Bermuda International Airport

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Bermuda International Airport

IATA: BDA - ICAO: TXKF
Summary
Airport type		Public
Serves		Ferry Reach, Bermuda
Elevation AMSL		12 ft (4 m)
Coordinates		32°21′50.55″N, 64°40′43.33″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
12/30	9,713	2,961	Asphalt

Bermuda International Airport (IATA: BDA, ICAO: TXKF) is an airport in Bermuda, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the North Atlantic Ocean.

1 History
2 Air Traffic Control
3 Agencies on The Field
4 Airlines
5 See Also
6 External links

[edit] History

The airfield began life as Kindley Field, a joint US Army Air Forces (USAAF)/Royal Air Force (RAF) base, during the Second World War. The RAF withdrew its forces at the end of the War. The local RAF Commander, however, stayed on, on loan to the Bermuda Government, and converted the RAF facilities into the Civil Air Terminal, operated by the local government. When the pre-War airport, a flying boat facility on Darrell's Island, closed in 1948, Bermuda's air routes were taken over by land planes operating through the airfield, which by then was operated by the United States Air Force, as Kindley Air Force Base. In 1970, the field was transferred to the United States Navy, which operated it as US Naval Air Station, Bermuda until 1995. The US Navy left behind a legacy of toxic waste, but its 99-year lease was eventually rescinded, and the field was transferred to the Bermuda Government, which had taken over operation in 1995.

The US Navy was not required to meet international civil air standards, despite the operation of civil airlines to the base. The Bermuda Government, however, was required to meet these standards very quickly on assuming control, and at some expense. This involved changes to the airfield lighting, erecting new fences, levelling anything over a certain height and within a certain distance of the runway (including the former base commander's residence, and the hill it stood on), and other changes.

The Bermuda International Airport, as it appeared in 2004, when still the USNAS Bermuda.

The airport is located at the west of St. David's Island, and to the south of Ferry Reach. This places it in the East End of the archipelago, several miles from the current capital, Hamilton.

The airfield was constructed between 1941 and 1943 by levelling Longbird Island and several smaller islands, and filling in the waterways between them and St. David's Island. This created a landmass contiguous with St. David's, and the airfield is typically described as being in, or on, St. David's. The field actually has three runways, but only the longest is still used as such. One of the others, most of which lies on a narrow peninsula, which juts into Castle Harbour, has been blocked by munitions bunkers that were built at the harbour end. There are further bunkers on the west side of the peninsula, and the US Navy had refered to the area as the Weapons Pier. Airport workers, today, refer to it as The Finger. The other former runway is used today as a taxiway to connect aprons one and two to the active runway, and the taxiway which parallels it. This was last used as a runway in 1978. It has its own former taxiway parallelling it, which now serves as a dispersal area for visiting aircraft.

The Air Traffic Control Tower at the airport only controls aircraft on approach or departure from the airport. Bermuda's airspace, and that over the Atlantic around it, is controlled from New York, by the US Government's Federal Aviation Administration, under an agreement between the USA and the UK.

The airport offers U.S. Customs and Immigration preclearance, which means U.S.-bound passengers clear Customs in Bermuda; flights arriving in the U.S. from Bermuda are thus treated as domestic flights.

[edit] Air Traffic Control

Air traffic control service is provided by BAS-Serco. The control tower is located on the north side of the airport (not to be confused with the old tower located at the terminal building) and provides service for most of the day and night. Approach, departure and en route traffic is handled by the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZNY). The BDA tower controller and ZNY center controller are always in close contact.

[edit] Agencies on The Field

Department of Airport Operations (DAO) part of the Ministry of Transport.
Civil Aviation Department responsible for registering aircraft, and investigating accidents.
Bermuda Department of Immigration
H.M. Customs Bermuda customs.
US Customs, Immigration and Agriculture pre-clears passengers on flights to USA.
Crash Fire Rescue (CFR) operated by SERCO
Bermuda Fire Service East-end station sits astride perimeter, and provides support to CFR.
Airport Security Police polices the airside. Part of DAO, but managed by private contractor.
Bermuda Police Service formerly policed airside. Polices landside, and holds persons arrested by other agencies.