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George Best Belfast City Airport (EGAC/BHD) sits beside Belfast Harbour in County Down, only three miles from the city centre, sharing its site with the Spirit AeroSystems aircraft manufacturing plant. Its single hard-surfaced runway, control tower and ILS approach make it a straightforward but busy controlled field for visiting VFR and IFR traffic alike. The airport traces its origins to 1938 as Sydenham Airport, built for Short Brothers, and carries a history spanning wartime military service before becoming Belfast's principal city airport.
George Best Belfast City Airport, known by its ICAO code EGAC and IATA code BHD, is an international airport at Belfast, Northern Ireland, immediately adjacent to Belfast Harbour and about three miles from the city centre. It shares its site with the Spirit AeroSystems facility, formerly Short Brothers and Bombardier, reflecting the field's long association with aircraft manufacturing. For a simulator pilot it offers a compact but busy controlled environment with a single main runway, full ILS and an active tower and approach service, all set within the tight geography of Belfast's harbour area.
The airport lies in County Down on the shore of Belfast Harbour, close to Belfast city centre, and shares its site with the Spirit AeroSystems manufacturing plant. It is a controlled aerodrome served by Belfast Approach and Belfast Tower. Its reference point sits at 54.6181N, 5.8725W at an elevation of 10 feet.
The airfield has a single physical runway, 04/22, a hard-surfaced and lit runway equipped with ILS at each end. Its length is given as 5,699 feet when used as runway 04 and 5,994 feet when used as runway 22.
Radio services comprise Belfast Approach on 130.85 MHz, an ATIS on 136.625 MHz, and Belfast Tower on 122.825 MHz. The runway is equipped with ILS, supporting instrument approaches to the field.
The airport's position on Belfast Harbour, close to the city centre and adjoining the large Spirit AeroSystems manufacturing site, provides a clear and distinctive landmark for pilots orientating themselves toward the field from the air.
The airfield originated as Sydenham Airport, established by Short Brothers beside its Belfast factory in 1937 and formally opened on 16 March 1938 by Anne Chamberlain, wife of the then British Prime Minister; its inaugural flight was to Glasgow. It served as Belfast's main civilian airport from 1938 until 1939, when it was requisitioned by the RAF as RAF Belfast in 1941, before passing to the Royal Navy in 1943 as HMS Gadwall, also known as RNAS Belfast or RNAS Sydenham. Nutts Corner then took over as Belfast's main airport. In 1952 the runway was extended to its present length of 6,000 feet. Military use continued at Sydenham into the 1970s, reverting to RAF Belfast in 1973 before closing in 1978, after which the site was used solely by Shorts. Commercial flights resumed in 1983 under the name Belfast Harbour Airport, later Belfast City Airport, and the field was renamed George Best Belfast City Airport in 2006 in memory of the Belfast-born footballer, with the new name unveiled at a ceremony attended by his family on 22 May 2006, what would have been his 60th birthday.
The airport holds a CAA public use aerodrome licence, permitting flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction. It serves as a regional base for Aer Lingus and British Airways, and in 2024 it handled over 2.3 million passengers. It continues to share its site with the Spirit AeroSystems aircraft manufacturing facility, a legacy of its origins as a Short Brothers airfield.
