I visited Dundee in late 1972 and it was totally different then. It was only a grass airfield converted from a playing field; the ATC/admin buildings were on the south side of the airfield backing onto the River Tay. The airfield was unmanned, it being a sunday and 2 other aircraft landed just before us. The 3 of us chatted amongst ourselves to decide who would land first and just as we were taxying to depart again, somebody turned up and tried to marshal us back presumably to collect our landing fees!
A few aircraft tried to land at Dundee on a Sunday when it was closed (this was the early 90s when Dundee had no scheduled services) so had to land at Leuchars. Which meant money for the government!
Back in 2000 the Open was on at St Andrews. For some reason Sevvy Ballesteros flew in here instead of Leuchars. One night whilst his aircraft was parked up someone got in and did the best part of a million quids worth of damage.
Like London City this is a post wwii airport, it was built on reclaimed land. In fact after wwii the Air Ministry offered Errol to Dundee and Perth councils as a joint airport but they both refused the offer.
It is also a bit of a “political” airport, and Ill explain. When first posted to Leuchars in 85 a firm called Euroair operated a service to Heathrow with 748s. The return service normally got to Dundee at 2130, and Dundee airport closed at 2200. I lost count of the number of times the aircraft ended up having to land at Leuchars. In fact it was suggested numerous times that Dundee airport should be at Leuchars.
And it was the local council who owned the airport who actually brought in the 2200 cut off with no leeway at all.
atchistory 
I visited Dundee in late 1972 and it was totally different then. It was only a grass airfield converted from a playing field; the ATC/admin buildings were on the south side of the airfield backing onto the River Tay. The airfield was unmanned, it being a sunday and 2 other aircraft landed just before us. The 3 of us chatted amongst ourselves to decide who would land first and just as we were taxying to depart again, somebody turned up and tried to marshal us back presumably to collect our landing fees!
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A few aircraft tried to land at Dundee on a Sunday when it was closed (this was the early 90s when Dundee had no scheduled services) so had to land at Leuchars. Which meant money for the government!
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Back in 2000 the Open was on at St Andrews. For some reason Sevvy Ballesteros flew in here instead of Leuchars. One night whilst his aircraft was parked up someone got in and did the best part of a million quids worth of damage.
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I should add that Euroair would file a flight plan from Leuchars to Dundee!!!!
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Like London City this is a post wwii airport, it was built on reclaimed land. In fact after wwii the Air Ministry offered Errol to Dundee and Perth councils as a joint airport but they both refused the offer.
It is also a bit of a “political” airport, and Ill explain. When first posted to Leuchars in 85 a firm called Euroair operated a service to Heathrow with 748s. The return service normally got to Dundee at 2130, and Dundee airport closed at 2200. I lost count of the number of times the aircraft ended up having to land at Leuchars. In fact it was suggested numerous times that Dundee airport should be at Leuchars.
And it was the local council who owned the airport who actually brought in the 2200 cut off with no leeway at all.
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Tayside aviation who are based here have gone in to receivership.
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