East London Airport

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East London Airport

IATA: ELS – ICAO: FAEL
Summary
Airport type Public
Serves East London, South Africa
Elevation AMSL 133 m / 436 ft
Coordinates 33°02′06″S 27°49′16″E / -33.035, 27.82111
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
11/29 1,935 6,348 Asphalt
06/24 1,589 5,213 Asphalt

East London Airport (IATA: ELS, ICAO: FAEL) is located in East London, South Africa.

East London's airport is a small but bustling one that plays an important role in the growing economy of the Eastern Cape.

Every day it welcomes between 20 and 30 flights – which bring 346 000 people to East London each year. Of these, about 140 000 are holidaymakers, mostly local, and about 15% are foreign tourists.

The airport offers the usual range of passenger services – as well as a coffee shop, a restaurant and a bookshop.

In 2004, the airport served 422,672 passengers (+11.5% vs. '03).

[edit] History

The airport had an inauspicious beginning in 1927, when Lieut Colonel Alistair Miller asked the East London town council to help establish a municipal aerodrome at Woodbrook, west of the city.

Passenger flights were undertaken by two de Havilland Moth planes on Saturday afternoons and all day on Sundays, weather permitting. Flights could also be booked for weekdays, but only by special arrangement. In 1931 it took 11 hours to fly from Windhoek in Namibia to East London.

In 1944 a new airport was built at Collondale, about 2km west of the present terminal building.

In 1965 the airport was again moved, this time to its present site, 9km west of the city centre. Construction of the terminal buildings finished in 1966, and the airport was named after Ben Schoeman, the minister of transport at the time.

The airport was renamed in 1994. Since then, major alterations to the terminal building have been completed and a new first-floor office development for the airport management team has been added.

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