Glasgow Airport

Glasgow Airport, also known as Glasgow International Airport () (Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu), formerly Abbotsinch Airport, is an international airport in Scotland. It is located in Paisley, Renfrewshire, west of Glasgow city centre. In 2019, the airport handled 8.84 million passengers, an 8.4% annual decrease, making it the second-busiest in Scotland, after Edinburgh Airport, and the ninth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom. The airport is owned and operated by AGS Airports which also owns and operates Aberdeen and Southampton airports. It was previously owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings (formerly known as BAA). The airport's largest tenants are easyJet and Loganair. Other major airlines using Glasgow as a base include Jet2.com and TUI Airways. British Airways also operates one of its major maintenance bases at the airport. Glasgow Airport was opened in 1966 and originally flights only operated to other places in the United Kingdom and Europe. Glasgow Airport began to offer flights to other places around the world, flights which previously used Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which was subsequently relegated as the city's secondary airport catering for Ryanair and freight operators. The history of the present Glasgow Airport goes back to 1932, when the site at Abbotsinch, between the Black Cart Water and the White Cart Water, near Paisley in Renfrewshire, was opened. In 1933 the Royal Air Force 602 Squadron (City of Glasgow) Auxiliary Air Force moved its Westland Wapiti IIA aircraft from nearby Renfrew. The RAF Station HQ, however, was not formed until 1 July 1936 when 6 Auxiliary Group, Bomber Command, arrived. From May 1939, until moving away in October 1939, the Squadron flew the Supermarine Spitfire. In 1940, a torpedo training unit was formed, which trained both RAF and Royal Navy crews under RAF Coastal Command. On 11 August 1943 Abbotsinch was handed over solely to the Royal Navy and it became a naval base. All navy ships and bases are given ship names and Abbotsinch's was known as HMS Sanderling since June 1940.