It is located in the Forest, a parish in Guernsey, 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) southwest of St. Peter Port[1] and features mostly flights to Great Britain and some other European destinations.

In early 2000s alongside the work on the new terminal, the States of Guernsey Commerce and Employment department claimed an extension was necessary to allow the use of larger aircraft such as the Boeing 737 Classic or Airbus A320 family for trans-European flights.

Taxiways which connect the aprons to the runway were also resurfaced and realigned, whilst a new drainage system was implemented.

[5] At one time the Channel Islands subsidiary of British United Airways had its head office on the airport property.

When in 2008 Flybe disposed of their BAe 146 fleet, they initially replaced them with Embraer E195 jet aircraft which could not at that time operate into Guernsey because of the then-low strength of the runway.

Business leaders and deputies (elected members of the island parliament, the States of Guernsey) argued for and against an extension of the runway from its current length of 1463 m (4,800 ft).

Following several years of debate it was announced on 2 October 2009 that Guernsey's airport runway and apron would be extensively rebuilt at a then-estimated cost of £81 million.

The significance of having only a 1463m runway is that even relatively small commercial jet aircraft in the Airbus A320 family or Boeing 737 Classic families cannot operate from Guernsey at maximum take-off weight; more recent and larger Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft cannot effectively operate from Guernsey at all.

Sufficient progress on the rebuilding works had taken place to enable Flybe to introduce an Embraer E175 jet (88 seats) on their then-existing Gatwick service from 31 March 2013.

PFOS was added to Annex B of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in May 2009 and has been shown to cause chronic kidney disease amongst people and animals exposed to larger quantities.

Traces of spilt PFOS later entered the island's water supply although quantities were not high enough to make it unsafe to drink.

Aerodrome works have subsequently involved environmental engineering projects to better contain and divert contaminated effluence away from the water supply.