Cambridge City Airport (IATA: CBG, ICAO: EGSC) — previously Marshall Airport Cambridge UK — is a regional airport in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the eastern outskirts of Cambridge, south of Newmarket Road and west of the village of Teversham, 1.5 NM (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) from the centre of Cambridge and approximately 50 mi (80 km) from London.
Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace Limited has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P433) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.[3] The airport is available for corporate and private use, and is home to four flying schools.
Since 2016 there have been no public scheduled flights from the airport.
History
Early years
Opened in 1938, when it replaced the old airfield at Fen Ditton,[4] the airport is owned and operated by Marshall Aerospace, a Cambridge-based company with many years' history servicing civilian and military contracts. The main building, which is a Grade II listed building, was designed by the architect Harold Tomlinson of the University of Cambridge and constructed in 1936–37.[5][6] For many years it was the base for the Cambridge University Air Squadron.
In 2000, a proposal was created to relocate the airport to a new site away from the city, which would have freed up 500 acres (200 ha) of land for the building of several thousand new homes. A study for a new airport was undertaken by Cambridgeshire County Council and planning permission was requested but withdrawn. In April 2010 Marshall Aerospace again announced it would not be moving from Cambridge Airport to make way for new housing. RAF Mildenhall, Waterbeach Barracks and RAF Wyton were considered as alternative sites but Marshall concluded there were "no suitable relocation options".[22][23]
In October 2008, to coincide with the opening of the new Marshall Business Aviation Centre, the airport's name was changed from Cambridge City Airport to Marshall Airport Cambridge UK.[24] The name was changed again to Cambridge Airport in 2011 as plans were announced for an expansion of the airport following the installation of instrument landing systems and new hangars.[25]
In 2012 the airport introduced charter flights to Italy as well as regular flights to the Channel Islands. These were the first scheduled flights from the airport since 2006.[26][27] In mid 2013 the airport completed a £1m refurbishment of its passenger terminal to handle new international airline services and in March 2015 British Airways commenced daily scheduled services to Gothenburg operated by franchise Sun-Air of Scandinavia.[28] Using 32 seat Dornier 328JET aircraft, to begin with 20 seats were reserved by AstraZeneca in order to connect its two main European offices.[29]
Passenger services were reported as "to end on 31 January 2016",[30] although British Airways/Sun-Air continued temporarily to operate flights from Cambridge to Gothenburg. Since 24 March 2016 tickets have not been available to the general public.[31] As of November 2017 the flights now originate in Manchester with a brief stop in Cambridge.[32]
In May 2019, Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, owners of the airport, announced that the airport would be closed to all traffic by 2030 at the latest. The Group plans to redevelop the airport site for around 12,000 homes and 5 million sq ft (0.46 million m2) of business premises.[35] As of May 2019[update], the Group was deciding between three potential airfields for its continuing operations: Duxford and Wyton in Cambridgeshire, and Cranfield in Bedfordshire.[35] In January 2020, the Group ruled out moving to Duxford due to incompatibility between the defence requirements of the Group and the requirements of the local traffic.[36] On 6 October 2020, Cranfield University and MADG announced that they had signed an option agreement for the potential relocation of Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group (MADG) to Cranfield Airport.[37] A spokesperson for MADG cautioned that "it is important to note that the signing of the option agreement does not represent a final decision".[37]
Statistics
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Annual passenger traffic at CBG airport.
See Wikidata query.
Jefford, C. G. (1988). RAF Squadrons. A comprehensive record of the movement and equipment of all RAF squadrons and their antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury: Airlife. ISBN1-85310-053-6.
Sturtivant, R.; Hamlin, J.; Halley, J. (1997). Royal Air Force flying training and support units. UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN0-85130-252-1.