Benbecula Airport () is located on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, off the West Coast of Scotland. It is a small rural airport owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited.
History
Early years
An airfield has existed on Benbecula since 1936 when Scottish Airways began operating to what was known as Balivanich Airfield, located on the north west corner of the island.
Second World War
Between 1941 and 1942, during the Second World War, the airfield became RAF Benbecula, when it came under the control of the Royal Air Force's No. 15 (GR) Group, Coastal Command. During this period it was home to aircraft carrying out patrols in the Atlantic, protecting shipping convoys from German U-Boats. Such missions were carried out by the Lockheed Hudson and latterly the Boeing Fortress and Vickers Wellington.
At its peak, RAF Benbecula had several thousand troops stationed at the station and at several other sites around the islands.
The following units were based at the airfield at some point:
No. 36 Squadron RAF
No. 179 Squadron RAF
No. 206 Squadron RAF
No. 220 Squadron RAF
No. 279 Squadron RAF
No. 280 Squadron RAF
No. 304 Polish Bomber Squadron
No. 455 Squadron RAAF
814 Naval Air Squadron
819 Naval Air Squadron
838 Naval Air Squadron
842 Naval Air Squadron
No. 2841 Squadron RAF Regiment
Post-War
The airfield later became the control centre for the nearby Hebrides Rocket Range. After the Second World War, the airfield became Benbecula Airport.
Airlines and destinations
The airport provides scheduled services to the Scottish mainland and other Hebridean islands. In so doing it provides vital transport connections for the islands of Benbecula, North Uist and South Uist, which are interlinked by causeway but are over two hours from the mainland by sea. The airport is also used by emergency air ambulance flights and by flights supporting the nearby missile test range.
Passenger
Cargo
Statistics
In popular culture
The airport is also significant to the modern history of Scottish Gaelic literature as, during the Second World War, iconic war poet Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna served in the Home Guard, about which he composed the song Òran a' Home Guard ("The Song of the Home Guard"), which pokes fun at an exercise in which a platoon from North Uist was ordered to simulate retaking Benbecula Airport from the invading Germans.