Airline & Holiday Information

Archive for the ‘World Airports’ Category

Flights from London, Birmingham and Manchester, to Brussels, in Belgium, take around two hours. The city’s main airport (BRU) lies near the R0 road, some 12kms to the northeastern side of the capital. This modern airport boasts two multi-story parks; one of which is located opposite the main terminal and the other towards the northern side of the airport, around 6kms from the main terminal.

The airport has its own railway station, which is conveniently located below the main terminal building. Trains heading to the centre of the capital are usually available four times an hour, with fares costing around €3. Bus services are also frequent and reliable and there are taxis, which charge around €30 for travel to the centre of Brussels.

There are some 17 bars, cafes and restaurants in the airport, as well as money changing and cash machine facilities, retail shops, an Internet area, post office, and places of worship. The retail space, which is located at Pier A, carries a number of international brands.

Carriers that offer flights from Brussels to the UK and Ireland include Brussels Airlines, BMI, Lufthansa, VLM Airlines and Flybe.

Another international airport, located reasonably near to the city, is Brussels South Charleroi Airport, which is 46kms away. This airport is strategically located to make it accessible from key European regions, lying south of the Netherlands, west of Germany, 1-2hours by road and northeast of France and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Vancouver Airport (YVR) is the closest airport to the famous ski holiday destination Whistler, which is located is the Coastal Mountain range in British Columbia, Canada. Whistler is the official alpine skiing venue for the 2010 Olympic Games and due to the additional investment that the resort has had means it is a great place to enjoy your skiing holidays in Canada. The Olympic Games are being held from February 12th – 28th and the Paralympic Games are held March 12th to 21st, so if you are planning on going skiing in 2010 then you’ll need to book around these dates. Although Vancouver Airport is the closest airport to the Whistler it is still 134km away which can take around 2 hours by car.

YVR has four runways 08L/26R which is 9,940FT, 08R/26L 11,500FT long, 12/30 7,300FT long and 26A which is a short 3,500FT in length.

The airport has 4 terminals; the domestic terminal was originally built in 1968 and has very recently undergone a full restoration. The international terminal was only built in the early 1990’s. The south terminal is placed in a remote part of the airport but mainly only serves short internal flights within British Columbia. The domestic and international terminal can really be classed as one building that is separated into buildings.

Back in 2005 the government reduced the rent on which the land lies on by at least 54% which will reduce the cost of the lease be $840 million CAD or $5.0 Billion over the entire term of the lease which ends in 2052.

Vancouver airport at night

Newark Airport was the first major airport to be opened in the New York Area on October 1st 1928 placed in New Jersey on old marshland which was filled with reclaimed soil.
Newark Liberty International Airport is within the city boarders of Newark and Elizabeth.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey fully manage the airport, this is the third airport that they manage the other two are John F Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport.

Newark International Airport From Above

Newark Liberty International Airport has three terminals.

Terminal A, isn’t equipped with any immigration facilities or personnel so it only handles flights from countries that have US customs pre clearance, though some international flights will depart from this terminal.

Terminal A & B are the original terminals and where completed in 1973 and both have four floors. All retail shops and departing gates are located on the 3rd floor.
On the 2nd floor of both terminals A & B, baggage carousels and international arrival lounge’s are placed.

Terminal C was completed in 1988 and has two floors dedicated to selling tickets one floor for international and one for domestic flights.

Newark Liberty International Airport Terminal C

Newark Liberty International has 3 runways and 1 helipad. 
4L/22r is the main runway and is 11,000ft in length, 4R/22L is the second runway and is 10,00ft in length. 11/29 is the shortest runway at 6,800ft.

The H1 helipad is 40Ft or 12m.

Newark does have a monorail system which is more commonly referred to as AirTrain Newark, this in turn connects to the airports railway station which offers services from Amtrak and New Jersey Transit Service.

The Airtrain is free to use between all rail stations but if you wish to enter or exit you must pay the fee of around $5.

Newark airport shuttle

Originally known as Idlewild Airport and renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963 just one month after President Kennedys assassination, although commonly referred to as JFK.
The original name came from the Golf course that the airport was built on top of in 1943.

