Coventry airport is set to permanently close on Thursday after nearly 90 years.
The aviation hub in Baginton, Warwickshire, opened in 1936 and currently functions as a general aerodrome for small aircraft.
The site will shut its doors on 11 June for redevelopment into the Greenpower Park site.
British pop group Take That touched down at the airport last Friday as the final commercial flight into Coventry following a stop on their Circus Live tour.
Coventry Airport wrote on Facebook: “Those nice gentlemen from ‘Take That’ flew into Coventry Airport this evening and when they found out that they were our last ever passengers on our last booked commercial flight prior to closing, they insisted on a photograph with the ground crew to mark the occasion.”
Planning permission for the Greenpower Park site, an industrial development with a battery manufacturing facility, was first approved for the land and airspace surrounding Coventry airport in 2022.
The joint venture between Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport received a £23m funding boost from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) in January 2025.
A spokesperson from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said: “Coventry Aerodrome has given formal notice to us of its plan to close the airport permanently with effect from 11 June 2026.”
Greenpower Park will form part of the West Midlands Investment Zone project. A government initiative to boost manufacturing in the region through three sites: the Coventry and Warwick Gigapark, Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, and Wolverhampton Green Innovation Corridor.
Airport owners, the Rigby Group added, “This procedural submission, first envisaged when local planning approval for Green Power Park was granted in 2022, enables the next phase of infrastructure work for the site to proceed,” reported BBC News.
Previously, Tui bought the airport in 2004 and based a new budget airline, Thomsonfly, in Coventry, with Wizz Air operating journeys to Gdansk and Katowice in Poland.
Pope John Paul II also visited Coventry in 1982, as part of his first UK tour, landing by helicopter at Coventry Airport.
Passenger flights from the Baginton site ceased in 2008, but continued to be used for general aviation, training, private charters, and air ambulance services.
According to WMCA, more than 30,000 jobs will be created, with a possible £5.5bn in private investment once the West Midlands’ Investment Zone is complete.
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