Talk:Airport

Old talk

What is the part of an airport called that passengers use to get in the airplane? It's like a ramp.

I've usually heard it referred to as a jetway. -eric 08:40, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)

The part of an airport that passengers use to get in the airplane is a Gate, when boarding that s an Airbridge.Djmckee1 17:00, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

use of secondary terms

i really find the use of terms like 'aerodrome', 'airfield', etc to be mostly pointless in the context of an encyclopedia for the average user. saying that an airport is an aerodrome for aircraft to take off and land is not only obscure, it's redundant. the user must then look up aerodrome, which links to a single-line definition. -eric ✈ 06:30, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

• Be bold. Edit as desired. I am waiting for the COTW to do much, myself. Burgundavia 01:06, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
  • i would, but about half the edits lately have been mine, and i'm likewise waiting for the COTW. I just figured mentioning it in the talk would maybe get people thinking. -eric ✈ 01:19, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
    • Cool Burgundavia 01:53, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
      • Legally, there is a difference between an "airport" and an "aerodrome". it's not just obscurity, really! These are Canadian def'n, but seem to be standard: an "aerodrome" is any land or water surface that an aircraft is operating from. An "airport" is regulated for passenger safety. Will have a look at the first paragraph to incorporate some of this. Madpilot 04:57, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

The article says 'aerodrome' is not used in North America. This is not accurate as there are aerodromes in both the Canada and US (eg Antiquers Aerodrome FL, Eagle Crest Aerodrome DEL, Rhinebeck Aerodrome NY.) In Canada aerodromes refer to seaplane landing areas. --Dlatimer 04:56, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Right, but the term is very rare. If you drop the word in an ordinary conversation in the U.S., most people will look at you funny, and the few who know what it means will think you are showing off your vocabulary. They would wonder why you are saying such a mouthful when one can simply say airport! --Coolcaesar 07:46, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

where are you getting the "In Canada aerodromes refer to seaplane landing areas." Thats a big no. Aerodrome basicly refers to (without getting too technical) a piece of land or water that has been set aside for the use of aircraft--Captain433180 05:36, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

"Aerodrome" is the ICAO term for any area set out for the take-off and landing of aircraft. It is therefore used in all the airfield or airport's operating licences and other legal documentation.

Thus, whether it be LHR or JFK, your local municipal airport, or right down to a grass landing strip, they are all technically and legally "Aerodrome"s— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.31.130.99 (talk) 10:47, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Guidance signs

I think this section should be replaced with a more general section on airport layout. Runways, taxiways, numbering & naming of same. Include the guidance sign stuff - it's a nice FAA diagram! - but make it more generally an "Airport Layout" section. Thoughts? Madpilot 05:18, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

A section devoted to airport layout would probably be better. It could contain subsections about guidance signs, runways, taxiways, lights, control towers, ect. MechBrowman 18:51, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

I'll do some night flying and try to get a good shot of the lights (runway, taxiway, VASI) Let me know what you want and I can arrange it. FYI, Im a contracted flight instructor and sit on the board of directors of a club so I can get a few favours done for me for this project. Captain433180 05:13, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

That would be a great picture to go along with the article, would definitely help illustrate the article. MechBrowman 04:05, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

Night shots of lights would be great. I'm going to work up a new airport layout diagram soon as the start of rebuilding this section. Madpilot 08:38, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

OK, I'm working on a new airport diagram for this article, starting with a PD USAF airport chart of Vancouver Int'l (CYVR, Vancouver, BC, Canada) because it's the nearest large airport to me, and has a good layout, I think. Complex enough to have all the bits we need to point out, but not insanely complex like, say, KORD or KSFO might be. (Chicago O'Hare & San Fransico Int'l).

I'm planning on colour-coding in three basic groups: runways, taxiways, & apron areas. Will also add text ID'ing the terminal & jetways, and add some roads to show groundside/passenger access to the airport. I might point out some of the high-speed taxiways, too.

Any suggestions, please post them here; it'll probably be at least a couple of days before this image is ready to publish. Madpilot 08:23, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

Königsberg

When I clicked on the link to Königsberg, I was directed to the page of Kaliningrad, Russia, which was is the past known as Königsberg. However, when I visited the disambiguation page for Königsberg I was informed that there is in fact a town in Bavaria, Germany (this Königsberg). Which place is the location metioned on the page? 80.229.16.243 15:39, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Solved, if you look in the German version of this article it says the airport in question is what was then Flughafen Devau near Königsberg, East Prussia, and is now Kaliningrad Devau Airport near Kaliningrad. I fixed the link. This is caused by the US habit of putting "XXX, Germany". No German, or other European would do that, as Königsberg is obviously a German name, if there are more than one, they would most likely all be in Germany! If it was in a French-speaking country, for example, it would be called Montréal. TiffaF (talk) 23:45, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Architecture

While not integral to airport functionality, architecture and design of airports is a major characteristic. It serves as a way for countries to show off to int'l visitors. There are a lot of famous terminals amongst architects, including the TWA terminal designed in the 60's (I think), and of course Dulles is widely known. There are numerous others. Perhaps we could rope some architecture wikipedians into helping out. —thames 15:27, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Military Airport

Where should that go?? Falphin 02:27, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

• And we also need a section on Aircraft carriers since they are basically a floating airport.

