L. F. Wade International Airport

Bermuda / Saint George /

L.F. Wade International Airport (IATA: BDA, ICAO: TXKF), formerly named Bermuda International Airport, is the sole airport serving Bermuda, a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is located in the parish of St. George's and is 10 miles east of Bermuda's capital city of Hamilton. In 2006, L.F. Wade International Airport handled about 900,000 passengers, up 7% from 2005. It has one passenger terminal, one cargo terminal, eight aircraft stands and can support all aircraft sizes up to and including the Boeing 747. Currently, ten airlines operate seasonal or year-round scheduled services to Bermuda Airport from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The largest aircraft now operating in regularly scheduled service at BDA are British Airways' Boeing 777-200s.

The airport was created when the US Army levelled Longbird Island and several smaller islands between 1941 and 1943 to create a land-mass contiguous with St. David's Island. This field was named Kindley Field in honor of Field E. Kindley, who served with the Royal Flying Corps during WWI. It was intended to be a joint US Army/Royal Air Force facility. Prior to this, at the start of WWII, there was RNAS Boaz Island and RAF Darrell's Island.

In 1947, it was renamed Kindley Air Force Base. Reconnaissance flights, tracking Soviet shipping in the Atlantic, operated from here during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Anti-submarine patrols also operated from Kindley AFB. In 1970, the US Air Force relinquished Kindley to the US Navy, becoming NAS Bermuda. The original NAS Bermuda to the west was renamed NAS Annex, serving primarily as a dock area for visiting U.S. naval vessels and as support facility for the nearby Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Bermuda that supported the Sound Underwater Surveillance System (SOSUS) activity. Both bases closed in 1995 and the former Kindley Field became the present Bermuda International Airport.
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Coordinates:   32°21'42"N   64°41'1"W
This article was last modified 3 years ago