Bournemouth is on England's south coast and the airport is ideally situated only 10-15 minutes away from the city centre. The airport was originally opened as RAF Hurn on 1st August 1941 and accommodated many RAF units between then and 1944. Until Heathrow Airport was opened in 1949 Bournemouth was the main terminal for interantional airline flights into the UK. Today Bournemouth International Airport serves the south coast with an increasing number of charter flights as well as a number of UK and Eurpoean scheduled destinations.