I would think a small paragraph and see main article would work, but there doesn't seem to be a main article. MechBrowman 02:37, May 20, 2005 (UTC)

aircraft carrier does and their is a very small one for militaryAirbase, which probably deserves its own COTW. Falphin 20:26, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Translate

Can anyone translate anything useful from the French[1] or ,Portuguese [2](looks like it has a lot of useful info) Falphin 20:26, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Airport Security

I've done some work on the operations part today, and I've noticed that the airport security section could use some work too. What I'm wondering is, do people really think it neccesary to break down security measures by country on this page? That seems extreme to me, especially since that's not done on the Airport security page itself. I think that the subject could be covered without going into country specifics, and that dividing it up like it is now leads to fractious writing style and redundant statements (e.g. increase after 9/11) that don't read easily. I propose that we move the country-specific info over to the main article and rewrite the section on this page to be more general. What do others think? -Lommer | ^talk 04:37, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

I agree, I was suprised to see so much information about airport security by country on the airport page since there is an airport security page MechBrowman 18:50, May 21, 2005 (UTC)

Probably and the information by country on this page should be merged with the Airport Security page. Falphin 22:32, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

I noticed it says nothing in this article about saying the word "Bomb" in an airport. People can get (and have been) arrested for it, but the only ones (aside from cops, airport security guards, etc.) who know about that are either ones who have said it and gotten arrested, or read about it in the newspaper or something like that, as there aren't any signs up on the airport saying "DO NOT SAY BOMB INSIDE THE AIRPORT! THEY WILL ARREST YOU!" or something like that. Don't you think we should include that? I'd do it myself (to make up for creating the Bloody Rage article whose deletion has officially been ordered) but I don't know the right place or section to put it in, and I know wikipedia is stricter than other wikis and I'm already skating on thin ice because of the Bloody Rage article. So can someone else please do this for me? Say that people can get arrested for saying bomb in an airport and that there are no warning signs or notices on or around the airport telling you not to. Ghostkaiba297 (talk) 05:56, 18 December 2008 (UTC)Ghostkaiba297

As with anything that gets added to Wikipedia, it needs a source. For this type of information, I would suggest looking for news articles where people have gotten arrested for doing this act. Otherwise, you have no proof that there are truly consequences for doing this.--RightSideNov / talk / contribs 06:31, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Pics

Here's one that you could use http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:ChennaiAirport.jpg --Planemad 09:35, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Conversion Error?

There seems to be a problem with the following:

"One of the largest landing fields in the world is at the Kennedy Space Center, ... and the paving thickness is 1.6 in (406 mm) at the center."

1.6 inches is not very thick at all, and 406mm = 1.3 feet. So does anyone know the right answer? Bunthorne 18:12, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

I've removed the reference to the KSC runway. It's not the longest runway, and given that we are obviously missing some correct facts, no point in holding onto this tidbit of questionable notability. —Cleared as filed. 06:23, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Heirarchy of terms (start at Airfield)

Airbase <== Airfield (Aerodrome, Airdrome) ==> Airport ==> International Airport

Many US or Russian, maybe Chinese or Indian, domestic airports are very large too, and situated near major highways and have big hotels. It's not the fact that it's International that matters, but merely its size. European capital cities may all have international airports, but I'm sure there are some US (etc.) cities that are larger than some of them but do not have customs facilities.

