MacVicar Angus MacVicar (28 October 1908, Argyll – 31 October 2001, Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute) was a Scottish author with a wide-ranging output. His greatest successes came in three separate genres: crime thrillers, juvenile science fiction, and a ...

, ''Return to the Lost Planet.'' One of the characters is about to fly back from

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, but the hero and his companion join him at the last minute on the bus from St. Enoch, Glasgow, to the airport, and persuade him to stay and help them.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * McCloskey, Keith. ''Glasgow's Airports: Renfrew and Abbotsinch''. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press Ltd., 2009. . * McCloskey, Keith. ''From the Blitz to University Flying: Essays on Glasgow's Aviation History''. Published on Amazon., 2019. . * Smith, David J. ''Action Stations, Volume 7: Military airfields of Scotland, the North-East and Northern Ireland''. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK: Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1983 . *

External links

Brief history of Renfrew Airport
{{authority control Defunct airports in Scotland Airports established in 1933 Buildings and structures in Renfrewshire 1933 establishments in Scotland 1966 disestablishments in Scotland Renfrew