Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Brighton City Airport, long and still widely known as Shoreham Airport, lies on the West Sussex coast at Lancing, immediately west of Shoreham-by-Sea between Brighton and Worthing. Dating from 1910-11, it is the oldest airport in the United Kingdom and the oldest purpose-built commercial airport still operating anywhere in the world, and its Grade II* listed Art Deco terminal remains a distinctive visual landmark for visiting pilots. It continues today as a busy general aviation field with flying training, pleasure flights and light aircraft and helicopter operations.
Brighton City Airport (ICAO EGKA, IATA ESH) sits on the coast at Lancing in West Sussex, just west of Shoreham-by-Sea and between Brighton and Worthing. It holds a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence covering public transport flights and flying instruction, and is operated by Cyrrus Holdings Limited under ownership of Brighton City Airport Ltd. For a sim pilot it offers a genuinely historic destination, home to the country's oldest airport terminal, mixed grass and hard runways, and a mix of training, touring and pleasure-flying traffic typical of a busy South Coast general aviation field.
The airfield lies on the West Sussex coast immediately south of the A27 road and immediately north of the West Coastway railway line, about 1 nautical mile west of Shoreham-by-Sea, between the larger towns of Brighton and Worthing. It is a low-lying coastal site at only 3 feet elevation, close to the sea and to the Brighton and Worthing built-up areas, which makes it a straightforward visual reference for pilots transiting the Sussex coastline.
The airfield has four physical runways. The principal hard runway, 02/20, is surfaced and lit, with the 02 direction measuring 2797 feet and the 20 direction 3024 feet. Three further runways are grass and lit: 06/24, at 2234 feet from runway 06 and 2341 feet from runway 24; the parallel runway 02R/20L, 1976 feet in each direction; and 13/31, 1765 feet from runway 13 and 1335 feet from runway 31. There is no ILS approach available. Field elevation is 3 feet above mean sea level.
Air traffic services are provided on TWR 125.405 MHz, with approach and radio information also available on 123.155 MHz (A/G and RDO APP). An ATIS broadcast is transmitted on 130.975 MHz. There is no ILS at the field, so arrivals should plan for visual or procedural joining based on the published radio frequencies above.
The airfield's position between Brighton and Worthing, immediately south of the A27 and immediately north of the West Coastway railway line, provides a clear coastal reference for VFR pilots. Shoreham-by-Sea, about a nautical mile to the east, and the surrounding coastline are useful landmarks when approaching from either direction along the South Coast.
The site's aviation story began in 1910 when Harold H. Piffard made the first flight there, an event now marked by a memorial garden, and the aerodrome was officially opened on 20 June 1911, with a flying school following in 1913. During the First World War the Royal Flying Corps used the aerodrome as a departure point for early cross-Channel flights aboard Bleriots and BEs. It was formally established as Brighton Hove and Worthing Joint Municipal Airport on 13 June 1936, when the Art Deco terminal designed by R Stavers Hessell Tiltman was built; the building is now Grade II* listed. In 1937 a local flying school became No. 16 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School for the RAF, training pilots on Tiger Moths, Harts and Hinds until it moved away in August 1939. During the Second World War the airfield saw a succession of RAF units, including Westland Lysanders of 225 Squadron on coastal patrol from July 1940, the Fighter Interception Unit with Beaufighters, Hurricane night-fighters of 422 Flight, target-towing and search-and-rescue Lysanders and Walruses, Hurricanes of 245 Squadron, Defiants and later Spitfires of 277 Squadron, and Spitfires of the Free French 345 Squadron, which flew from the airfield over the D-Day beaches in 1944. The airfield was bombed repeatedly during the war; a Messerschmitt Bf 109 was shot down by ground fire and crash-landed near the terminal, and a damaged B-17 Flying Fortress also crash-landed there, with damage to the old guardhouse still visible today. The landing area remained entirely grass until a tarmac runway was built in 1982. In the post-war years F G Miles Engineering Ltd relocated to the airfield in 1949, and Beagle Aircraft Ltd was formed there in 1960, developing the Beagle B.206X twin-engine light transport. The airport was sold by the local authority to a property company on a 150-year lease in 2006, and Brighton City Airport Ltd took over operations in 2014. For around 25 years the airfield hosted the Royal Air Forces Association Shoreham Airshow, which ended after a Hawker Hunter crashed onto the adjacent A27 in August 2015 with the loss of 11 lives.
Brighton City Airport remains a centre for flying training, pleasure flights, and light aircraft and helicopter maintenance and sales, with several operators based on the field offering lessons and sightseeing flights, including trips in a Tiger Moth. It operates seven days a week, with tarmac and grass runways, runway lighting, fuelling and full air traffic control services. Visiting pilots should expect to require prior permission to land.
