Scatsta Airport

Scatsta Airport
Skaste Lukuhave

Terminal buildings

IATA: SCS – ICAO: EGPM

Summary

Airport type

Public

Operator

Serco UK and Europe on behalf of BP

Serves

Shetland

Elevation AMSL

81 ft / 25 m

Coordinates

60°25′58″N 001°17′46″W / 60.43278°N 1.29611°WCoordinates: 60°25′58″N 001°17′46″W / 60.43278°N 1.29611°W

Map

EGPM

Location in Shetland

Runways

Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	m	ft	Surface
06/24	1,360	4,462	Asphalt

Sources: UK AIP at NATS^[1]

Scatsta Airport (IATA: SCS, ICAO: EGPM), is a commercial airport on Shetland in Scotland located 17 nautical miles (31 km; 20 mi) north of Lerwick^[1] and 5 mi (8.0 km) southwest of Sullom Voe Terminal.

Scatsta Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P777) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (BP Exploration Operating Company Limited).^[2]

History

The airport was first developed in 1940 as RAF Scatsta, a Royal Air Force fighter plane base to support Coastal Command flying boat operations at RAF Sullom Voe, and was the most northerly base in the British Isles.

Construction started in Spring 1940, of two runways. One was 1,400 yd (1,300 m) long on a heading of 130 degrees and the other was 1,510 yd (1,380 m) long on a heading of 250 degrees. The first runway was completed in April 1941. The main contractor for the construction of the aerodrome was the Zetland County Council.

In November 1944 Scatsta was used as a support base and diversion point for Lancasters from squadron 617, the famous "Dam Busters", led by Wing Commander J. B. Tait, on Operation Catechism, which bombed and sank the Tirpitz near Håkøy Island, Tromsø.

After World War II Scatsta Aerodrome lay dormant except for the landing of a US Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules on 24 May 1969, in connection with the LORAN navigation station which had been established at the north west end of runway 13/31.

It was abandoned after World War II, but reinstated as a civilian airport in 1978 to support the Shetland oil industry, and the Sullom Voe oil terminal in particular. It is the fifth largest airport in Scotland, ranked by international passengers.^[3] This classification may be on the basis of helicopter flights to and from oil rigs in the Norwegian and/ or Faroes sectors of the North Atlantic/ North Sea oil region, or some classification of flights to foreign-registered (though UK-crewed and serviced) oil rigs as being "foreign" destinations. The only fixed wing route operating regularly from Scatsta is the 7 or 8 times daily shuttle to and from Aberdeen to ferry offshore crew to Scatsta for onward travel via helicopter to oil rigs and mainland worker at the Sullom Voe Terminal commonly working either a 2-week on/off shift or 10 days on 4 days off rota.

The balance between oil service flights and "civilian" flights can be judged from the fact that the airport service area has no bar (the nearest is some 3 miles (4.8 km) away), no taxi or bus service (to anywhere) and three large rooms for helicopter passengers to don their survival suits before embarking.

The first flight of the day from Scatsta to Aberdeen has no passengers from offshore – and can have anything up to about 60 passengers during the height of the season, although the figure is more commonly between 15 and 25 on an average day.

The airport has recently undergone significant upgrades as increasing investment has been provided to support the North Sea offshore rigs. This has seen the airport have a new Control Tower Building CTB) that went live on 28 January 2013. This upgrade will also include a new Terminal building and possibly a DME to runway 06. The main contractor for the upgrade was DITT but several other parties played a key role. Cyrrus Limited handled all of the safety aspects and designed the overall system operational system. This included the installation and procurement of the various systems required today in an operational airport.

References

Airports of Scotland

Primary	Aberdeen Edinburgh Glasgow International Glasgow Prestwick Inverness Kirkwall Sumburgh

Regional	Barra Benbecula Broadford Campbeltown Coll Colonsay Cumbernauld Dundee Eday Fair Isle Fife Foula Glasgow Seaplane Terminal Glasgow City Heliport Islay RAF Kinloss Lerwick RAF Leuchars RAF Lossiemouth North Ronaldsay Oban Papa Westray Perth Sanday Scatsta Stornoway Stronsay Tiree Westray Wick

Airports in the United Kingdom, the British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories

England

Birmingham Bournemouth Bristol Cambridge Cornwall Doncaster Sheffield Durham Tees Valley East Midlands Exeter Humberside Leeds Bradford Liverpool London City London Gatwick London Heathrow London Luton London Southend London Stansted Manchester Newcastle Norwich Southampton

Smaller	Blackpool Shoreham (Brighton City) Carlisle Cotswold Coventry Gloucestershire Land's End Leicester London Biggin Hill London Oxford Lydd Nottingham St Mary's Wolverhampton

Scotland

Aberdeen Edinburgh Glasgow International Glasgow Prestwick Inverness

Smaller	Barra Benbecula Campbeltown Coll Colonsay Dundee Eday Fair Isle Islay Kirkwall Lerwick North Ronaldsay Oban Papa Westray Sanday Scatsta Stornoway Stronsay Sumburgh Tiree Westray Wick

Wales

Cardiff

Smaller	Aberporth Anglesey Caernarfon Cardiff Heliport Haverfordwest Hawarden Llanbedr Pembrey Swansea Welshpool

Northern Ireland

Belfast City Belfast International Derry

Smaller	Enniskillen/St Angelo Newtownards

Crown Dependencies

Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey

Smaller	Alderney

Overseas Territories

Smaller airports handle domestic, charter or private services only

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, January 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.

Scatsta Airport

History

See also

References