Lydd Airport – ever heard of it? We wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t, tbh. Also known as London Ashford Airport, it’s a few miles from the town of Lydd in Kent and hasn’t been used for commercial flights for years. But that could now be all about to change.
The runway could soon get a whole lot bigger – and even begin offering services to Europe. The airport’s expansion plans include the modernisation of its terminal and the extension of the runway so that it can accommodate bigger aircraft like Boeing 737s and Airbus 319s.
Lydd might not be used much, but it hasn’t always been this way. In fact, the airport was once the biggest air hub in the country. A few years after it opened in 1954, the airport welcomed 250,000 annual passengers to destinations such as Le Touquet, Calais and Ostend – making it the busiest in the UK. Technically, Lydd Airport is closer to the French coast than it is to London.
The airport eventually found itself struggling to compete with better cross-Channel ferry services from nearby Dover and Folkestone and fell into disuse. Since 2018, Lydd has only been used for private charter flights and pilot training.
It’s worth noting that there are many opponents to the expansion of Lydd Airport. The airport is near a huge, environmentally significant wildlife reserve at Dungeness (also home to one of the largest shingle beaches in Europe). Since planning permission for the airport was approved nearly a decade ago, there has been strong local opposition. You can find out more about that here.
Plus, Lydd isn’t the only revived airport proposed for the UK at the mo. Airports in Plymouth, Swansea and Humberside could soon see greater public use – as might the abandoned airfield in Manston, which is also in Kent. Meanwhile, the recently closed Doncaster-Sheffield airport might reopen too.
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