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City Airport & Manchester Heliport

Barton Aerodrome (ICAO: EGCB) is an airport in Barton-upon-Irwell, Greater Manchester, England, 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) west of Manchester. Formerly known as City Airport and City Airport Manchester, It is known by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as Manchester/Barton and rebranded as Manchester Barton Aerodrome on 3rd April 2023.

The United Kingdom's first purpose-built municipal airport, it has four grass runways. The airfield operates Tuesday - Sunday, from 9 am BST until 6 p.m. or sunset (whichever earlier) for fixed-wing aircraft. Commercial, private, military, police and air ambulance helicopters can operate in the hours of darkness by arrangement.[2]

The airport serves as an important reliever airport for Manchester Airport. It is also used as a refuelling stop for light aircraft and helicopters. It lies on the edge of Chat Moss and the aircraft movements area suffers from occasional periods of waterlogging, restricting fixed wing operations. Works to improve drainage on the airfield have seen some success in reducing the number of closures. It has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P886) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee, City Airport Limited. The aerodrome is not licensed for night use.[3]

History

A 2015 view of the main hangar which was completed during January 1930
1951 view of Barton Aerodrome's 1930s buildings including the Airport Hotel and farm buildings converted for passenger use. Also wartime temporary structures, now demolished
A light aircraft prepares to depart from Barton with the 1932-built control tower at right and a postwar hangar at left
An aircraft parking area at City Airport in front of the control tower

Barton Aerodrome has changed little since its opening, and is considered a good example of the airfields of the 1930s. There are several historical items of note at Barton. The control tower is protected by its grade II listed building status, along with the original terminal building and hangar.[14]

The airfield is regularly used as a setting for films and TV programmes, amongst them "Brass" (where Barton masqueraded as Croydon Airport), Mersey Beat, GBH and Island at War. The distinctive control tower often features prominently in the making of such programmes and films.[15]

Use of Barton Aerodrome by heavier aircraft is hampered by the soft peaty nature of the area, being at the edge of Chat Moss, and by the low-lying land and areas of nearby standing water encouraging fog. It would have needed much heavy work consolidating the ground (compare the struggle building the Liverpool and Manchester Railway across Chat Moss in 1826). During 2010–11, additional drainage was added to improve surface water draining, due to the original clay pipes deteriorating and no longer functioning.

Emergency Services

Both the National Police Air Service and the North West Air Ambulance base helicopters at the airfield.

NPAS is active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It operates an EC135.

North West Air Ambulance is a registered charity providing a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) covering Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside and Cumbria. The NWAA has two EC135 helicopters based primarily to serve Greater Manchester, South Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside. They operate during daylight hours only. The charity also has a third helicopter based in Blackpool.

A recent tenant is the private medical company, Mersey Medical Services Ltd, who base their fleet of Ambulances and bespoke vehicles from the recently refurbished Harrison House, one of the former Manchester University buildings. The company provide services to local authorities and private organisers of events across Europe.?ref

Manchester Heliport

In 2011, the airport opened its new 'Manchester Heliport' facility, aimed at the commercial helicopter charter market, expanding and complementing the existing services provided at the Airport. The heliport features a dedicated jet A1 fuel facility, conference room, small office units and a dedicated passenger lounge. City Heliport (which is not licensed) can accept helicopters during the hours of darkness by arrangement. This facility is used particularly during football matches at nearby Old Trafford, (Manchester United) and City of Manchester Stadium (Manchester City). The airport is also an operating base for the North West Air Ambulance, and the Greater Manchester Police Helicopter also uses the Airport 24 hrs, using portable lighting which is placed on the runway during hours of darkness.

Rescue and fire fighting

City Airport operates a Category 1 Rescue and Fire Fighting service with a Land Rover Defender 130 fire tender equipped to CAA Category 2 standard, and a Toyota Hilux Double Cab as a fire tender equipped with 80 imp gal (360 L; 96 US gal) of foam/water mix.

Events

In recent years, City Airport has re-commenced an annual 'Aviation Family Fun Day and Aircraft Fly-In' Event, raising money for charity. The event is featured on its own website www.visitcityairport.co.uk. City Airport also began to host an annual Fireworks Spectacular event starting in 2013.

Following on from the success of the annual Family Fun Day, the Airport brought back The Manchester Airshow www.manchesterairshow.co.uk, the only full Airshow in the Greater Manchester area.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Manchester/Barton – EGCB
  2. ^ "Airport Information". Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  3. ^ Civil Aviation Authority Aerodrome Ordinary Licences Archived 28 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Scholefield (2004), pp. 222–223
  5. ^ Scholefield (2004), pp. 220–224
  6. ^ Scholefield (2004), p. 224
  7. ^ Stroud (1987), p. 38
  8. ^ Scholefield (2004), p. 226
  9. ^ a b Scholefield (2004), p. 227
  10. ^ Maher (1992), p. 41
  11. ^ "Air show fears after plane crash horror". Leigh Journal. 22 July 1996. Retrieved 30 December 2009.[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ a b [services.salford.gov.uk/solar_documents/ptrp160409b.doc]
  13. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^ Scholefield (2004), p. 229
  15. ^ Neal Keeling (23 May 2003). "Barton Airport gets makes the grade". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved on 28 August 2008.

Bibliography

External links