Cambridge City Airport — previously Marshall Airport Cambridge UK — is a

regional airport A domestic airport is an airport that handles only flights within the same country. Domestic airports do not have customs and immigration facilities and so cannot handle flights to or from a foreign airport. These airports often have short r ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is located on the eastern outskirts of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, south of Newmarket Road and west of the village of

Teversham Teversham is a small village in Cambridgeshire, England, about from Fulbourn and about from the centre of Cambridge. History Teversham is a small parish that built up just to the south of the Cambridge to Newmarket road; it had only 27 villa ...

, from the centre of Cambridge and approximately from London. Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace Limited has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P433) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. The airport is available for corporate and private use, and is home to four flying schools. Since 2016 there have been no public scheduled flights from the airport.

History

Early years

Opened in 1938, when it replaced the old airfield at

Fen Ditton Fen Ditton is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district, on the northeast edge of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 the parish had a population of 760. The parish covers an area of . Fen Ditton lies on the eas ...

, the airport is owned and operated by

Marshall Aerospace Marshall Group (registered as Marshall of Cambridge (Holdings) Ltd,) is a British company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Subsidiaries include Marshall Aerospace, an aircraft maintenance, modification, and design company located a ...

, a Cambridge-based company with many years' history servicing

civilian A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is war crime, illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civi ...

and military contracts. The main building, which is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, was designed by the architect Harold Tomlinson of the University of Cambridge and constructed in 1936–37.Marshalls Cambridge Airport Control and Office Building, Teversham
British listed buildings. Retrieved 20 May 2013. For many years it was the base for the

Cambridge University Air Squadron Cambridge University Air Squadron, abbreviated CUAS, formed in 1925, is the training unit of the Royal Air Force at the University of Cambridge and forms part of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. It is the oldest of 15 University Air Squad ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the site was used by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

as RAF Cambridge. The following units were here at some point: * No. 2 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit RAF (July 1951 - March 1953) * No. 2 Squadron RAF between 1 August and 24 October 1940 with the

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British Army cooperation aircraft, army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operat ...

II & III * No. 4 (Supplementary) Flying Instructors School RAF (July 1940 - January 1942) became No. 4 Flying Instructors School RAF (January - April 1942) became No. 4 Flying Instructors School (Elementary) RAF (April 1942 - April 1943) * No. 5 Air Experience Flight RAF (July 1958 - September 1966 & September 1967 - ?) * A detachment from No. 16 Squadron RAF between 3 and 15 August 1940 with the Lysander I * No. 22 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School RAF (February 1938 - September 1939) became No. 22 Elementary Flying Training School RAF (September 1939 - May 1947) became No. 22 Reserve Flying School RAF (May 1947 - June 1954) * A detachment from No. 26 Squadron RAF between 8 June and 3 September 1940 with the Lysander III * No. 54 Maintenance Unit RAF (October 1940 - March 1945) * No. 105 Gliding School RAF (May 1945 - September 1955) * A detachment from

No. 239 Squadron RAF No. 239 Squadron RAF was an anti-submarine squadron of the Royal Air Force during World War I. During World War II the squadron performed as an army co-operation squadron and later as a night intruder unit. After the war the squadron was disband ...

between 18 September 1940 and 22 January 1941 with the Lysander II * A detachment from No. 268 Squadron RAF between 30 September 1940 and 1 April 1941 with the Lysander II * Detachment of Roc Flight RAF (October - November 1940)

Development since the 2000s

In 2000, a proposal was created to relocate the airport to a new site away from the city, which would have freed up of land for the building of several thousand new homes. A study for a new airport was undertaken by

County Council and

planning permission Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...

was requested but withdrawn. In April 2010 Marshall Aerospace again announced it would not be moving from Cambridge Airport to make way for new housing.

RAF Mildenhall Royal Air Force Mildenhall, or more simply RAF Mildenhall , is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station located near Mildenhall, Suffolk, Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a List of Royal Air Force stations, ...

