VC Bird International Airport
Encyclopedia : V : VC : VCB : VC Bird International Airport
{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |V.C. Bird International Airport
|- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|07/25 |valign="top" align="right"|9,003 |valign="top" align="right"|2,744 |valign="top"|Asphalt
V.C. Bird International Airport is located on the island of Antigua, 8km northeast of St. John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda.
History
The airport was built as an American military air base during World War II and named Coolidge Airfield after Capt. Hamilton Coolidge (1895-1918), a United States Army Air Service pilot killed in World War I. A few years after the war, the airfield was turned over to the government of Antigua to become a civil airport. It was known as Coolidge International Airport until 1985, when it was named in honor of Sir Vere Cornwall Bird (1910-1999), the first prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.In December 2005, the Antigua and Barbuda Millennium Airport Corporation announced it would invite tenders to construct the first phase of a new passenger terminal designed to serve the airport for 30 years.
Incidents
On 17 September 1965, a Pan Am Boeing 707-121B en route from Fort de France, Martinique, to St. John's struck Chance Peak on Montserrat, an island to the southwest of Antigua, killing all 30 aboard. The pilot mistakenly believed he was descending into Antigua. As a result, a VHF omnirange (VOR) transmitter was installed at the St. John's airport.On 30 May, 2002, a British Airways Boeing 777 that arrived from London Gatwick became stuck in the newly resurfaced tarmac. The aircraft was eventually freed by the use of a truck from a nearby American air base, after it appeared that there might not be anything big enough to free the aircraft on the island.
Airlines
- Air Canada (Toronto)
- Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
- Air Caraibes (Pointe-à-Pitre)
- American Airlines (San Juan)
- *American Eagle (San Juan)
- bmi (Manchester (UK))
- British Airways (London-Gatwick)
- BWIA (Barbados, London-Heathrow, Kingston, New York-JFK, Trinidad)
- Caribbean Helicopters
- Caribbean Star Airlines (Barbados, Beef Island, Curaçao [begins July 13, 2006], Dominica, Georgetown, Grenada, Santo Domingo, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad)
- Condor Airlines
- Continental Airlines (Newark)
- Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
- Liat Limited (Anguilla, Barbados, Dominica, Guadaloupe, Nevis, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Vincent, Santo Domingo, Tortola, Trinadad)
- US Airways (Charlotte)
- Virgin Atlantic Airways (London-Gatwick)
- Windward Islands Airways (St. Maarten)
External links
- [V.C. Bird International Airport: Master Plan Report] (PDF, 3.6 mb)
- [World Aero Data on this airport (TAPA)]
- Map from [MultiMap]
- Satellite image from [TerraServer]
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