Cornwall Airport Newquay is the main commercial airport for Cornwall, United Kingdom, located at Mawgan in Pydar, northeast of the town of Newquay on Cornwall's north coast. Its runway was operated by RAF St Mawgan before 2008, and is now owned by Cornwall Council and operated by Cornwall Airport Ltd. The airport handled 461,300 passengers in 2017, a 24.2% increase over the previous year. Newquay has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. The Cornwall Air Ambulance is based at the airport. Since 2012, the airport has hosted the Aerohub enterprise zone. The 2,744 metre (9,003 ft) runway can take the largest and fastest of civil and military aircraft, having been built and maintained for decades as an RAF maritime operations base. The US Navy were present with the USN AWD storage facility and Joint Maritime Facility. With the end of the Cold War and changes in American political priorities, the Americans pulled out of all involvement with the base by the end of 2009. The last RAF flying squadron based at St Mawgan was 203(R) Squadron which moved out in 2008, while part of the site continues to be used by the RAF. The airport is also the base for Spaceport Cornwall / Virgin Orbit space satellite launches. History Military use The airfield was opened in 1933 as a civilian facility, but was requisitioned at the outbreak of World War II and named RAF Trebelzue to support other bases in the Cornwall area. The base was renamed RAF St Mawgan in 1943, after expansion. The facility was then handed to the USAAF and there were a number of improvements, including the building of a new control tower and expansion of the current runway. The airfield was put under maintenance in 1947, and reopened as a Coastal Command base in 1951. Since 1951, aircraft squadron which have operated at the station have included 7 Sqn., 22 Sqn., 203 Sqn. (Sea King OCU, 1996–2008); 220 Sqn (later renamed 201); 228 Sqn. (later renamed 206), both Long Range Reconnaissance Squadrons; No. 42 Squadron RAF (BAe Nimrod) (disbanded 1992), No. 236 Operational Conversion Unit RAF, the Nimrod front-line conversion-to-type unit (1970-1992). In addition, Royal Air Force Regiment squadrons No. 1 Squadron RAF Regiment and 2625 Sqn (Royal Auxiliary Air Force) were present. 2625 Sqn was disbanded on 1 November 2006, whilst