Originally the British and the French (who had the world's first air force) called it an "aerodrome." The American Army somehow blanched at that "ae" and called a military base an "airdrome" in WWII. By the time the USAF got some power, they called it an "air base." (The U.S. Navy called it a "Naval Air Station.") When "airport" became the default term without a second thought, the use of the world "airport" for a military airbase became a back-formation. Some clarification of this is needed. In the origin of the word, an airport is a port, that is, a commercial facility. Experimental facilities (Area 51 comes to mind, though I'm not a fantast) definitely aren't airports. --Sobolewski 16:13, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Area 51 is definitely an Airport. It actually has several scheduled commuter flights daily to Vegas on a private defense airline (see: Area_51#Area_51_commuters). So yeah, put some serious thought into the problem of naming/classification because it's quite complex and really difficult to boil down. -User:Lommer | ^talk 19:41, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Airport name list

No need to keep adding to the list of airports named after people, it is too long as it is. Here are a bunch more, maybe make an article named List of airports named after politicians or something. King Abdulaziz International Airport, Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla International Airport, Atatürk International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Indira Gandhi International Airport, Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, or Charles de Gaulle International Airport. I'm sure there are 1000 more, we don't need them all in this article. --Dual Freq 11:06, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree. There are just way too many. There should be a separate "list" article that this article should point to. --Coolcaesar 16:22, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

A token list is fine, but I'm just trying to stop it from becoming a massive list that must include one airport named for a celebrity for each country in the world. I don't know an equitable way to trim the current list. The politician list of four seems to have a good global feel, 2 Asia, 1 West hem and 1 Europe. I removed the multiple cities, LA is mentioned, no need for Portland. Fargo, who is Hector? And combined the local celebs and pioneers. The San Diego one was only a subtitle. No need for a big list here. Shortened the pioneer thing, people can click the airport name and it links to the pioneer aviator. --Dual Freq 00:14, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

I will continue to revert the addition of airports to the airports named after politicians list, specifically, Ninoy Aquino International Airport. As I have listed above, there are many more and the four listed there now have a good international spread. Does the list need to have one airport for each continent? One each G8 nation? One each country? I think not. There is a list of airports, please add your favorite airport there. --Dual Freq 11:09, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Shortest paved runway?

I'm removing the paragraph claiming that Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport has shortest paved runway in the world. It is located on the island of Saba, in the Netherlands Antilles. It would be difficult to be certain of finding the world's shortest paved runway, but it would certainly be considerably shorter than 1,748 feet. Just a quick glance finds a paved 1,600 runway at Tracy, California (CA54). David 22:30, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I always thought that claim to be a little suspect. --Captain433180 21:37, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Extreme airports

• Furnace Creek Airport, Death Valley (very low and hot)
• Williams Field, Antarctica (very cold)
• Qamdo Bamda Airport, Tibet (highest and longest civilian airport)

217.86.40.254 23:54, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Al Ain International Airport, UAE seems to be as hot. It was used for A380 testing. 217.86.8.76 12:11, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Does these images on links match with this topic? It looks to me like not only completely ridiculous, but also dangerous situation. Someone knows where these photos are taken? ArcticTroll 23:28, 28 november 2006 (UTC)

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/4014/0201517cu3.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1513/0530591mr1.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9461/0686219uj5.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/7300/0713366at7.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1491/0806520fq8.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6654/1078027zf8.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5376/1083403np3.jpg

Looks like Princess Juliana International Airport, on the Dutch side of Saint Martin. --Dual Freq 01:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Wind Indicators

I find it a little hard to believe that plans take off and land into the wind "to achieve maximum performance". Landing into the wind makes sense, as the added wind resistance would help slow the plane down, but surely taking off would best be performed going with the wind to achieve a slightly faster take off? I don't know enough about this subject to change it. --Bmhcjs 23:42, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

When one takes off or lands, it's important that the ground speed be as slow as possible for safety and to minimize wear-and-tear on the landing gear. The performance of aircraft (lift-off speed e.g.) depend on air speed. So by taking off into the wind, you will lift off the ground sooner (use less runway) then if you take off with the wind. Bunthorne 06:07, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Airport vs Airfield

This article implies incorrectly that airport and airfield are synonyms. An airfield is any place where aircraft take-off and land, but an airport aditionally requires at least some of the facilities expected of a port such as dedicated facilities for passenger or cargo handling, refuelling, traffic control, customs etc. Curiously, 'Aerodrome' has a separate entry. Treesmill 19:45, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

History

When did airports start to resemble what they are today? This isn't really covered in the history section. It talks about early airports and such, but not when they became a common mode of transportation and when they became very popular.

