George Best Airport Belfast

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George Best Belfast City Airport is a single-runway airport in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Situated adjacent to the Port of Belfast it is 3mi from Belfast City Centre. It shares the site with the Short Brothers/Bombardier aircraft manufacturing facility. The airport began commercial operations in 1983.The airport was formerly known as "Belfast City Airport" until it was renamed in 2006 in memory of George Best, the professional footballer from Belfast. The airport handled over 2.7 million passengers in 2010, a record total for the airport, though the total was slightly below 2.7 million in 2016.The airport is a major base for Flybe, which began operations at the airport in 1993 and is now the largest operator at Belfast City. The airport has a CAA public use aerodrome licence (number P862) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. Ground handling is provided by Swissport and Menzies Aviation. In 2012 Aer Lingus opened a base at the airport transferring operations from Belfast International Airport.HistoryEarly yearsSydenham Airport was established by Shorts beside its Belfast factory at Sydenham in 1937. This became Belfast's main civilian airport from 1938 to 1939. The airfield was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Second World War and named HMS Gadwall. RAF Nutts Corner then became Belfast's main airport (while Aldergrove would later become the primary airport in Northern Ireland). The Sydenham airfield continued to be used for military purposes until the 1970s, including use by the Fleet Air Arm as a naval aircraft storage unit, after which it was used solely by Shorts.