The Middy, November 25 1999

The buzz of the beehive

Gatwick Airport is today the busiest single runway airport in the world.

It handles more than 30 million passengers here, with 102 airlines flying to hundreds of destinations worldwide - and the airport has become a community itself with around 27,000 people employed there.

Its global status is a far cry from the humble origins of the site which began life as a race course in 1891 - complete with its own railway station. During the First World War the Aintree Grand National was abandoned and a substitute was run over the same distance at Gatwick in 1916, 1917 and 1918: the winner in 1918 was ridden by Lester Piggott's grandfather.

It was another decade before the land saw its first aeroplane when a small flying club, Surrey Aero club, moved on site in 1930. Gatwick soon grew as the fine crowd became more popular, and among aircraft owned by proprietor Ronald Walters was an Avro 504 and a de Havilland Gypsy Moth.

In 1931 the Surrey Aero club saw an increasing number of jockeys and racegoers arriving by air for meetings at the adjacent racecourse and in 1930 Gatwick was sold to the Redwing Company. The following year Morris Jackaman bought Gatwick for £13,500 and in 1934 the airport came to life officially when the Air Ministry issued its first public license allowing it to be used by commercial aircraft.

Jackaman secured the services of Marcel Desoutter as his business manager and the two became business partners in 1935 when Airports Ltd was made public – 840,000 shares were sold for five shillings each.

That year saw two other major milestones – a new railway station was opened at Gatwick, initially served by two Southern Railway trains an hour, and Hillmans Airways became the first airline to operate out of Gatwick to Paris and Belfast.

Gatwick’s famous landmark The Beehive, the world’s first circular terminal, was officially opened in 1936. It boasted several novel features including a 130 yard long subway to the train station so that visitors to the airport could remain undercover from the time they left London Victoria until the time they boarded and aircraft.

On Sunday, 17 May 1936, passengers boarded the first scheduled service from Gatwick to Paris – the single fare for the flight cost £4 and five shillings (nearly £200 today) and included the first class train fare from Victoria.

From 1936 passengers were able to fly to Paris, Malmo via Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen and the Isle of Wight but the onset of the Second World War meant a new military role for the airfield. It was requisitioned by the Air Ministry for use by the RAF and its area later extended by further requisitioning to include part of the Gatwick Racecourse.

After the war Gatwick was retained under requisition and operated for civilian use by the Ministry of Civil Aviation with a small number of charter airlines using the airport. It was not until 1952 that the government gave approval for the proposed development of Gatwick as an alternative to Heathrow.

The whole site closed in March 1956 and building began on "The new London Airport" at a cost of £7.8 million. It took more than two years to build and it was officially opened by the Queen on June 9, 1958. The Evening Standard waxed lyrical over the newly built airport and marvelled at the new “finger and gate" system – piers and gate rooms – which would enable passengers to wait in one place until called to the aircraft, rather than walk or take a bus.

It was the first airport in the world to combine air, rail and road transport in a close knit single unit, and in the first seven months of operating was used by 186,172 passengers – the number now handled in just one busy weekend.

By 1959 passenger figures had grown to 368,000 – still less than a busy weekend in the South Terminal today – and in 1962 work began on enlarging the airport. The terminal was doubled in size and two more piers were built, with a runway extension following two years later.

Over the next few years, the airport mushroomed. Passenger figures exceeded 2 million for the first time, the runway was extended twice more and in 1977 Pier 2 opened, further extending in 1984.

The airport was even blessed by the traditional Tarmac greeting when Pope John Paul II flew into Gatwick on the first papal visit to the UK in 1982.

During the 80s the airport was home to the largest single construction project south of London for the entire decade when work began on building the second terminal at Gatwick – the main building is around six times the size of the Royal Albert Hall. After five years work, the £200 million North Terminal was officially opened in 1988 by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The last half the decade also saw the opening of the new air traffic control tower, still among the tallest in Europe, and the construction of the new northern runway to be used as an alternative to the main runway in case of emergencies.

In July 1985 British Airways Concorde made its first ever commercial flight from Gatwick and that year Pier 1, the only part of the present day South terminal today back to the original building in 1958, was completely refurbished.

A second pier was opened at North terminal in 1991 and in 1994 the new North terminal International Departures Lounge and the first phase of the South Terminal International Departures Lounge opened. The investment for both was £30 million.

As the airport looks to the new Millennium, the BAA have unveiled plans to expand Gatwick to handle 40 million passengers a year by 2008. This would be a 50% increase on the 1997 throughput of the airport.

It is suggested that this can still be achieved with one runway and within the present boundary, and plans include two large Extensions to the south terminal and a further two extensions to the North terminal.

The project is likely to be controversial and conservation lobby groups have demanded that no planning permissions are granted until legal safeguards are in place to protect the environment.