1940

In 1940, a torpedo training unit was formed, which trained both RAF and Royal Navy crews under RAF Coastal Command.^[6] On 11 August 1943 Abbotsinch was handed over solely to the Royal Navy and it became a naval base. All navy ships and bases are given ship names and Abbotsinch's was known as HMS Sanderling since June 1940.^[6] During the 1950s, the airfield housed a large aircraft storage unit and squadrons of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

The Royal Navy left in October 1963.^[6] The name Sanderling was, however, retained as a link between the two: HMS Sanderling's ship's bell was presented to the new airport and a bar in the airport was named The Sanderling Bar.

The following squadrons were based at Glasgow Airport at some point:^[7]

Units

1960s

In the 1960s, Glasgow Corporation decided that a new airport for the city was required. The original site of Glasgow's main airport, Renfrew Airport, was 3 km (1.9 mi) east of the current airport, in what is now the Dean Park area of Renfrew. The original Art Deco terminal building of the original airport has not survived. The site is now occupied by a Tesco supermarket and the M8 motorway; this straight and level section of motorway occupies the site of the runway.^[19]

Abbotsinch took over from Renfrew Airport on 2 May 1966.^[6][19] The UK Government had already committed millions into rebuilding Glasgow Prestwick Airport fit for the "jet age". Nevertheless, the plan went forward and the new airport, designed by Basil Spence and built at a cost of £4.2 million, it was completed in 1966, with British European Airways beginning services using De Havilland Comet aircraft.

The first commercial flight to arrive was a British European Airways flight from Edinburgh, landing at 8 am on 2 May 1966.^[20] The airport was officially opened on 27 June 1966 by Queen Elizabeth II. The political rows over Glasgow and Prestwick airports continued, with Prestwick enjoying a monopoly over transatlantic traffic (under the 1946 US-UK Air transport agreement known as the Bermuda Agreement), while Glasgow Airport was only allowed to handle UK and intra-European traffic.

1970s to 1990s

In 1975, the BAA took ownership of Glasgow Airport. When BAA was privatised in the late 1980s, as BAA plc, it consolidated its airport portfolio and sold Prestwick Airport. BAA embarked on a massive redevelopment plan for Glasgow International Airport in 1989.^[21]

In the early 1990s, Glasgow became the first UK airport, and one of the first in Europe (after Israel) to screen all baggage. Until this time, only 'high risk' flights had their hand luggage and hold luggage checked. This was a result of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on the 21st December 1988 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

An extended terminal building was created by building a pre-fabricated metal structure around the front of the original Basil Spence building, hence screening much of its distinctive Brutalist style architecture from view, with the void between the two structures joined by a glass atrium and walkway. Spence's original concrete facade which once looked onto Caledonia Road now fronts the check-in desks. The original building can be seen more clearly from the rear, with the mock barrel-vaulted roof visible when airside.

A dedicated international departure lounge and pier was added at the western side of the building, leaving the facility with a total of 38 gates, bringing its capacity up to nine million passengers per year.^[22] In 2003, BAA completed redevelopment work on a satellite building (called "T2", formerly the St. Andrews Building), to provide a dedicated check-in facility for low-cost airlines, principally Jet2.com.

By 1996, Glasgow was handling over 5.5 million passengers per annum, making it the fourth-largest airport in the UK.^[23]

Post 2000

The airport serves a variety of destinations throughout Canada, Europe and the Middle East.

The terminal consists of three piers; the West Pier, Central Pier and East Pier.

The West Pier, commonly known as the International Pier, was built as part of the 1989 extension project and is the principal international and long haul departure point. All but two of the stands on this pier are equipped with airbridges. This pier has stands 27 - 36.^[24] In 2019, the pier received the ability to facilitate the A380 following an £8 million upgrade.^[25]

The Central Pier is part of the original 1966 building. The main user of the pier is British Airways, which tend to use the majority of gates on this pier, with Heathrow shuttles making up most of its traffic as well as BA CityFlyer flights to London–City. The British Airways lounge is located on this pier, across from gate 15. Aer Lingus, Loganair and Jet2.com also operate from the central pier. Most of the stands on this pier are equipped with airbridges. This pier has stands 14 - 26.^[24]

The East Pier, constructed in the mid-1970s, was originally used for international flights but in recent years has been re-developed for use by low-cost airlines. None of the stands on this pier are equipped with airbridges. The main users of this pier are easyJet, Loganair and Ryanair. In 2015, a £3 million extension was added to the pier, creating space for 750,000 extra passengers a year. This pier has stands 1–12.^[24]

In late 2007,^[26] work commenced on Skyhub (located between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2)^[27] which created a single, purpose-built security screening area in place of the previous individual facilities for each of the three piers, the other side effect being an enlarged duty-free shopping area created by taking most of the previous landside shopping and restaurant facilities airside. This new arrangement also frees up space in the departure lounges through the removal of the separate duty-free shops in the West and Central Piers. This however meant that the former public viewing areas of the apron are now airside, making the airport inaccessible to aviation enthusiasts and spectators.

