Which airport is in this film, please?

This is a question about the runway at Woolsington in the 1960s. Let me start with a bit of background.

Woolsington opened in 1935 as a grass airfield and it was 1954 before a “lengthy tarmac runway” was laid. This ran roughly SW-NE (that is, the line of the present runway) and was shown in 1959 as 5300 feet x 150 feet. One 3200 feet grass strip was retained which ran South-North, crossing the “tarmac” runway at a point part-way between the present terminal building and the general aviation area. The airport was closed for several months in 1965-1966 for the runway to be lengthened and strengthened. I guess that the grass strip was “retired” during the construction of the new terminal which was officially opened in 1967. The present runway is shown on the CAA website as 7640 feet x 148 feet (my rough conversion from metres into feet).

Does anyone know if the 1965-1966 extension produced the present length of runway?

OR

Has there been a subsequent (post-1966) runway extension?

I have continued to dig into this matter and my view has changed a bit. Within the concert tour chronology, this airport must be Woolsington and the date must have been 22 May 1966, a Sunday, but this is what appears to have happened.

The touring party was headed for Paris and, in May 1966, there was no direct BKS service from Newcastle to Paris. This started on 1 July 1966 with Ambassadors but, even then, was only on weekdays. This meant the tour party had to travel to Paris via London but, again, being a Sunday, the service was limited – two flights per day Newcastle-London at the weekend.

The later of the two flights was direct but didn’t leave until after 1700, getting to Le Bourget at 20.55, after changing planes at Heathrow. The earlier flight to London combined with a Tees-side service, so the Britannia (the type used then on the London run) flew down to what had been RAF Middleton St George and then took off again for Heathrow, taking 35 minutes longer than a direct flight and arriving at Heathrow at 0945. This was still in time for the connecting BEA flight at 1100, arriving at Le Bourget just before noon. BEA had taken a stake in BKS a couple of years earlier, so these connecting flights were clearly laid out in the timetables.

The boys in the band must have decided to forgo a Sunday morning lie-in (and a day hanging around in Newcastle) for an early start but an extra afternoon and evening in Paris. [Can you believe it?]

The newly extended and strengthened runway at Woolsington reopened on 1 April 1966 but the new terminal building was not yet completed, which is why the passengers were still using the huts (now on the far side of the airport from the present terminal building) in May 1966.
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That summer, BKS advised its passengers that, at Heathrow, they would come into “the new Domestic Arrivals Area on the ground floor of the multi-storey car park”. Though I flew into Heathrow during this period, it was on international services. If anyone can tell me more about this ‘new Domestic Arrivals Area’ under a car park, I’d be very pleased to hear more.

I’ve also looked again at the aircraft furthest back on the tarmac in the brief film footage posted at the start of this thread. I think it is a BKS Britannia rather than a Viscount. If I am right, it is not the Britannia they used for the flight in question. The “trail” of passengers seems to turn right, behind the BUA Herald on the right hand side.

Any comments and corrections welcome.

In a still photograph of different members of the tour party taken at an airport “in England”, it is just possible to make out the letters “BKS” on the (boarding?) cards in their hands. I assume therefore that the airport was Woolsington and they took the Ambassador to London, where they transferred to a BEA Trident for the flight on to Paris.

I believe that the hut they were leaving in the film footage is now part of the General Aviation/Aero Club section of the airport, on the opposite side of the site from the modern terminal. I also understand that, back in May 1966, the Woolsington authorities had recently reopened the airport, having closed it for several months to extend the existing runway there.

In the still photograph, the posture of one of the tour party members and the “general background atmosphere” seem to indicate that it was taken fairly early on a misty morning, so possibly the first BKS flight of the day to London. At that time, I believe BEA flew an hourly service to Le Bourget.

The oddity is that, as I understand it, BKS did have one direct Woolsington-Paris service per day in 1966, though I’ve not seen any documentary evidence to that effect.

Thank you for the various replies

22 May 1966, the most likely day I agree, was a Sunday. I assume that there were fewer flight options on a Sunday than during the week, so a more limited choice.

The still photos and the video with Dylan arriving at Le Bourget show that he got there in daylight. Maybe this will help with any timetable-related issues. I still have in mind that he arrived aboard BEA.

One of the standard reference books says that he first checked into the George V Hotel and then, that night, went to a nightclub in St Germain de Pres, then on to another club (Pastel’s) to meet French rocker Johnny Halliday.

The stewardesses near the Herald tail are definitely BUA, so they would be guiding the passengers past the tail and to the stairs at the rear of the aircraft. Confirms they’re flying on the Herald.

It’s definitely not Blackpool. BKS suggests Newcastle, for sure. The BUA Herald would not have been on a Heathrow run, though (the Ambassador would), and it looks like they’re getting on that. If it is Newcastle the pic would be the day after the gig, so that makes it 22/5/66. the next date on the Dylan tour was Paris (24/5/66). BUA from Newcastle operated to Amsterdam, Blackpool, Jersey… so it might have been a NCL-AMS flight, or even NCL-JER, changing planes for LBG?

This pic in the link does have that type of hut behind the Herald http://thumbs4.picclick.com/d/l400/pict/391543821823_/British-United-Handley-Page-Herald-G-APWF-at-Newcastle.jpg
and the colour scheme is here…https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7202/6890685597_383220225f_b.jpg

Thank you for the link to the history of BKS. When I saw the Ambassador in the background of the film, I immediately thought of BKS, given that they acquired some ex-BEA machines around the time of my interest in aviation.

In terms of Dylan’s touring schedule at that time, Woolsington would be the best fit of the three suggestions. Dylan played a concert in Newcastle on 21 May 1966, arrived in Paris on 22 May for a concert there on 24 May 1966. The Newcastle concert, the arrival at Le Bourget and his Paris concert were all filmed, in whole or in part. As i recall, the arrival at Le Bourget was aboard a BEA aircraft.

It seems likely then that he and the touring party took an internal flight from Woolsington to LAP/Heathrow, from where they then took a BEA flight to Le Bourget.

That’s the scenario I would suggest but I would still welcome anyone confirming that the “hut” in the film was indeed the airport building at Woolsington in 1966.

The Herald is in the marks of British United CI, Ambassador BKS and possibly a Viscount behind.
http://website.lineone.net/~biggles200/History.htm
So Newcastle Woolsington or Leeds? The wooden hut is typical wartime RAF as I recall identical at Blackpool Squires Gate.