JFK Airport Overview

35,000 people are employed at JFK which counts for $9.8 billion in annual wages.  Back in 2008 JFK airport handled 43,124,992 passengers and contributed $30.1 billion in to the economic activity in the NYC area.
The busiest airline at John F. Kennedy International Airport was jetBlue Airways with 28.3% and British Airways at the bottom with 2.9%.

JFK is served by close to 100 airlines and flys to over 50 countries worldwide,  JFK to London Heathrow is the busiest international  route with just under 3 million passengers, Paris Charles De Gaulle is second with just over 1 million customers.

John F. Kennedy International Airport has four runways, 13R-31L which is just over 14,500ft long making it the second longest commercial runway in North USA. 

13R-31L runway is next to Terminal 1, 2 and 3 and serves around one half of JFK’s departures. It due for maintenance work to be carried out 2010 so it will be closed for 120 days so that it can be widened and resurfaced.

JFK Terminal 1

4L-22R is just less than 11,500 ft and lays next to terminals 4 & 5 landings & takeoffs can be completed from both ends of this runway.

JFK Terminal 4

13L-31R is 10,000 ft long and is equipped at both ends with ILS and ALS.
 
4R-22L is the baby runway with a length of only 8,400ft, but its fully equipped with ALS, TDZ,EMAS and the arrestor bed concept which is aimed to slow planes down quickly if they over shoot the runway.

JFK is connected to NYC’s subway and the rail system by AirTrain. AirTrain stop at all of JFK’s Terminals and Car Parks allowing easy access for all passengers. Manhattan is only 30 minutes away when using Airtrain.

JFK Airport NYC Subway

If you’re in Manhattan and need to be at John F. Kennedy International Airport in a hurry then head down to East 34th Street Heliport and you can be at JFK in around 9 minutes, but it will cost you $159 for the one way trip.

Perth Airport is located in the western state of Australia, and it is located just south of Guilford. Perth Airport is a domestic and international airport, the airport itself serves as a major commercial airport to Perth which is Western Australia’s capital city.

Boeing 767 Taxiing At Perth Airport

The total number of passengers passing through the airport has slowly been rising since 1988 only experiencing a slight dip in 2001 of around 400,000 passengers, this could be pinned on the 911 attacks that took place in the USA in 2001.

The airport has 3 terminals, Terminal 1 looks after all flights that departed from outside Australia or are set to depart to foreign destinations.
Terminal 2 is the Qantas Terminal normally dedicated there air operations also housing the Qantas Club Lounge.
Terminal 3 is used by companies like Virgin Blue and Ozjet and is a multi-user Domestic Terminal.

Inside Perth Airport

All flights are served by two runways, the main runway is 03/21 and is just over 11,00Ft long and the second runway 06/24 which is just over 7,000 ft long.

If you need to move between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 you can use one of the shuttle bus services or a taxi service.

Large parking areas at both Terminal 1 & 2 with short and long stay.

Gibraltar Airport is located on the Iberian Peninsula and is part of the British Overseas Territory.
The runway at Gibraltar Airport is rather unique as both ends of the runway have the sea adjacent, Planes will start at the very end of the run way to maximise its short 6,000ft length, and don’t leave the runway until the last 1/4 .

The airport was originally constructed during the 2nd World War and opened in 1939 and only used as an emergency airfield for the Royal Navy, the runway was later extended to allow larger aircraft to land, this caused tension between Spain and Britain as the extra land was reclaimed from the Bay of Gibraltar which Spain claimed was their territorial water.

Gibraltar Airport

Gibraltar’s airport has another unique distinction in that it is only 500 meters from Gibraltar’s city centre. In 2004 the airport handled 314,000 passengers and 380 tonnes of cargo, these number have slowly risen due to the number of cheap flights.

The airport is mainly used by people visiting the western region of the Costa Del Sol or Costa De La Luz.

If you have ever been to Gibraltar Airport, you will know that it crosses a local road, so every time a plane lands or departs from the airport the road needs to be closed.

For countless years Gibraltar airport has been to small which has constrained it in many ways, the road that also crosses the runway poses many issues in the airports expansions.

On busy days the airport now handles 7 flights arriving and departing and the road can be closed for up to 10 minutes at a time which in total creates a 2 hour road closure.

Gibraltar Airport Road Crossing