There were a number of airfields in the vicinity of the station: RAF Brize Norton opened in August 1937 and RAF Stanton Harcourt. A siding once ran from the station through the perimeter fence of Brize Norton and into the aerodrome but this was a temporary facility used during the airfield's construction. The airfields were attacked several times, notably in August 1940, but the railway escaped damage. On 1 May 1940, the Great Western Railway renamed the station as Brize Norton and Bampton, which may have been due to the proximity of Brize Norton aerodrome. The position of the station in relation to the airfield meant that when its facilities were extended southwards, two essential taxiways crossed the railway line necessitating wide level crossing gates to span the entire width. Special signalling was installed in the airfield's control tower and in the station's signal box (which was also linked to the control tower), which was presumably similar to the system used by the Northern Counties Committee at RAF Ballykelly where a main runway was crossed on the level by the Belfast–Derry railway line. After the war, the airfields continued to generate significant traffic until the early 1950s when Brize Norton became a USAF base and traffic suddenly fell away.
