GLASGOW Airport opened for business on May 2, 1966, but it wasn’t until the end of the following month that the Queen performed the official opening.
The airport director, Mr Ronald Read, writing in these pages, described the complex arrangements and teething troubles that lay behind the launch of such a large facility.
“The reaction of individual travellers cannot be foreseen and one can only plan on certain limited assumptions”, he wrote.
“Some air travellers act normally and rationally, while others, probably on their first air journey, can act quite irrationally”.
As an example of the latter he cited the “true story” of a family of four who had entered an airline town terminal “crouched on the baggage conveyor provided for offloading bags from coaches.
“Because of their completely strange environment they had no idea of what would be a rational method of entrance and they therefore accepted a completely alien concept and entered on the baggage conveyor”.
Glasgow Airport, he added, had opened at the peak hour of the busiest day of the week on the busiest schedule period – 8am on a Monday of summer schedules.
In the first month, 115,000 air travellers had used its facilities, and a further 40,000 had visited the public viewing terrace.
Substantial numbers of other people were drawn to the airport to see its facilities for themselves.
In the month from May 2, Mr Read added, well over 250,000 people had passed through the airport’s doors.
Glasgow airport was opened by the Queen in the company of the Duke of Edinburgh on June 27.
A large crowd was on hand to greet the royal couple as they arrived to perform the ceremony.
* More on the Queen's visit tomorrow.
Read more: Herald Diary
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