Airports have been changing since the early days that they were created. I don't think there are really any distinct points of time where airports have changed dramatically. The only semi-related thing I can think of is the introduction of the De Havilland Comet and Boeing 707 because they were the first jet aircraft. But this did not instantanesouly change the way airports functioned. The only other thing I can think of is 9/11 and it's impact on security at airports. --Pilotboi | talk 05:30, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Airport Signage

I am proposing that a seperate article be created on Airport Signage. I believe that there is enough content available that a complete article can be made on this topic, including detailed pictures. If anyone has any comment on this proposal, please post. Also, if anyone would like to help out (giving that most people think it's a good idea), please let me know. Thanks. --Pilotboi | talk 05:38, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Oldest airport

Currently both Sydney Airport (1920) and Tempelhof International Airport (1923) make the claim to being "the world's oldest commercial airport", but S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport in Lithuania, est. 1915, is older than both (although it's only in GA use at the moment) and only claims to be "one of the oldest". Is there an older one yet still in operation? Jpatokal 15:31, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Update: College Park Airport (1909), run but none other than Wilbur Wright, seems to have a pretty firm claim on the top spot, although it's also a GA airport. Jpatokal 15:34, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Bremen Airport has been used since 1913, with preparations having begun even earlier (1909). Note that the first official use was not military either. The airport is still in operation and has been all the time, though civilian traffic was disrupted during World War II, but that is also true for other mentioned Airports. See also here. Ewok1 00:00, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

VIP and Premium services

Hi, I've updated this section. I admit I'm not the best writer so I am more than happy for someone to go through and edit it for me. I removed the original section as I felt it did not represent a world wide view (seemed very US centric, and I actually suspect article was based on the policy of one specific US based airline), there where some clear inaccuracies. Such as “In the rest of the world, the lounges are not open to purchase” – which is funny, because I am a member of such a lounge here in Australia, further more if I want to pay $35 extra per flight on the competing airline, I can access their lounge too, and yet I only flew with them 3 times last year, and none at all this year. Harvyk (talk) 00:23, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

OpenFlights Airport Database

As far as I know, and I spent half a year searching, the OpenFlights Airport Database is the best free (open-source & gratis) source of airport data out there. Any objections to adding it to airport directories and/or external links? Jpatokal (talk) 07:12, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Nevermind, OurAirports whups OF's butt. Jpatokal (talk) 11:14, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Question about airport editing.

On articles about small airports, would adding a picture from Microsoft Flight Simulator X of the airport in question be good enough? I really would like to overhaul the Airports in Maine without pictures, and that is the only thing I could think of. Draconiator (talk) 16:51, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

My thought is 'no' but we'll see what others think. Famartin (talk) 00:14, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

No, not least because screenshots from MFS are subject to copyright. Jpatokal (talk) 01:52, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Images

While working on the articles images to fix bunched up edit links, I moved a number of images to a gallery section. The images I moved were all images that did not relate to the section of text where they were located. HarryHenryGebel (talk) 17:15, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Regional airports

According to NASA/CAFE, the current airport-system would need to be remade, so as to made allot of smaller airports (with little infrastructure), rather than fewer, larger ones. This would be necessairy to accomodate the vision of personal air vehicles. See http://cafefoundation.org/v2/pdf_tech/NASA.Aeronautics/ThirdWaveTech.pdf

Include in article, 91.182.199.156 (talk) 07:11, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Editing

This is my knee-jerk thought.

Please break this into paragraphs that will make it easier to read and to go back and re-read. In particular the IATA paragraph is daunting; I lost the thread several times. I—Preceding unsigned comment added by Roger S Johnson (talk • contribs) 16:09, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Section structure

I think it could be better organized. Thoughts? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 13:22, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Airport distribution map

I don't think this map is accurate at all. Just glancing at the western US reveals many missing airports. Maybe this is supposed to represent airports of a certain class.Famartin (talk) 00:12, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

External links modified

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Traffic Patterns

I think the Traffic Patterns section needs some help, but I'm not enough of an expert to provide such help. Schoolbus777 (talk) 14:53, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

My vote would rather be for eliminating that section entirely. It only concerns small airfields and only VFR; while this article is mostly about the big airports that mainly handle commercial air transport. Confusing, to say the least. What Airbus or Boeing is going to report "Callsign XYZ, entering right-hand downwind for the 27, 1500 feet?" or such? :) Or, at the very least, it should get a pre-amble pointing out the VFR aspect. Jan olieslagers (talk) 15:48, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

Nomination of Portal:Airports for deletion

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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

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• Imam Khomeini Airport Main Terminal.jpg

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Hunting for an Airport

Hi, my friend is having a hard time hunting for an airport that he would like to be at. Should I be a good BUDdy and read reviews to make a suggestion? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.129.159.209 (talk) 19:11, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Landing fees

Hey airport editors! I have a question about landing fees in Saudi Arabia [3] Could you help me? Thanks! Geographyinitiative (talk) 00:51, 7 June 2020 (UTC)'

False information about airport stats? Kent Bargo (talk) 06:35, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Grass as a runway surface

There is a proposal to change (or remove) the links to "grass" in the runway surface field of airport infoboxes. Please see Template talk:Infobox airport#The meaning of grass. – Uanfala (talk) 11:19, 12 July 2022 (UTC)