Historic airports (photos/video)

[Cloud Strife]

I was talking to my wife recently in Luton Airport, and she asked me what Luton used to be like. Despite flying from there on numerous occasions, it occurred to me that I couldn't describe it very well other than 'small'. So, I thought it would be nice to start a thread dedicated to historical views of airports, especially as many airports have changed considerably in the past 30 years.

Luton Airport - 1994

The first thing here that struck me is the manual boarding card check on entrance to departures, which already seems very old fashioned. It's still done this way in Wrocław Airport, but it seems to be such an anachronism now in larger airports.

Heathrow - 1994

Does anyone know which terminal this was? I've only flown from Heathrow a couple of times, so I barely know the airport.

 

[Mag_seven]

Does anyone know which terminal this was? I've only flown from Heathrow a couple of times, so I barely know the airport.

That's Terminal 4 - before Terminal 5 was opened almost all BA long haul flights departed from there including Concord.

 

[pitdiver]

post deleted

 

[nlogax]

Terminal 4 aged badly, certainly land-side. When that clip was shot the terminal had barely been open eight years. I used it from the late 90s until a bit before T5 opened and overall it was a pretty depressing, overcrowded experience.

Anyone here used it since the subsequent refurb and post-covid? Keen to know what the experience is like these days.

 

[Bald Rick]

That video of Luton is amazing. I first flew from there in ‘99, and the new terminal was in use then. Strange that that is nearly 25 years ago!

 

[pitdiver]

I flew from Luton in about 76-77. Its when the octagonal building that can be seen on Google earth was the departure lounge.
Flew Basle in a Bristol Britannia belonging to Monarch and flew back in a Boing 720 as the Britannia had lost an engine.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Terminal 4 aged badly, certainly land-side. When that clip was shot the terminal had barely been open eight years. I used it from the late 90s until a bit before T5 opened and overall it was a pretty depressing, overcrowded experience.

You wouldn't think it had only been 8 years from that clip!

That video of Luton is amazing. I first flew from there in ‘99, and the new terminal was in use then. Strange that that is nearly 25 years ago!

Isn't it? I first flew from there in 2005 I think, although I still have the feeling that Luton feels unfinished in the public areas.

There's an excellent clip here showing Britannia's operations at Luton. I had no idea that they had such a strong presence there!

I could be wrong, but is their hanger the modern day Easyjet hanger? The Britannia office building shown at about 0:28-0:29 appears to be the offices next to the tower today.

I've also found this wonderful news report from 1994, showing both internal terminal views and an aerial shot.

And there's this, which is just a mere 8 years ago.

While the new interior layout is more friendly in terms of security capacity and so on, I can't help but think that the old layout shown here was much nicer. The new layout seems really unfriendly in comparison, and the check-in hall is really grotty and rundown these days compared to here.

I'm also not sure if this link will work for people in the UK, but the entire set of Airline (following Britannia Easyjet at Luton Airport in the late 90s/early 2000s) is here on YouTube

- the genuinely incredible thing here is just how small Luton used to be. And the Easyjet planes still have the phone number on the side!

 

[D6130]

and flew back in a Boing 720 as the Britannia had lost an engine.

Not literally I hope!

 

[pitdiver]

Not literally I hope!

No not literally, if I recall the prop had fallen off whilst on the ground at Luton. We ended up being about 24hrs late leaving Basle.
However as Swissair were responsible for us we got put up in a great hotel overnight including breakfast. The girl I was with was very impressed.
I might add we didn't stay in Switzerland. Basle was just a pick up point for a coach to take us to Cattolica on the Adriatic.

 

[Strathclyder]

Can't have a thread like this without mentioning this airport:

Kai Tak - 1989

Have been able to find very few videos of Kai Tak's interior (barring those concerning the airport's closure in July 1998), but here is a small selecton of images from GAKEI.com.

