Bristol Airport

Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport opens on former farmland, becoming the third civil airport in the United Kingdom; it is later replaced by the Lulsgate site.

Bristol (Lulsgate) Airport is officially opened by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, in May 1957 after the RAF's wartime airfield there is purchased by Bristol Corporation; around 33,000 passengers use it in its first year.

The collapse of charter airline Court Line sharply cuts passenger numbers, pushing the airport into financial difficulty into the early 1980s.

The airport is renamed Bristol International Airport as bus operator FirstGroup (FirstBus) purchases a 51% stake in the newly formed Bristol Airport plc.

A joint venture of Macquarie Bank and Cintra buys the airport for £198 million, part of a wave of infrastructure investment; low-cost carriers Go (soon absorbed by easyJet) and later Ryanair (from 2007) establish bases, pushing traffic past 6 million passengers by 2008.

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan becomes sole owner after buying out Macquarie's stake; the airport drops "International" from its name in 2010 and continues major terminal extensions through the 2010s.

Following a rejected 2018 application, the Planning Inspectorate grants an appeal in February 2022 allowing the airport to grow toward a 12-million-passenger annual capacity, a decision that remains contested by environmental campaigners.

The airport carries 10.83 million passengers, remaining the UK's eighth-busiest; in November, Macquarie Asset Management acquires a 55% stake, with the remainder held by pension and infrastructure investors.