Airline & Holiday Information

Archive for the ‘USA Airports’ Category

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.