Future growth is hampered by the airport's location, which is constrained by the M8 motorway to the south, the town of Renfrew to the east and the River Clyde to the north. At present the areas of Drumchapel, Clydebank, Bearsden, Foxbar, Faifley and Linwood all sit directly underneath the approach paths into the airport, meaning that further increases in traffic may be politically sensitive. The airport is challenged by Edinburgh Airport, which now serves a wider range of European destinations and has grown to overtake Glasgow as Scotland's busiest airport.

The Scottish Executive announced in 2002 that a rail line – known as the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) – would be built from Glasgow Central station to Glasgow Airport. The rail link was to be completed by 2012 with the first trains running early in 2013. In 2009, however, it was announced by the Scottish Government that the plan had been cancelled.^[28]

Currently, the airport is easily accessible by road due with direct access to the adjoining M8 motorway. It is also served by a frequent bus service, the Glasgow Airport Express, which operates services to city centre. The service is run by First Glasgow and all buses feature leather seats, USB charging ports and free WiFi.

The airport is home to the Scottish regional airline Loganair, previously a Flybe franchise operator, who have their head office located on site.^[29] British Airways has a maintenance hangar at the airport, capable of carrying out overhaul work on Airbus A320, as well as a cargo facility.

The Royal Air Force also has a unit based within the airport – The Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Air Squadron – to provide flying training to university students who plan to join the RAF.

In 2007, Glasgow became the second-busiest airport in Scotland as passenger numbers were surpassed by those at Edinburgh Airport.

On 30 June 2007, a day after the failed car bomb attacks in London, an attack at Glasgow International Airport occurred. A flaming Jeep Cherokee was driven into the entrance of Main Terminal. Two men, one alight, fled the vehicle before being apprehended by a combination of police officers, airport security officers and witnesses. One of the men died in the following months due to injuries sustained in the attack. New barriers and security measures have been added to prevent a similar incident from taking place.^[30]

Icelandair temporarily moved its base of operations from Keflavík International Airport to Glasgow due to the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull.

On 10 April 2014, Emirates operated an Airbus A380 to Glasgow to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Glasgow – Dubai route, and was the first time an A380 had visited a Scottish airport.^[31]

In July 2014, Emirates opened a dedicated lounge at the airport^[32] for First and Business class passengers. It is located at the top of the West Pier. In October 2014, Heathrow Airport Holdings reached an agreement to sell the airport, together with Southampton and Aberdeen, to a consortium of Ferrovial and Macquarie Group for £1 billion.^[33]

In 2017, easyJet became the first airline to carry more than one million passengers from the airport in a period of 12 months.^[34]

On 27 February 2018, Ryanair announced that it would close its base at Glasgow, and retain just three of its 22 routes. It cited the Scottish Government's failure to replace Air Passenger Duty with a cheaper Air Departure Tax.^[35][36]

On 16 April 2019, Emirates launched a daily A380 flight on the Glasgow – Dubai route, making it the first regular A380 service in Scotland.^[25]

On 12 June 2021, Aer Lingus Regional operator Stobart Air entered liquidation resulting in all Aer Lingus routes to and from the airport being cancelled with immediate effect. Stobart Air was due to be replaced by Emerald Airlines as the Aer Lingus Regional operator in 2023, although their CEO states they would be able to launch flights from summer 2021 should they need to, bringing the possibility of the routes being restored in the future.^[37][38]

Annual traffic

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Annual passenger traffic at GLA airport. See Wikidata query.

Busiest routes

More information Rank, Destination ...

Busiest international routes from GLA (2022)

Rank	Destination	Passengers	Change 2021 / 22
1	Dublin	402,362	324%
2	Amsterdam	339,390	250%
3	Dubai	243,992	262%
4	Alicante	235,421	405%
5	Tenerife–South	220,216	320%
6	Málaga	206,775	383%
7	Palma de Mallorca	161,044	523%
8	Frankfurt	115,212	464%
9	Lanzarote	113,490	318%
10	Faro	112,774	471%
Source: CAA Statistics[60]

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More information Rank, Destination ...

Busiest British routes from GLA (2022)

Rank	Destination	Passengers	Change 2021 / 22
1	London–Heathrow	694,730	88%
2	London–Gatwick	434,066	123%
3	Belfast–International	300,493	91%
4	Bristol	290,300	105%
5	London–Stansted	215,588	97%
6	London–Luton	210,063	91%
7	Birmingham	184,031	209%
8	London–City	177,016	204%
9	Southampton	74,832	64%
10	Belfast–City	64,574	298%
Source: CAA Statistics[60]

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Proposed rail link

Plans for a rail link from the airport to Glasgow Central station were proposed in the 2000s, shelved in 2009 and then resurrected in December 2016;^[update] though progress towards the proposal has yet to come to fruition.

Glasgow Metro

A potential extension of the Glasgow Subway system was proposed to include multiple light rail and elevated rapid transit lines around the city including a line to Paisley town centre, and a station at Glasgow Airport. The line would be elevated at the airport and run on segregated tracks into Glasgow city centre, and would likely cancel the previous proposals for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link if they were to be revived.