GAKEI.com | Kai Tak Airport 啟德機場

 

[rf_ioliver]

I'm also not sure if this link will work for people in the UK, but the entire set of Airline (following Britannia Easyjet at Luton Airport in the late 90s/early 2000s) is here on YouTube

- the genuinely incredible thing here is just how small Luton used to be. And the Easyjet planes still have the phone number on the side!

Thanks for those links from back in the day when flying was less of an ordeal. Airport carpets haven't changed much; as for the staff uniforms...

Episode 1, 2 minutes 22 seconds -- Granddad Billy has a problem....oh boy

 

[jfollows]

Manchester Airport used to have Murano glass chandeliers in its only terminal, which was quite a nice space:

This would now be Terminal 1 if you went straight ahead from the walkway from the railway station, I think a lot of the "security" stuff has now encroached on the space. I first remember flying from there in 1968 although I will have flown in 1963 without remembering it. I think the glass is now in a museum in Saint Helens.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Found this from Cardiff in the 1980s

Stand 10 at Cardiff Airport © Christopher R Ware

Taken (I believe) sometime in the '80s. Note the wingtip of the Boeing 747 is actually inside the pier!

www.geograph.org.uk

Remember it well...747 wing meets the terminal building

 

[Strathclyder]

The Reception Hall for Renfrew Municipal Airport (1954-1966). Must be among the shortest-lived terminal buildings (12 years in use and 24 years overall; demolished in 1978), at least in the UK.



The landside of the replacement Glasgow Abbotsinch Airport (as it was originally known) terminal building, designed by Sir Basil Spence and opened in 1966. This still exists, but was swallowed up by a expansion in the late 1980s.

 

[BahrainLad]

Terminal 4 was actually designed for shorthaul point-to-point flights due to being away from the main central terminal area (and was planned with a very short walking distance from kerbside through departures to the gates).

BA, however, desperate for their own terminal space at their hub airport, insisted in taking it over for longhaul/intercontinental flights. As a result there simply wasn't enough floor space inside for thousands of passengers at a time to hang around waiting for departure (passengers for long haul flights spend far longer at the airport than those departing to short haul destinations).

And as it was only BA longhaul (with a few exceptions) in T4, the rest of the operation was in T1 so transferring between flights was a nightmare for people, and bags (which gave BA/LHR its reputation for missing luggage). Out of the European services, through the 1990s it was only Paris, Amsterdam and Athens in T4 as they had more transit traffic. In the early 2000s BA moved some longhaul to T1 (HKG definitely, JNB/CPT if I remember correctly) and built a dedicated premium checkin with private security (Zone R was great!) and lounge complex there which only lasted a few years before the move to T5. Then in 2008 when T5 opened there were some flights moved to T3 where they remain (on rotation). Another lounge complex had to be built in T3 of course. Such expense!

Of course co-locating all the operation in T5 was supposed to fix all of this but a) T5 was originally supposed to be bigger before the planning inquiry reduced it in size and b) BA is a bigger airline at LHR now, mainly due to having absorbed British Midland (which was never the plan!). So BA are still spread across two terminals at Heathrow, their longhaul terminal isn't big enough, and connecting is still a hassle.

But that's UK infrastructure for you.

 

[jfollows]

Heathrow T4 was frustrating, I agree, I had the lost luggage problem (transfer from T1 to a flight to Phoenix) and also I remember arriving there on a BA 747 and parking on the tarmac for a bus to the terminal.
But it was very close to the A30, I used it for IBM Bedfont Lakes and found it easy to walk through the Hilton to the road, then a short walk to my destination. Probably the only time I used Heathrow Express because I had a Britrail pass which included it. Otherwise flight to T1, train to T4, and walk.
When it was new (no pictures, sorry) it was nice enough, but it became grotty in my recollection.

 

[nlogax]

Remember it well...747 wing meets the terminal building

That picture...what on earth was going on there?

