Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Manchester Airport (EGCC) is the principal international gateway for the north of England, situated at Ringway on the south-western fringe of Manchester. For the simulator pilot it offers a busy Class D environment with parallel long runways, full ILS coverage and a rich aviation history stretching back to 1938.
Manchester Airport, listed under the ICAO code EGCC, lies at Ringway on the south-western edge of Manchester, England. It is operated by Manchester Airports Group and is one of the busiest airports in the United Kingdom outside London, making it a natural focus for simulator pilots wanting to fly heavy metal into a major Class D hub or to practise procedures at a large civil international field.
The airport sits within controlled airspace centred on Ringway, a small village at the western edge of the airfield after which the airport was originally named. It lies around seven miles south-west of Manchester city centre. The field's elevation is 217 feet and it is located at approximately 53.3539N, 2.2750W.
Manchester has two parallel hard-surfaced runways. The northern pair, 05L/23R, is a hard, lit runway with an ILS available at both the 05L and 23R thresholds; the declared lengths are 8587 feet for 05L and 9413 feet for 23R. The southern pair, 05R/23L, is also hard-surfaced and lit, with an ILS on the 05R threshold; declared lengths are 10775 feet for 05R and 9395 feet for 23L. Both runways are suitable for the full range of airliner traffic likely to be modelled in the sim.
Manchester provides a full air traffic control service. Published frequencies are Approach on 135 MHz, ATIS on 128.175 MHz, Clearance Delivery and Ground on 121.85 MHz, and Tower on 118.625 MHz and 119.4 MHz; a further frequency of 121.7 MHz is also listed. The airport is equipped with instrument landing systems on runways 05L, 05R and 23R.
Manchester Airport was officially opened on 25 June 1938, having been under construction in Ringway parish since November 1935 and partly operational from June 1937. It was initially known as Ringway Airport, and on 27 June 1938 KLM became the first airline to launch scheduled commercial flights there. During the Second World War the airfield served as RAF Ringway, playing an important role in military aircraft production and in the training of parachutists, before reverting to civilian use after the war. Peacetime scheduled passenger services resumed in 1946 with Air France, which remains the airport's longest continuous operator. The airport moved to 24-hour operation in 1953, the same year Sabena Belgian began intercontinental flights to New York, soon followed by BOAC. A new purpose-built passenger terminal opened in 1962, and the first transatlantic service direct from Manchester began in 1963 with a thrice-weekly BOAC Boeing 707 routing via Prestwick. The runway was extended in 1969 to 2,745 metres, enabling fully loaded non-stop flights to Canada. The airport passed two million passengers a year in 1971, and in 1975 Ringway was officially renamed Manchester International Airport. Rapid expansion followed through the 1980s and 1990s, including the opening of Terminal A (now part of Terminal 3) by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1989, and the official opening of Terminal 2 and the airport's railway station by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1993.
Today Manchester Airport is a major international hub with an extensive route network and continuing terminal redevelopment, including plans to merge the former Terminal 1 with Terminal 3. It handles a substantial volume of scheduled airline traffic and remains one of the busiest airports in the United Kingdom outside London.
