Buffalo Niagara International Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buffalo Niagara International Airport
IATA: BUF - ICAO: KBUF
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority
Serves		Buffalo, New York
Elevation AMSL		724 ft (220.7 m)
Coordinates		42°56′26″N, 078°43′56″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
5/23	8,102	2,469	Asphalt
14/32	7,161	2,183	Asphalt

FAA diagram of Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF)

Buffalo Niagara International Airport (IATA: BUF, ICAO: KBUF) is an airport located in the town of Cheektowaga in Erie County, New York. The airport is named after the Buffalo Niagara Falls Metro Region. The airport serves Buffalo, New York as well as Southwest Ontario Canada (Shuttle services make connections between Buffalo with Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario and John C. Munro International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario).

1 History
2 Low Fare Service
3 Canadians
4 Airlines and destinations
5 Former airlines
6 Facilities
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

The Greater Buffalo International Airport (as it was then called) was built in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration. However, the airport, which officially opened on May 11, 1939, was quickly outgrown, due to larger planes coming on the scene. A 1955 expansion helped remedy this problem. Another renovation in 1961 extensively remodeled the main terminal building and built a new control tower, as well as adding another concourse for American Airlines. Despite all this, the terminal again became outgrown. To address this problem, a second terminal (called the "West Terminal") was constructed in 1971, which was built to last only ten years. The original terminal, now called the "East Terminal", was heavily expanded between 1975 and 1977. However, no matter how many renovations or expansions the buildings went through, the buildings hadn't aged well. The West terminal, designed as a temporary structure, was nearly 20 years old. Plans began for a new airport in 1991 after it was found that it was no longer economical to keep renovating and expanding the aging terminals. Construction of the new building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox began in 1995 in between the two existing buildings. While the new building was being constructed, the existing terminals remained open. The brand new airport (now renamed The Buffalo-Niagara International Airport) opened on November 3, 1997. The old terminals were demolished almost immediately in order to allow any necessary expansion. The new building did receive an expansion in 1999. In 2006, the main runway was repaved and extended 750 feet, its first major upgrade since 1980. The secondary runway was extended 1,000 feet as well. In 2006, Buffalo/Niagara Int'l Airport hosted Air Force One. AFO was the first 747 to land in Buffalo. Southwest Airlines recently surpassed US Airways to become the largest carrier at BUF in terms of number of passengers. US Airways was bumped to second and jetBlue Airways ranked third.

[edit] Low Fare Service

Upstate New York [Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany] used to be ranked high among the most expensive airports to fly out of in the country. "For way too long, Upstate air travelers have been at the mercy of the major carriers," said Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer. Schumer is credited for jump starting the upstate New York economy with low fare airlines. He is also credited with bringing jetBlue Airways to New York and helping jetBlue obtain slots at JFK. jetBlue's inaugural route was BUF-JFK-FLL and currently have roughly twenty flights to Upstate cities. Thanks to Schumer's efforts, jetBlue Airways started service to Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, Southwest Airlines has come to Buffalo and Albany and Airtran Airways started service to Buffalo and Rochester. Due to this "jetBlue/Southwest/Airtran Effect," Buffalo/Niagara Int'l Airport exceeded the 5,000,000 passenger mark on the 27th of December in 2006. "Earlier estimates by the NFTA projected 3.8 million passengers using the airport this year and that it would be until 2020 before the 5 million plateau was reached following extensive renovations a decade ago," according to Buffalo Business First. BUF has more than double the traffic of any other upstate New York airport.

[edit] Canadians

Buffalo/Niagara Int'l Airport currently plays host to a lot of Canadians. Approximately twenty-five percent of all BUF travelers are from either the Greater Toronto Area or other parts of southern Ontario^{[citation needed]}. This is due to the high costs of Canadian airport infrastructure and thus high fares. There are even several shuttles available from Canada to BUF.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

AirTran Airways (Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale [seasonal], Orlando)
American Airlines
- American Eagle (Chicago-O'Hare)
Continental Airlines (Newark)
- Continental Connection operated by CommutAir (Albany)
- Continental Express operated by ExpressJet Airlines (Cleveland, Newark)
Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
- Delta Connection operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (Atlanta)
- Delta Connection operated by Comair (Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, New York-JFK)
JetBlue Airways (Boston, New York-JFK)
Northwest Airlines (Detroit)
Southwest Airlines (Baltimore/Washington, Chicago-Midway, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Tampa)
United Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare)
- United Express operated by Mesa Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, Washington-Dulles)
- United Express operated by Shuttle America (Chicago-O'Hare)
US Airways (Charlotte, Orlando [seasonal], Philadelphia, Washington-Reagan)
- US Airways Express operated by Air Wisconsin (Boston, Philadelphia, Washington-Reagan)
- US Airways Express operated by Chautauqua Airlines (Boston, New York-LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Washington-Reagan)
- US Airways Express operated by Colgan Air (Hartford)
- US Airways Express operated by Piedmont Airlines (New York-LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington-Reagan)
- US Airways Express operated by Republic Airlines (Philadelphia, Washington-Reagan)