DUBLIN AIRPORT REACHES a milestone anniversary today: 75 years.

We’re used to seeing it in a shiny state, but the facility had humble beginnings – grass runway included.

Photocall Ireland Photocall Ireland

Work at Dublin Airport, which was originally known as Collinstown Airport, began in 1937 after the site was selected as the location for the capital’s new civilian airport. Collinstown had been a base for the British Royal Air Force before the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, but the old military airfield had fallen into disrepair by the late 1930s.

The airport opened for business on Friday, 19 January, 1940 – with a single flight to Liverpool’s Speke Airport. Shortly after 9am, an Aer Lingus Lockheed 14 aircraft took off from the grass runway close to the original passenger terminal, which was still being built at that time.

Laying grass on the runway, 1936 Dublin Airport Authority Dublin Airport Authority

Building at the airport was stalled during World War 2. Its only service was to Liverpool or occasionally to Manchester’s Barton Aerodrome. Aer Lingus had been operating from Baldonnel from 1936 and had moved its operations to the new Dublin Airport in January 1940.

Dublin Airport’s first scheduled service to London commenced in November 1945, with a two and a half hour direct flight to Croydon Airport and air mail services were added in 1946. Connections to other British cities and continental European destinations were added and in April 1958, Dublin Airport got its first scheduled transatlantic service to New York.