The UK’s Blackpool Airport is facing permanent closure on October 16, as “the airport operations have been making a loss for a number of years” and no buyer for the field could be found, according to airport operator MAR Properties. Bond Helicopters, which has used Blackpool as a base for offshore oil-and-gas flights, said it is “currently in discussions with a number of alternative airfields.” Opened as Squires Gate Airport in 1909, Blackpool Airport has the distinction of being one of the first aviation sites in the UK.