Waterbeach Barracks Waterbeach Barracks was a military installation in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. The site was an RAF Station, RAF Waterbeach and then used by the Royal Engineers, part of the British Army, from 1966, until 2013 when the site closed to make way for ...

and

RAF Wyton Royal Air Force Wyton or more simply RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. The airfield is decommissioned and the station is now under the comm ...

were considered as alternative sites but Marshall concluded there were "no suitable relocation options".Cambridge Airport will not move into Waterbeach Barracks
, ''Eastern Daily Press'', 21 July 2011. In October 2008, to coincide with the opening of the new Marshall Business Aviation Centre, the airport's name was changed from Cambridge City Airport to Marshall Airport Cambridge UK. The name was changed again to Cambridge Airport in 2011 as plans were announced for an expansion of the airport following the installation of instrument landing systems and new hangars.Cambridge Airport sets out plans for future
BBC Cambridgeshire news website, 13 January 2011. In 2012 the airport introduced charter flights to Italy as well as regular flights to the Channel Islands. These were the first scheduled flights from the airport since 2006.Direct flights between Cambridge and Jersey return
BBC Jersey news website, 2 February 2012.Cambridge Airport reinstates scheduled flights
BBC Cambridgeshire news website, 12 May 2012. In mid 2013 the airport completed a £1m refurbishment of its passenger terminal to handle new international airline services and in March 2015

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

commenced daily scheduled services to

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

operated by franchise Sun-Air of Scandinavia. Using 32 seat Dornier 328JET aircraft, to begin with 20 seats were reserved by AstraZeneca in order to connect its two main European offices. Passenger services were reported as "to end on 31 January 2016",Cambridge Airport axes charter and scheduled passenger flights
, ''

Cambridge News The ''Cambridge News'' (formerly the ''Cambridge Evening News'') is a British daily newspaper. Published each weekday and on Saturdays, it is distributed from its Milton base. In the period December 2010 – June 2011 it had an average daily c ...

'', 2 December 2015. although British Airways/Sun-Air continued temporarily to operate flights from Cambridge to Gothenburg. Since 24 March 2016 tickets have not been available to the general public. As of November 2017 the flights now originate in Manchester with a brief stop in Cambridge. In November 2019 the local FBO changed hands from ExecuJet to Cambridge Jet Centre which is managed by the Airport directly.

Prospective closure

In May 2019,

Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group Marshall Group (registered as Marshall of Cambridge (Holdings) Ltd,) is a British company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Subsidiaries include Marshall Aerospace, an aircraft maintenance, modification, and design company located a ...

, owners of the airport, announced that the airport would be closed to all traffic by 2030 at the latest. The Group plans to redevelop the airport site for around 12,000 homes and of business premises. , the Group was deciding between three potential airfields for its continuing operations:

Duxford Duxford is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, about south of Cambridge. It is part of the Hundred Parishes area. History The village formed on the banks of the River Cam, a little below its emergence from the hills of north Essex. One of t ...

and Wyton in Cambridgeshire, and

Cranfield Cranfield is a village and civil parish in the west of Bedfordshire, England, situated between Bedford and Milton Keynes. It had a population of 4,909 in 2001. increasing to 5,369 at the 2011 census. The parish is in Central Bedfordshire uni ...

in Bedfordshire. In January 2020, the Group ruled out moving to

due to incompatibility between the defence requirements of the Group and the requirements of the local traffic. On 6 October 2020,

Cranfield University Cranfield University is a postgraduate-only public research university in the United Kingdom that specialises in science, engineering, design, technology and management. Cranfield was founded as the College of Aeronautics (CoA) in 1946. Throug ...

and MADG announced that they had signed an option agreement for the potential relocation of Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group (MADG) to

Cranfield Airport Cranfield Airport is an airfield just outside the village of Cranfield, in Bedfordshire, England. It is south-west of Bedford and east of Milton Keynes. It was originally a Second World War aerodrome, RAF Cranfield. It is now used for busin ...

. A spokesperson for MADG cautioned that "it is important to note that the signing of the option agreement does not represent a final decision".

Statistics

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

Official website
{{authority control Airports in England Airport, Cambridge Airport, Cambridge Airports in the East of England Airports established in 1938 Airports disestablished in 2016 1938 establishments in England 2016 disestablishments in England