Thanks @BahrainLad for the T4 background, that explains an awful lot. I also hadn't realised the planning short-termism continued apace with T5.. space-wise at check-in it's ok in there but again extremely crowded airside, certainly in the main building and A-gates. Much more pleasant experience boarding flights from B and C gates - also walking to them instead of taking the people-mover.. it's amazing how few people stretch their legs and use the footway.

 

[John Webb]

A source of photos of airports, at least in the UK, will be found at https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en - for example https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW000609 shows Luton in 1946 - when it was without any concrete runway(s)!

 

[Bald Rick]

Heathrow T4 was frustrating, I agree, I had the lost luggage problem (transfer from T1 to a flight to Phoenix) and also I remember arriving there on a BA 747 and parking on the tarmac for a bus to the terminal.

I had the sme, albeit coming the other way. Arriving back from Australia, waiting for bags, one didn’t arrive, enquired… “oh, it’s just being loaded onto a Manchester flight”.

They got it back just in time though!

 

[Irascible]

Anyone got photos of the old Dubai terminal? I mostly remember it as being unchanged from about 1972, and having about 4 airports worth of people in it. I used Montreal Mirabel as a very small child, and most of my memory of that ( aside from the 3-week ungrounded DC-10 on the way out - mostly empty ) is things breaking & driving around the airport in a brick shaped bus for a couple of hours

I used Heathrow T4 practically new and I hardly remember it, so it probably wasn't ever particularily inspiring.

 

[theageofthetra]

Does anyone remember the little shuttle train at Gatwick that went to the rotunda gates (Dan Air used it if I recall). The rotunda is still used and the remains of the old train tracks are still visible in places, how ever you walk there now.

 

[CarltonA]

Does anyone remember the little shuttle train at Gatwick that went to the rotunda gates (Dan Air used it if I recall). The rotunda is still used and the remains of the old train tracks are still visible in places, how ever you walk there now.

I remember flying Dan Air in 1977 from Gatwick's then only terminal. Most memorable was the 727 with rear boarding stairs still in use. The flight was to Gibraltar, the landing was quite spectacular if you weren't expecting it. Obviously I was expecting a landing, but not the veering about just above the sea and not being able to see any runway just after touching down.

 

[Sealink]

I don't have any pictures but as a travel agent in the early 90s I used to hand write dozens of tickets to Unst in the Shetlands. Three letter code: UNT.

 

[Cloud Strife]

There's a very interesting article here about Stansted Airport and the Foster design:

Airports come of age: Foster's Stansted - Architectural Review

Originally published in AR May 1991, this piece was republished online in April 2011 We all know the boredom, disorientation and general disagreeableness

www.architectural-review.com

What I find interesting here is the praise for the architecture of the original 1991 terminal at Stansted. It seems that it was designed very coherently, although the actual terminal ended up being a bit different to what was originally planned. But reading this article, it seems that Stansted was really quite a pleasant airport back in 1991.

The design of Stansted is detailed here, and many things come to mind.

Foster's Stansted: how it was built - Architectural Review

Originally published in AR May 1991, this piece was republished online in April 2011 with the 20-year anniversary of Foster’s Stansted airport The whole

www.architectural-review.com

The whole point of the design of the Stansted terminal is that the concourse is a single volume. Travellers always know where they are and which way they are facing because they can see the four glass walls of the huge room in which they stand.

This is definitely not the case these days, and I think it's a great pity that one of Foster's best designs has been mutilated and destroyed to such an extent.

I understand why Stansted evolved in the way that it did, but I think it's a great pity that the terminal has become an incoherent mess in many ways.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Some beautiful views of Glasgow Airport's terminal here. I'm slightly confused by the stairs visible at 0:59 in the background: was this in the place of the current escalator going up to Departures? And if so, where did those stairs lead in those times?

Glasgow Airport has changed quite a lot internally since 2007, as they went from three different (and separated) areas airside to a single large departures lounge. I've been trying to find a floorplan of the airport before the Skyhub was built, but no luck.