Land's End Airport , situated near

St Just in Penwith St Just ( kw, Lan(n)ust), known as St Just in Penwith, is a town and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 road. The parish encompasses th ...

, west of Penzance, in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, is the most south westerly

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

mainland Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. The airport is owned by the

Isles of Scilly Steamship Company The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company (ISSC) operates the principal shipping service from Penzance, in Cornwall, to the Isles of Scilly, located to the southwest. It provides a year-round cargo service together with a seasonal passenger se ...

(ISSC). ISSC's subsidiary Land's End Airport Limited operates the airport, and another subsidiary,

Isles of Scilly Skybus Isles of Scilly Skybus is a British airline which operates year-round scheduled services to the Isles of Scilly from Land's End Airport and Newquay Airport in Cornwall, and seasonal scheduled services from Exeter. Their head office is locate ...

, operates a regular passenger service to St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly as well as scenic flights around west

Penwith Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after ...

. The airport has a CAA Private Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P568) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction for daytime use only as authorised by the licensee.

History

Cobham Air Routes Cobham Air Routes was a 1930s British airline formed in 1935 to operate a service between Croydon and the Channel Islands. Following the loss of an aircraft in a fatal accident the airline was sold to Olley Air Service. History Cobham Air Rout ...

started to plan the route linking the Isles of Scilly to the mainland in 1935. Cobham was subsequently acquired by

Olley Air Service Morton Air Services was one of the earliest post-World War II private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations British airlines formed in 1945. It mainly operated regional short-haul scheduled services within the British Isles and ...

, whose subsidiary Channel Air Ferries developed the Land's End airport and started a service to the island of St Mary's on 15 September 1937, flying

de Havilland Dragon The de Havilland DH.84 Dragon is a successful small commercial aircraft that was designed and built by the de Havilland company. Design and construction Following the commercial success of its single-engined de Havilland Fox Moth that had fi ...

s. A

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

was brought from

Squires Gate Airport Blackpool Airport is an airport on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, England, in the Borough of Fylde, just outside the Borough of Blackpool. It was formerly known as Squires Gate Airport and Blackpool International Airport. Ownership of the ai ...

in Blackpool. On St Mary's, until its own airport opened in 1939, the planes landed on the golf course. In 1938, Great Western and Southern Airlines took over Olley Air Service and Channel Air Ferries. It continued the service throughout

World War II 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 opposing ...

, during which it replaced the Dragons with

de Havilland Dragon Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its rel ...

s. On 1 February 1947, the airline and the service were taken over by BEA. On 2 May 1964, BEA replaced the Dragon Rapides with a single

Sikorsky S-61 The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. It was developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. The commercial version of the Sea King was developed during the ...

helicopter, operated by BEA Helicopters. On 1 September 1964, the helicopter service was moved from Land's End to the new

Penzance Heliport Penzance Heliport is located northeast of Penzance, Cornwall. The heliport hosts scheduled flights to the Isles of Scilly, with a connection to the railway network at Penzance railway station by a special bus service. The original heliport h ...

, although BEA occasionally chartered Britten-Norman Islanders to fly from Land's End when the helicopter was unavailable. Between 1966 and 1970, Scillonia Airways operated from the airport, flying Rapides. Westward Airways was founded at the airport in 1970, and operated a flying school there from 1971 to 2009. In 1984, Isles of Scilly Skybus started operations at the airport, initially freight and charter, then scheduled services from April 1987, flying Islanders and de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters. Skybus became the sole remaining air link for the Isles of Scilly from October 2012, when the helicopter service from Penzance ended. On 9 April 2013, a new £1million passenger terminal was officially opened. Work had begun in July 2012 and included new baggage handling and arrivals facilities and a new

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

. Up to 2014, all of the airport's runways were grass. During the winters of 2012/13 and 2013/14 the airport closed for long periods when the runways became waterlogged, and flights were temporarily moved from Land's End to

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

. In May 2013, ISSC and the Council of the Isles of Scilly submitted a bid for finance from the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and s ...

for runway resurfacing at Land's End, together with various improvements at St Mary's. In May 2014, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

gave its approval. The cost of the planned

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

ing at Land's End was stated to be £2.6M, for which the European fund's contribution was £1.3M. The airport closed on 4 July 2014 for the asphalting of two runways, with Skybus flights diverted to Newquay, and it reopened on 29 July.

Airline and destination

Other operations

Skybus provides scenic flights around south west Cornwall using Britten Norman Islander aircraft.

Trinity House "Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , he ...

also have a depot at the airfield.

Traffic statistics

Passengers and movements

Routes

Transport connections

Skybus operate a shuttle bus from

Penzance railway station Penzance railway station serves the town of Penzance in west Cornwall, England. It is the terminus of the Cornish Main Line from Plymouth, from via , and is the southernmost railway station in Great Britain. The first station opened in 1852 a ...

to the airport. It is possible to book combined rail and air tickets.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Airports in Cornwall St Just in Penwith