Departure
90%
vs 95% ▼ 5
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
City Airport Manchester, also known as Manchester Barton Aerodrome, is a historic grass airfield in Barton-upon-Irwell, Salford, some five nautical miles west of Manchester city centre. Once the city's principal municipal airport and now a busy general aviation and helicopter base, it retains the oldest operational control tower in Europe and offers a genuinely traditional grass-field flying experience for the VFR pilot.
City Airport Manchester, historically and still officially known as Manchester Barton Aerodrome, sits on the edge of Chat Moss in Barton-upon-Irwell, within the City and Borough of Salford. It was the United Kingdom's first purpose-built municipal airport and today functions as a reliever airfield for Manchester Airport, a refuelling stop for light aircraft and helicopters, and a base for police, air ambulance and charter helicopter operations. Its four grass runways, 1930s control tower and long aviation heritage make it a rewarding and characterful destination for the sim pilot flying VFR in the Manchester area.
The aerodrome lies in Barton-upon-Irwell, Greater Manchester, about five nautical miles west of Manchester city centre, close to Eccles and Salford, and near the A57 road, under which it operated during the Second World War. It sits under and near the wider Manchester Airport airspace environment, given its role as a reliever field for that major airport.
The aerodrome has four grass runways, all lit. The main pair, 08L/26R, is 2100 ft long, while the parallel pair, 08R/26L, is 2064 ft long. A shorter grass runway, 02/20, has declared lengths of 1515 ft for runway 02 and 1745 ft for runway 20. The shortest runway, 14/32, is 1321 ft in each direction. There is no ILS approach at the field.
The aerodrome is served by an Air/Ground service, Manchester Barton AFIS, on 120.25 MHz.
Construction of Manchester's new municipal aerodrome at Barton began in autumn 1928, replacing the temporary Wythenshawe Aerodrome, and the grass airfield with its large hangar was completed by January 1930, when the first passenger charter flight took place. Northern Air Lines managed the site until 1933, basing Avro 504s and other types for training, club and charter work. In summer 1930 Imperial Airways ran a thrice-weekly scheduled service to Croydon via Castle Bromwich, subsidised by the councils of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. A control tower and wireless station were completed in spring 1933, the first at a municipal airport outside London and able to give pilots bearings in flight; this tower is still in use today and is believed to be the oldest in Europe still serving its original purpose. Scheduled services resumed in August 1934 with Railway Air Services' Croydon-Barton-Belfast-Glasgow route, followed by links to Liverpool, Blackpool and the Isle of Man in 1935. All scheduled services transferred to the newly built Ringway Airport in June 1938. During the Second World War Barton was requisitioned for military aircraft repair and overhaul by firms including Air Taxis Ltd and David Rosenfield Ltd, working on Avro Ansons, Dominies, Fairey Battles, Fairey Fulmars, Hawker Hurricanes and F4U Corsairs, and for scrapping Fairey Swordfish; over 700 Percival Proctors were assembled and tested there by F. Hills & Sons of Trafford Park. A wartime concrete air raid bunker survives, overgrown, near the A57. From 1940 to 1942 Barton occasionally hosted the sole wartime scheduled air service from Ireland, operated by Aer Lingus and West Coast Air Services from Dublin, with Aer Lingus's Douglas DC-3 the heaviest airliner type ever to use the field on a timetabled route; this was the last scheduled service through the airfield. The Lancashire Aero Club moved from Woodford Aerodrome to Barton in 1946 and remained based there until 2007. Manchester University Air Squadron was based at Barton from 1946 to 1953, flying Tiger Moths and Chipmunks, before moving to RAF Woodvale. Alongside it, No. 2 Reserve Flying School operated from October 1948 to March 1953, also on Tiger Moths and Chipmunks, giving primary flight training to volunteers destined for the Royal Air Force.
The airfield operates Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 am until 6 pm or sunset, whichever is earlier, for fixed-wing traffic, while commercial, private, military, police and air ambulance helicopters can use the site during hours of darkness by prior arrangement; the aerodrome itself is not licensed for night use. It holds a CAA Ordinary Licence, Number P886, permitting public transport flights and flying instruction as authorised by the operator, City Airport Limited. The field is used as a reliever for Manchester Airport and as a refuelling stop for light aircraft and helicopters, and it lies on the edge of Chat Moss, where the movement area can suffer occasional waterlogging that restricts fixed-wing operations, though drainage improvements have reduced closures. A dedicated Manchester Heliport facility, opened in 2011, serves the commercial helicopter charter market with jet A1 fuel and passenger facilities, and is used heavily around football fixtures at nearby Old Trafford and the City of Manchester Stadium. The airport is also an operating base for the North West Air Ambulance and the Greater Manchester Police helicopter, both operating around the clock using portable runway lighting during darkness.
