Coventry Airport is preparing to close its doors later this year, with the UK Civil Aviation Authority confirming it will cease operations from June 2026. Many locals have made their feelings known about the closure, reflecting on the airport’s storied past and the potential impact on nearby businesses and the broader community.
Firms operating at the airport have been told they must vacate the site by May 2026. A CAA spokesperson said: “Coventry Aerodrome has given formal notice to us of its plan to close the airport permanently with effect from 11 June 2026.”
The site, originally founded in 1936 as Baginton Aerodrome, served as RAF Baginton, a fighter airfield during the Second World War. Over the decades, it has handled freight, light aircraft, and occasional commercial flights.
Coventry Airport also played host to a Papal visit in 1982, when Pope John Paul II toured the UK and drew an estimated 350,000 people to the site. One resident remarked to Coventry Live: “All the people who are moaning about the closure are probably the same ones who campaigned a few years ago against it being used for holiday flights (you know, that thing airports do, planes taking off and landing). Or the ones who moved to Baginton and then complained about the noise!”
Ivorquestion1 agrees: “Once an airport, always an airport. Part of our history will be lost again. Leave it as it is and attract more airlines. The electric battery idea already fell flat, and those who opposed Thomson’s terminal will face more noise and disruption soon.”
Another contributed: “I bet this will end up being yet another mini village housing estate with no new shops, school or surgery etc. Get ready for even longer waiting times and harder fights to get your kids into the school you want!”
Another user remarked: “My memory of the airport will always be the annual Air Day each August, with Spitfire, Lancaster, Harrier and Phantom in the flying display. We’d get a special bus from Pool Meadow, deckchairs in hand. It invariably rained, of course. I remember the Red Arrows closing the show with their low cloud display and it was coming down in stair-rods. Goodbye, Baginton Aerodrome.”
