I’ve already complained about how unnecessarily difficult it is to get to Bournemouth Airport unless you’re wealthy or like walking (I went with the latter). The airport is owned by the same people as who operate Norwich Airport, but at least that one is accessible. Although Bournemouth Airport doesn’t charge the ridiculous £10 per passenger surcharge in the way that Norwich Airport does (unless you’re flying Ryanair from Norwich which feels an unfair exemption).
No expense has been spared here with the security area.
There were three flights, mine was the 20:55 one to Wrocław.
Can travel get any more decadent? I didn’t take any photos in the security area as I imagine they wouldn’t like that, but the security area itself was actually inside and the staff were friendly and helpful.
Inside the terminal which had a bar, a coffee shop, a duty free and an expensive WH Smiths. There were plenty of seating, although an absence of power points other than in the bar for their customers.
It was spacious and warm, so I didn’t have any complaints. I was only flying from Bournemouth Airport as I was already in Bournemouth and there was a cheap flight to Poland. It was also all mostly clean and tidy, with all of the gates visible from where I was sitting.
Bournemouth Airport began life in 1941 as RAF Hurn, one of many wartime airfields that sprang up across the country during the Second World War. It was used by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces, mainly as a transport and fighter base, and it played its part in operations leading up to D-Day.
As the war started to come to an end, Hurn was quickly repurposed for civil aviation. In 1944 it became the temporary base for British Overseas Airways Corporation, which used it as London’s main airport until Heathrow was ready, which I think is quite a claim to fame. For a brief period between 1945 and 1946, Bournemouth and not London was the country’s principal gateway for transatlantic flights.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the airfield evolved into a proper commercial airport, with charter routes opening to holiday destinations such as Majorca. It changed hands several times, from local authority control under Bournemouth Corporation and Dorset County Council, to National Express in the mid-1990s, and then to Manchester Airports Group in 2001. The 1990s also saw the runway extended to 2,271 metres, capable of taking larger aircraft, and Concorde even made a glamorous visit to mark the occasion. Ryanair arrived shortly afterwards which must have been the icing on the cake for the locals after Concorde.
Ownership passed again in 2017 to the Rigby Group, whose Regional & City Airports division continues to run the site. The new terminal was completed around 15 years ago and if the expansion that is planned takes place then they might well need a terminal extension. However, perhaps their priority really should be actually getting public transport to the airport and sorting out the pedestrian access.
