LF Wade International Airport
| LF Wade International Airport | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | TXKF |
| IATA code | BDA |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 5 m (16 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 11 km northeast of Hamilton |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1943 as Kindley Field airfield |
| operator | Bermuda Skyport Corporation Limited |
| surface | 217 ha |
| Terminals | 1 |
| Passengers | 875,466 (2017) |
| Air freight | 4,064 t (2017) |
| Flight movements |
13,518 (2017) |
| Start-and runway | |
| 12/30 | 2958 m × 46 m asphalt |
The LF Wade International Airport ( IATA code : BDA , ICAO code : TXKF , formerly Bermuda International Airport , previously to 1970 Kindley Field ) is the only airport on Bermuda , an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean . It is located on Saint David's Island , an island 11 kilometers northeast of the capital of Bermuda, Hamilton .
In 2017, around 875,000 passengers were handled at LF Wade International Airport. This is a decrease of more than 10% compared to the high in 2007, when nearly one million passengers used the airport. The airport has a passenger terminal and a freight terminal and can accommodate aircraft of all sizes up to and including the Airbus A380 . However, Airbus A380 aircraft are currently (as of January 2020) only allowed to use the airport in an emergency due to the current conversion work. The apron closest to the passenger terminal has parking spaces for eight aircraft. There are currently seven airlines serving the airport, with destinations in Canada , the United Kingdom and the United States . The largest type of aircraft flies to BDA is regular, a Boeing 777-200 of British Airways .
history
The airfield began as Kindley Field , a small US Army Air Forces (USAAF) / Royal Air Force (RAF) base during World War II . The Royal Air Force was withdrawn at the end of the war. The local RAF commander stayed there and set up a civilian terminal, run by the local government. When the old airport, a flying boat facility on Darrell's Island , closed in 1948, Bermuda's airlines were served from there. The airport was then operated by the United States Air Force as Kindley Air Force Base . In 1970 it was transferred to the United States Navy , which ran it as the US Naval Air Station, Bermuda . In 1995 the US Navy finally handed the airport into the hands of the local government after the lease with a term of 99 years had expired. The Authority for Transport and Tourism has been running it since then.
The US Navy did not have to comply with international civil aviation standards, in spite of shared use by civil airlines. After the takeover, the Bermuda authorities had to upgrade to these standards despite the cost. This included changes to the runway lighting, as well as a few other changes.
On April 16, 2007, the airport was formally renamed LF Wade International Airport in honor of L. Frederick Wade, a former leader of the ruling party, the Progressive Labor Party. This was criticized as politically inappropriate by the opposition United Bermuda Party.
A new two-story terminal has been under construction since 2017. The completion of this nearly 300 million BD $ project is planned for July 2020.
Current usage
In 2006, BDA carried almost one million passengers. In the summer season, which runs from June to August, there were 258 take-offs and landings per week.
The former NATO hangar, which was built in the early 1990s, is now used for growing business aviation . Because of Bermuda’s considerable distance from the mainland , only jets and turboprops with long range can operate from the airport , including in the general aviation sector .
Air traffic control is carried out by BAS-Serco . The tower is in the north of the airport and is manned almost around the clock. Air traffic in the surrounding airspace is managed by the Air Route Traffic Control Center in New York (ZNY). This requires an agreement between the Federal Aviation Administration (USA) and the United Kingdom. The airport tower and the ZNY are therefore in constant contact.
A modern Doppler - weather radar with a range of 150 miles was built of 2005. Navigational aids at the airport, such as the instrument landing system (ILS), belong to the authority in charge of the airport, but are operated by BAS-Serco.
Airlines and Destinations
The airport is mainly used by the major US airlines that fly to their respective hubs . There are also flights to Canada and Great Britain (London).
Incidents
- On December 6, 1952, a Douglas DC-4 of Cubana ( aircraft registration number CU-T397 ) crashed into the sea a few kilometers after taking off from Bermuda-Kindley Field, killing 37 of the 41 aircraft occupants . Only three passengers and one crew member survived the accident. The aircraft was en route from Madrid to Havana , with a stopover in Bermuda for refueling.
Rocket launch site
While the airfield was under US supervision, it was used several times for sounding rocket launches . Six starting series took place between 1962 and 1971:
- January 21, 1962: Two Arcas launches for NASA at an altitude of 60 km
- April 30, 1963: Two NASA Deacon Judi launches , the only two launches of this type. An altitude of 90 km was reached.
- August 18, 1964: Two more Arcas launches for NASA at an altitude of 60 km
- 10/11 February 1966: Ten Arcas launches for weather measurements by the Meteorological Rocket Network at an altitude of 60 km
- October 1, 1970: Launch of a rocket probe at an altitude of 56 km for a weather measurement by the Meteorological Rocket Network
- 20./21. June 1971: Two starts of an Arcas at 55 km and two starts of a Viper Dart at 85 km. The client was NASA's Ames Research Center .
The airport was also an emergency landing site for the space shuttle in the event of an aborted take-off. It could be used for takeoffs with a small to medium orbit inclination .
Web links
- Skyport - Bermuda LFWade International Airport. Official website of the airport operator. Bermuda Skyport Corporation(English).
- Keith Archibald Forbes: American Military Bases in Bermuda from 1941 to 1995. In: Bermuda and her Atlantic Islands. Bermuda Online (BOL ).
- Radar - 250km Surface Rainfall Intensity. Bermuda International Airport weather radar. Bermuda Weather Service(English).
- Airport data on World Aero Data ( 2006 )
- Airport data Bermuda International Airport in the Aviation Safety Network (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c AD 2 - Aerodromes: TXKF - LF Wade International Airport. Official airport information in the Aviation Manual (AIP). Available online on the Bermuda Airport Authority website. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ Keith Archibald Forbes: Bermuda's LF Wade International Airport. Facts: Airport change of name, size, history and future funding. In: Bermuda and her Atlantic Islands. Bermuda Online (BOL), accessed January 22, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d Melinda Williams (Ed.): Bermuda Digest of Statistics 2018 . Government of Bermuda - Department of Statistics, Hamilton, Bermuda December 2018, Section VIII: Transport - 8.8: Airline Services - Passenger, Cargo and Mail Carried, p. 80 (English, gov.bm [PDF; 5.6 MB ; accessed on August 31, 2019]).
- ↑ Airport Information. In: LFWade International Airport. Skyport Corporation, archived from the original on December 29, 2017 ; accessed on January 22, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Airlines. In: Skyport - Bermuda LFWade International Airport. Bermuda Skyport Corporation, accessed January 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Glenn Jones: Airport formally renamed. In: The Royal Gazette. The Bermuda Press Holdings Ltd., April 17, 2007; accessed on January 22, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Amanda Dale: Govt. accused of bias over naming public places after national heroes. In: The Royal Gazette. The Bermuda Press Holdings Ltd., April 16, 2007; accessed on January 22, 2020 (English).
- ^ Redevelopment Project. In: Bermuda Airport Authority. Accessed August 31, 2019 .
- ^ New Terminal. In: Skyport - Bermuda LF Wade International Airport. Bermuda Skyport Corporation Limited, accessed August 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Aircraft accident data and report Douglas DC-4 CU-T397 in the Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 21, 2020.
- ↑ Kindley in Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed January 22, 2020. List of rocket launches at Kindley Air Force Base
- ^ Space Shuttle Emergency Landing Sites. In: Reliable Space News and Space Information. GlobalSecurity.org , accessed January 22, 2020 .
