Humberside Airport is situated in North Lincolnshire, England, 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) west of Grimsby and around 15 miles (21 km) from both Kingston upon Hull and Scunthorpe, on the A18. It is a small international airport, owned by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), the largest UK-owned airport group, acquiring Humberside Airport in 1999. In 2008, MAG announced that it was conducting a review of their strategy for Humberside Airport, and all options including disposal were under consideration. The airport faces competition for flights from East Midlands Airport (70 miles), Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield (28 miles) which opened in 2005 and Leeds Bradford Airport (74 miles); all of these airports offer a substantially wider range of scheduled flights than Humberside Airport. 516,000 scheduled and charter passengers were handled during 2006, a 13% increase over 2005, putting the airport in 29th position in the UK. 2007 saw a 9.5%reduction in passengers to 467,000 and the moving annual total to July 2008 has dropped to 446,000 per provisional CAA statistics. The airport has a very high amount of general aviation activity, with 5 resident flying clubs and organisations, this is due to the airport having some of the lowest landing and handling fees of its kind. It is a major operating base for helicopters flying to North Sea gas platforms. Humberside International has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P739) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.
