Wick John O' Groats Airport Port-adhair Inbhir Ùige Taigh Iain Ghròt (Scottish Gaelic) | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner/Operator | HIAL | ||||||||||
| Serves | Wick, Caithness | ||||||||||
| Location | Wick, Scotland | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 126 ft / 38 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 58°27′32″N003°05′35″W / 58.45889°N 3.09306°W /58.45889; -3.09306 | ||||||||||
| Website | hial.co.uk | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  EGPC Location in Highland | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2023) | |||||||||||
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| Sources: UKAIP atNATS[1] Statistics from theUK Civil Aviation Authority[2] | |||||||||||
Wick John O' Groats Airport (IATA:WIC,ICAO:EGPC) (Scottish Gaelic:Port-adhair Inbhir Ùige Taigh Iain Ghròt) is located one nautical mile (two kilometres) north of the town ofWick, at the north-eastern extremity of the mainland ofScotland. It is owned and maintained byHighlands and Islands Airports Limited. The airport provides commercial air travel connections forCaithness, with scheduled services toAberdeen Airport and, until early 2020,Edinburgh. It remains regularly used byhelicopters servicing local offshore oil operations and the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm. It also serves as a stop-over forlight aircraft ferry flights betweenEurope andNorth America viaIceland. The airport also operates an out of hours call-out service for air ambulances, coastguard and police flights. The airport has one usablerunway. Two are disused.[3]
Wick was originally a grass airfield, used by CaptainE. E. Fresson'sHighland Airways Ltd. (laterScottish Airways Ltd.) from 1933 until 1939.
Requisitioned by the Air Ministry during theSecond World War, the airfield was extended with hard runways, hangars, and other buildings. The airfield was administered byNo. 18 Group,RAF Coastal Command andNo. 13 Group,RAF Fighter Command and known asRoyal Air Force Wick(RAF Wick). A satellite airfield existed atRAF Skitten.
On 21 May 1941, a photographic reconnaissanceSupermarine Spitfire piloted by Flying Officer Michael F. Suckling took off from Wick, and flew toNorway, in search of theGerman battleshipBismarck. If Bismarck were to break out into the North Atlantic, she would present a significant risk to the ships supplying Britain. 320 miles to the east of Wick, F/O Suckling found and photographed her, hiding inGrimstadfjord.[4] This information enabled the Royal Navy to orderHMSHood and other ships, as well as aircraft, to take positions intended to trackBismarck, and prevent her from entering the North Atlantic. In ensuing battles,Hood was sunk, and, later,Bismarck.
German battleships and battle cruisers never again entered the North Atlantic, partly because of continual reconnaissance flights by the RAF of German naval activity. Many of these flights originated at Wick. On 5 March 1942, RAF reconnaissance pilotSandy Gunn (a native ofAuchterarder,Perthshire), was shot down in his Spitfire on a flight from Wick over German naval installations in Norway. He survived and became a prisoner of war, but two years later he wasexecuted after participating in the"Great Escape" fromStalag Luft III.
The following units were here at some point:
Previously,Loganair operated regular flights from Wick between 1976 and 2020, with the final flight toEdinburgh Airport departing on 27 March 2020.[37] TheScottish Government announced on 4 February 2021 that they would provide up to £4 million to theHighland Council in order to reintroduce flights to and from Wick Airport.[38]Eastern Airways began operating the public service obligation flight to Aberdeen on 11 April 2022 but ended on 27 October 2025 after the airline ceased operations.[39]
| Rank | Airport | Passengers handled | 2021–22 change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aberdeen Airport | 6,951 |  New route |
Media related toWick Airport at Wikimedia Commons
