The airport was opened in 1963 on land reclaimed from the Firth of Tay. Originally it had a 900 m (2,953 ft) grass runway. The first scheduled air service began on 5 July 1966, with a service to Glasgow. A fortnight later a feeder service was added for Edinburgh and Prestwick. The service was stopped on 31 October 1967 after British Eagle reported £10,000 losses. Around this time the control of Dundee City Council changed from Labour to Conservative, and the airport was closed and the land used by Dundee University as playing fields. When control of the Council changed back again to Labour the airport was reopened. The grass runway was replaced by a 1,100 m (3,609 ft) long tarmac runway in the 1970s, and extended to the current length of 1,400 m (4,593 ft) in the 1990s. The airport was granted "customs airport" status on 16 April 1982 and runway edge lights were added in 1983. The current terminal was opened in 1997 by the then EU transport commissioner Neil Kinnock. During the 1980s Air Ecosse operated services to Aberdeen, Carlisle, Manchester, and Esbjerg using Short 330 and Short 360 aircraft. Ramsay World Travel from Dundee also operated a weekly charter to Jersey in the summer months in association with Lewis's Holidays, and in 1996 they ran a series of weekly flights to Majorca using BAe 146 aircraft which landed in Bournemouth or Southend to re-fuel. Business Air and later British Midland Regional operated flights from Dundee to Manchester Airport in the 1990s, a route that was brought back by Eastern Airways for only a few months, in 2002. After the departure of Business Air, the airport was left without any scheduled services for almost a year until April 1999 - 2007, when ScotAirways introduced flights to London City Airport. ScotAirways then operated under the CityJet banner for Air France from 2007 to September 2009. In September 2009 CityJet became a commercial brand within Air France-KLM. Flights were announced as CityJet and not Air France. The Dundee to London City route was flown by Dornier 328 aircraft leased from ScotAirways, until January 2011 when ScotAirways near 12-year association with the route came to an end, as CityJet announced the route would be operated on a reduced frequency by its own Fokker 50 aircraft. This change caused concern within the business community for the continued viability of the route. However following the purchase of ScotAirways by Loganair in July 2011, the Dornier 328 was reinstated on the London City route. On 29 May 2007, services to Birmingham and Belfast City operated by FlyWhoosh, using ATR 42 aircraft, started. The company, which was effectively only a ticket agent, used the services of a Polish airline White Eagle Aviation (WEA), which based an aircraft at Dundee Airport. In December 2007 these services ceased, amid some confusion as to what exactly caused the termination of services. On 3 March 2008, Loganair announced that it would recommence the routes that had been operated by FlyWhoosh in May 2008, under the new Flybe franchise. Three weekday return flights were introduced between Dundee and Birmingham, with one return flight on Sundays and a daily weekday return flight between Dundee and Belfast City Airport, with one return flight also operating on Sundays. The company used Saab 340 aircraft on these routes. In October 2012, Loganair announced the closure of flights to Belfast City and Birmingham on behalf of Flybe, because of decline in passengers loads and high fuel costs as the reason for closure, leaving CityJet with its route to London-City as the only scheduled carrier in Dundee. December 2013, CityJet announced it would be dropping the last remaining scheduled route from Dundee to London City Airport in March 2014, putting the airport's future in doubt.