Former Military Base Popular for Small Private Flights

Coventry Airport is a major hub for Thomsonfly, the largest charter airline in the world, but is also very popular as a base for small, private flights.

It was built in the mid 1930s, and was soon pressed into use as a military base – RAF Baginton – during the war.

In 1982 it was visited by Pope John Paul II as part of his only trip to the UK.

The pope arrived in a gold and blue helicopter before travelling to Coventry to address about 350,000 people.

In December 1994, five people were also killed in a crash on an approach into Coventry Airport. They were the crew aboard the Air Algerie Flight 702P, a plane used for transporting live veal calves.

Flight 702P crashed into Willenhall Wood when trying to land in poor conditions, killing everyone on board.

The five who died were Andrew Yates, aged 22, of Clifton upon Dunsmore, near Rugby; Adrian Sharpe, aged 31, from West Yorkshire; and three Algerian crew.

The transporting of veal calves had attracted protests around the airport from animal rights activists. Three months after the Flight 702P crash, 31-year-old activist Jill Phipps was crushed to death by a lorry carrying calves into the airport.

In January 2006, Coventry Airport was acquired by CAFCO-C, a joint venture between Howard Holdings and Convergence International Airports Organisation (CIAO). In 2007 the airport had its ambitious plans for expansion turned down by the Government.

It wanted to make the airport into a hub catering for an extra two million passengers a year, by building a car park, aircraft parking and improved access.

But the Government said it would conflict with airspace and traffic at Birmingham International Airport.

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