Pembrey West Wales Airport ( Welsh: Maes Awyr Pen-Bre) is located west northwest of

Llanelli Llanelli (" St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarth ...

( south of

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

) in Pembrey,

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

, in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Pembrey has one hard runway designated as 22LH/C and 04RH/C. The airport and its ICAO code EGPF were withdrawn from the Aeronautical Information Publication in July 2022. Pembrey airport is situated inside the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

danger area D118 known as Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range. Pembrey is open seven days a week but only open at weekends unless a prior booking is made, due to an LOA with the MoD to operate civil and commercial flights during operational hours as long as any visiting aircraft obtain the required PPR from the RAF. The licence has been temporary withdrawn for construction work to be completed on the one of the taxiways by the CAA.

History

Construction of the airfield for RAF Flying Training Command started in 1937 and by September 1939, the RAF's No. 2 Air Armament School was the first unit to be stationed at the airfield. By May 1940, the three tarmac runways had been completed. During

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 ...

Pembrey was an active RAF station and was host to the RAF's Air Gunnery School, after which its activities relaxed a little and it became an air crew holding unit for crews being demobbed. Between 1946 and 1949 RAF Fighter Command was in control of the airfield; work was then put in hand to lengthen Runway 04/22 to take jet aircraft. From 1949 to 1952 21 Wing RAF Regiment (comprising 15 and 63 Squadrons RAF Regiment) were based at Pembrey. With Runway 04/22 extended to nearly 6000 feet, 233 OCU moved in on 1 September 1952, initially with D.H Vampire aircraft and then with Hawker Hunter aircraft. The unit stayed until 13 July 1957. The airfield closed in September 1957. Post 1958 part of former RAF Pembrey airfield was turned over to agriculture and part was used as a motor racing circuit. On Thursday 22 August 1997 Pembrey was officially opened as a civil airfield by Captain Winston Thomas at a cost of 3.5 million pounds and named Pembrey West Wales Airport using a single runway (04/22) with a declared length of 805 metres. On 18 December 2009, Isles of Scilly Skybus operated the first charter flight into the airport. The flight originated from Newquay using a 16-seater aircraft.

Plans

There were plans (2010) to lengthen the runway and lighting arrays to allow larger commercial aircraft to land.

Airlines and destinations

No airlines operate to any scheduled or charter destinations from Pembrey.

Former operators

Other airlines that have operated at Pembrey: *

Air Wales Air Wales was an airline based at Cardiff International Airport in Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan. It operated scheduled regional services within the United Kingdom, as well as to Ireland, Belgium and France. On 23 April 2006, Air Wales ceased al ...

*Air Independence *Air Winton (UK)

References

External links