Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Islay Airport, also known as Glenegedale Airport, serves the island of Islay off Scotland's west coast with scheduled links to the mainland. It began life in 1933 as a small commercial aerodrome before being rebuilt as RAF Port Ellen during the Second World War, and it retains a pair of hard runways today under the operation of Highlands and Islands Airports Limited. For the visiting VFR pilot it offers a straightforward rural field with AFIS coverage and no instrument landing system.
Islay Airport lies on the island of Islay in Argyll and Bute, off the west coast of Scotland, and is operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL). It is a small rural airport used for scheduled services to the Scottish mainland and for air ambulance flights, and its wartime origins as an RAF station give it a distinct historical character that makes it an interesting destination for a sim pilot exploring the Hebrides.
The airfield sits about 5 miles (8 km) north-northwest of Port Ellen on Islay, close to the settlement of Glenegedale, from which it takes its alternative name. It lies off the west coast of the Scottish mainland, well away from other airports, making it a relatively isolated rural field for arriving VFR traffic.
Islay has two physical hard-surfaced runways, both lit. One runway pair runs approximately 13/31, with the 13 threshold recorded at 4581 ft and the 31 threshold at 4617 ft. The other pair runs approximately 08/26, with the 08 threshold recorded at 2069 ft and the 26 threshold at 1882 ft. Field elevation is 36 ft and there is no ILS.
The field is served by an Aerodrome Flight Information Service under the callsign Islay Information, on frequency 123.155 MHz.
Islay Airport opened on 1 May 1933, with early services flown from Glasgow via Campbeltown by the Midland and Scottish Air Ferries company, though that operator folded in late 1934. Northern & Scottish Airways then took over, flying a De Havilland Dragon three times a week from Glasgow, before the company amalgamated with Highland Airways in 1937 to form Scottish Airways, which ran daily Glasgow to Islay flights Monday to Saturday, a service that continued with only minor wartime disruption. In 1940 Winston Churchill ordered the construction of military airfields across the western Scottish islands to guard against German attack and to support Atlantic reconnaissance flights, and the present airport was built as RAF Port Ellen that year, receiving a concrete runway in 1942. Over 1,500 RAF personnel were stationed there during the war, and units based at the field included a Relief Landing Ground for No. 3 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF, No. 48 Squadron RAF, No. 304 Ferry Training Unit RAF, and the Fleet Air Arm's 878 and 890 Naval Air Squadrons. On 1 February 1947 Scottish Airways Ltd and its subsidiary Western Isles Airways Ltd passed to British European Airways Corporation under the Civil Aviation Act 1946. On 28 September 1957 a de Havilland Heron 1B, G-AOFY, operating for the Scottish Air Ambulance Service, crashed on approach to Islay in bad weather, killing Captain T. M. Calderwood, radio officer Hugh McGinlay, and Sister Jane Kennedy of Glasgow's Southern General Hospital; it was the first crash in the service's history, and one of the surviving Herons was later named after the nurse. On 29 June 1994 the Prince of Wales, piloting a BAe 146 of No. 32 Squadron RAF, overshot the runway on landing; no one was injured, though the aircraft was damaged.
Islay Airport is owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited and continues to handle scheduled passenger services and air ambulance flights. Loganair operates flights linking Islay with Glasgow, and the airport also serves routes to Colonsay and Oban.
