Airport, Airport

The terms airfield , airstrip , and aerodrome may also be used to refer to airports, and the terms heliport, seaplane base, and STOLport refer to airports dedicated exclusively to helicopters, seaplanes, or short takeoff and landing aircraft. In some jurisdictions, the term airport is used where the facility is licensed as such by the relevant government organization (e.g. the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transport Canada). Elsewhere the distinction is merely one of general appearance. Yet other areas define an air port by its having the necessary customs offices etc expected of a port, though the more general term is airport of entry.

It has a length of 5,500 m (18,045 ft). The world's widest paved runway is at Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport in Russia and is 105 m (344 ft) wide.

For example, BAA Limited (BAA) operates seven of the commercial airports in the United Kingdom, as well as several other airports outside of the UK. Germany's Frankfurt Airport is managed by the quasi-private firm Fraport.

In the US, all commercial airport runways are certified by the FAA, but maintained by the local airport under the regulatory authority of the FAA.

Landside areas include parking lots, public transportation train stations, tank farms and access roads. Airside areas include all areas accessible to aircraft, including runways, taxiways, ramps and tank farms. Access from landside areas to airside areas is tightly controlled at most airports. Passengers on commercial flights access airside areas through terminals, where they can purchase tickets, clear security, check or claim luggage and board aircraft through gates. The waiting areas which provide passenger access to aircraft are typically called concourses, although this term is often used interchangeably with terminal.

At major airports, particularly those used as hubs, airlines may operate their own support facilities.thumb|International terminal|terminal, Hall 1 and Hall 1, at Houari Boumedienne Airport, Algiers, Algeria ]Some airports, typically military airbases, have long runways used as emergency landing sites. Many airbases have arresting equipment for fast aircraft, known as arresting gear a strong cable suspended just above the runway and attached to a hydraulic reduction gear mechanism. Together with the landing aircraft's arresting hook, it is used in situations where the brakes would have little or no effect.

For local access, many airports have local train lines, rapid transit, light rail lines or other public transport systems, for instance the AirTrain JFK at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and the Silver Line T at Boston's Logan International Airport by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). These systems are usually directly connected to the main terminals. Large airports usually have access also through freeways from which cars fed into two access roads, designed as loops, one sitting on top of the other. One level is for departing passengers and the other is for arrivals. This road concept was pioneered at Los Angeles International Airport.

The first international airport to open was the Croydon Airport, in South London, although an airport at Hounslow had been temporarily operating as such for nine months.

The airports of this era used a paved "apron", which permitted night flying as well as landing heavier airplanes.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) airport codes are often abbreviated forms of the common name of the airport, such as PHL for Philadelphia International Airport. Airports sometimes retain their previous IATA code when an airport's name is changed. Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut retains the IATA code BEY, from its former name of Beirut International Airport (BEY is from its French name, Aroport International de Beyrouth).

Some airports with international immigration facilities may also choose to drop the word from their airport names (eg. Perth Airport, Singapore Changi Airport).

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, airport security has been dramatically increased.

This coordinated oversight facilitates safety and speed in complex operations where traffic moves in all three dimensions. Air traffic control responsibilities at airports are usually divided into at least two main areas: ground and tower , though a single controller may work both stations. The busiest airports also have clearance delivery , apron control , and other specialized ATC stations.

Rather, aircraft (usually only commercial with long routes) request approach clearance while they are still hours away from the airport, often before they even take off from their departure point. Large airports have a frequency called Clearance Delivery which is used by departing aircraft specifically for this purpose. This then allows airplanes to take the most direct approach path to the runway and land without worrying about interference from other aircraft. While this system keeps the airspace free and is simpler for pilots, it requires detailed knowledge of how aircraft are planning to use the airport ahead of time and is therefore only possible with large commercial airliners on pre-scheduled flights. The system has recently become so advanced that controllers can predict whether an aircraft will be delayed on landing before it even takes off; that aircraft can then be delayed on the ground, rather than wasting expensive fuel waiting in the air.

A Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI) helps pilots fly the approach for landing. Some airports are equipped with a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) to help pilots find the direction to the airport. VORs are often accompanied by a distance measuring equipment (DME) to determine the distance to the VOR. VORs are also located off airports, where they serve to provide airways for aircraft to navigate upon. In poor weather, pilots will use an instrument landing system (ILS) to find the runway and fly the correct approach, even if they cannot see the ground.

In the US and Canada, the vast majority of airports, large and small, have some form of automated airport weather station, whether an AWOS, ASOS, or AWSS. Most larger airports also have human observers to provide additional observations to supplement the automated station. These weather observations are available over the radio, through Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) or via the ATC.

These tend to attract bird populations, which can pose a hazard to aircraft in the form of bird strikes. Airport crews often need to discourage birds from taking up residence.

Other airports are located near densely-populated urban or suburban areas. In the 1980s, a conflict arose in San Jose, California, when a plane attempting to land at Reid-Hillview Airport (built in the 1930s) collided with a Macy's department store at the Eastridge Center. Many local residents tried to get the airport shut down, even though it had been there for fifty years: their neighborhoods (and the mall) were about a decade old.

These locations then undergo special attention by transportation authorities (such as the FAA in the US) and airport administrators.

Sleep can be affected if the airports operate night and early morning flights.

Due to the risk of collision between birds and airplanes, large airports undertake population control programs where they frighten or shoot birds.

Examples of this are Bardufoss Airport/Bardufoss Air Station and Gardermoen Airport/Gardermoen Air Station, both in Norway. A special variant of a military airfield is the aircraft carrier.

Movies such as Airplane! , Airport , Die Hard 2 , Soul Plane , Jackie Brown , Get Shorty , Home Alone , Liar Liar , Passenger 57 , Final Destination , Unaccompanied Minors , Catch Me if You Can , Rendition and The Langoliers . They have also played important parts in television series like Lost, America's Next Top Model Cycle 10 also have significant parts of their story set within airports.

In the near future, dynamic strategic planning will be the key for future airport developments. Companies operating many airports in different countries and the rise of business management instead of government ownership will be the rule in the airport planning. The design of airports will be adapted to the surge in cargo traffic due to the increasing of electronic commerce and more efficient airplanes creating a strong demand for cargo. Therefore from design perspective, airports, cargo is not longer a peripheral activity secondary to passenger traffic and will be a primary driven of airport design.

Source: Wikipedia > Airport