Gone are the days of our 1940s short flights which hopped from Swansea to Penzance, via Barnstaple and Newquay, and we’ve closed the door on our previous life as a military RAF base.
Today, the 385 hectare site is a commercial hub serving the local community. With year round flights reaching destinations including London Heathrow, Alicante and Dublin, the options for onward connections are boundless. Our range of seasonal flights keep us on our toes, in the summer months passengers can reach short haul destinations such as Faro, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen and Cork, as well as destinations across the UK.
When is the Airport open?
We’re open seven days a week, welcoming travellers from all over the world. Our standard opening hours in the terminal are 05:00-22:00, but out on the aerodrome things are a little different. Once we’ve closed the terminal doors for the night it doesn’t mean the airport is empty – far from it. Cornwall Airport Newquay is home to a variety of aviation services, including both Cornwall Air Ambulance and Search and Rescue, with the latter on call 24 hours a day.
Cornwall Air Ambulance
Having flown 1,105 missions in 2018 alone, the air ambulance is vital for Cornwall. With tricky terrain to navigate and remote coastal villages and towns, it’s not always possible for a road ambulance to reach casualties. Based at Cornwall Airport Newquay, the helicopters save lives, and they’re needed more than ever.
Situated on the perimeter of the airfield, the team of paramedics, doctors and pilots can scramble the helicopter to most places in Cornwall in around 12 minutes, and the Isles of Scilly in under half an hour. It’s therefore understandable why it’s considered to be a lifeline by both residents and visitors.
Cornwall Search and Rescue Team
Another vital service that resides within our airfield is Cornwall Search and Rescue Team. Providing a year round service across the whole of inland Cornwall, they seek out missing, lost and injured people day and night.
Once the team has been scrambled, a large proportion of their work is spent searching for vulnerable missing people in rural locations. Typically, they’ll respond to around 40 incidents per year, with a call out lasting anywhere from two hours to several days.
Search and Rescue moved to the airport in October 2015, having previously been based at RNS Culdrose.
Find out more
To find out which destinations we fly to across the world, please visit our current destinations, here. For more information about the lifesaving businesses based at the airport, you can find further details on the services they provide below: