Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Inverness Airport (EGPE) lies at Dalcross on the Moray coast, about eight miles north-east of the city of Inverness, and is the principal gateway to the Scottish Highlands. Operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited, it began life as the wartime RAF station Dalcross before becoming a civil airport in 1947, and today combines scheduled and charter traffic with an instrument-equipped main runway that makes it a useful diversion or destination for the simulator pilot exploring northern Scotland.
Inverness Airport, known locally by its former site name of Dalcross, serves Inverness, the Highlands and Moray from a location on the flat coastal plain north-east of the city. It is owned and run by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) and is the busiest airport in the HIAL network, handling scheduled UK and European services, charter flights and freight. For a visiting VFR or IFR pilot it offers the appeal of a genuine regional international airport set against Highland scenery, with an ILS-equipped runway and full ATC service.
The airport sits at Dalcross, roughly eight miles (about 13 km) north-east of Inverness city centre, on the southern shore of the Moray Firth. It is a controlled aerodrome with its own approach and tower service, reflecting its status as the main airport for the North of Scotland.
Inverness has two physical runways. The main runway, 05/23, is a hard-surfaced, lit strip a little over 6,000 feet long (6,158 ft on the 23 threshold, 5,961 ft on the 05 threshold) and is served by an ILS. The secondary runway, 11/29, is a shorter hard-surfaced, lit strip of around 2,300 feet, without an instrument approach. Field elevation is 26 ft.
Inverness Approach operates on 122.605 MHz, which also doubles as the radar frequency. Inverness Tower works on 118.405 MHz, with 122.605 MHz used for tower service when tower and approach are combined. The airport ATIS broadcasts on 109.2 MHz. The main runway, 05/23, is equipped with an ILS, supporting instrument approaches in poor weather.
As a controlled aerodrome, arriving traffic should establish contact with Inverness Approach or Tower on the frequencies above for joining instructions and traffic information before entering the circuit or making an approach.
The airfield was built by the Air Ministry in 1940 as Royal Air Force station Dalcross and served throughout the Second World War, hosting a succession of flying training and operational units, including No. 2 Air Gunners School RAF, No. 2 Central Flying School RAF, No. 19 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF, No. 7 Gliding School RAF, and fighter squadrons such as No. 41 and No. 122 Squadrons RAF re-equipping with the Spitfire F.21 after the war. The station also saw detachments from squadrons flying types including the Mustang I, Boston IIIA and Lysander II. Dalcross opened for civil operations in 1947, replacing Longman as Inverness's airport. The RAF returned briefly in the early 1950s when No. 8 Flying Training School, later No. 8 Advanced Flying Training School, operated from the site until 1953. British European Airways began flights to London-Heathrow in the mid-1970s using Trident jets and Viscounts, and by the late 1970s the route ran twice daily; it was withdrawn in 1983 on financial grounds before being picked up by Dan-Air and, from 1992, British Airways, which finally ended the Heathrow link in 1997 amid public controversy. EasyJet's launch of a daily London-Luton service in 1996 marked the arrival of low-cost carriers, and other UK destinations were added through the 2000s with support from Scottish Executive route development funding. A Heathrow service was briefly reinstated by BMI in 2004 but ceased in 2008. Since 1974 the airport has also handled non-commercial weekly links with the French fishing port of Lorient, carrying sailors to advanced bases in Scotland, a service later continued by operators including Air ITM using a Hawker 400 jet. Charter flights to Mediterranean destinations such as Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza and Lanzarote began with Thomson Holidays in 2004.
Inverness Airport remains the principal air link for the Highlands, handling scheduled services across the United Kingdom and a small number of European routes, including Amsterdam year round and Mallorca in summer, alongside charter and freight operations. EasyJet is currently the largest operator, followed by Loganair, and the airport also acts as a hub connecting flights within the Highlands and Islands network to other UK and European destinations. It is headquarters to Dalcross Handling, which operates handling services across Scotland.
