Port Stanley Airport
| Port Stanley Airport | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | SFAL |
| IATA code | PSY |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 23 m (75 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 4 km west of Stanley (Falkland Islands) |
| Street | Airport Road |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1979 |
| operator | Government of the Falkland Islands |
| Runways | |
| 09/27 | 918 m × 19 m asphalt |
| 18/36 | 338 m × 13 m asphalt |
Port Stanley Airport ( IATA code : PSY , ICAO code : SFAL ) is a small airport on the Falkland Islands , about three kilometers from the capital Stanley . The airfield is the only civil airfield on the islands with an asphalt runway. The airfield is maintained by the Falkland Islands government and is used for inter-island flights.
history
Before 1972 there was no airport in the Falkland Islands with an asphalt runway. The islands could only be reached by water. In the early 1970s, the Falkland Islands Company decided, due to the increasing popularity of the air routes to South America, to cancel the monthly ship connection to Montevideo in Uruguay .
In 1971 the Argentine Air Force interrupted the isolation of the islands with amphibious aircraft. These were aircraft of the type Grumman HU-16 , which took off from Comodoro Rivadavia and whose flights were carried out by LADE . In 1973 the United Kingdom signed an agreement with Argentina to fund an airfield on the islands. Now the flights started again from Comodoro Rivadavia, but this time it was aircraft of the type Fokker F28 .
During the Argentine occupation in April 1982, the airport played a decisive role in the initial phase. This was the only way to succeed in the surprise coup of conquering the Malvinas with their “defensive power” of 40 British soldiers in a coup . only then could the Argentines send ships with troops. Therefore, when the reconquest began, the British bombed Stanley airport first ( Operation Black Buck ) a month later in order to largely eliminate the Argentine air force in order to be able to concentrate on the sea battle and the landing on the islands ( Falklands War ). After 72 days of Argentine occupation, the Falkland Islands were British again, and the Royal Air Force also used the airfield to supply and reinforce the British soldiers stationed at Mount Pleasant , until the base with its 1,500 soldiers had its own military airfield.
Stanley Airport is now largely used for civil purposes again, especially for flights to the islands and a flight connection to Chile.
Flights
The Falkland Islands Government Air Service ( FIGAS for short ) mainly handles flights between the Falkland Islands from the airport. The British Antarctic Survey also uses the airfield. Port Stanley Airport is used for air connections to the British research stations in Antarctica. It was opened on November 15, 1972 by the Argentine Air Force. The Argentine President Néstor Kirchner stopped all flights from Argentina in 2003. Since then, most of the flights from Punta Arenas in Chile operated by LAN Airlines to Mount Pleasant.
Web links
- Airport data on World Aero Data ( 2006 )
- General information about SFAL
- Weather situation at SFAL airfield
