Birmingham Airport Operations began with Elmdon Airport being established, southeast of Solihull and opened in 1939 for commercial operations. The Airport was immediately used for Pilot Training as well as aircraft flight testing, from the outset of World War 2. Also, Elmdon Airport was used as a delivery base for Stirling and Lancaster bombers. At the outset there were two operational runways, that replaced the original grass airstrip, being 33/15 and 06/24, the former roughly North/South and the latter Southwest/Northeast. Use of runway 06/24 was discontinued in 2008.
Elmdon Airport recommenced commercial operations in 1949, with the introduction of British European Airways flights to Paris and more scheduled flights were introduced between 1955 and 1960 to destinations such as Zurich, Dusseldorf, Palma, Amsterdam and Barcelona. Also, in this period the growth of chartered airlines took place and many tour operators became based at Elmdon Airport.
The airport is nowadays known as Birmingham International Airport (BHX) and handles 12.64 Million passengers each year, making BHX the 7th largest airport in the UK (after London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Luton and Edinburgh). The current passenger terminal (East) opened in 1984. The old passenger terminal (West) and hangars are now used for cargo and maintenance operations.
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