Greater Binghamton Airport

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Greater Binghamton Airport (Edwin A. Link Field)
IATA: BGM - ICAO: KBGM
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Broome County
Serves		Binghamton, New York
Elevation AMSL		1,636 ft (498.7 m)
Coordinates		42°12′31.27″N, 75°58′47.42″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
16/34	7,100	2,164	Asphalt
10/28	5,002	1,525	Asphalt

FAA diagram of Greater Binghamton Airport (BGM)

Greater Binghamton Airport (IATA: BGM, ICAO: KBGM) is a medium-sized regional airport located in Maine, New York that serves the Southern Tier of New York, primarily Broome and Tioga counties.

The airport was originally named Broome County Airport and that name remained through the 1970s. It was later renamed to honor the inventor of the aircraft instrument simulator, the Link Trainer, as Edwin A. Link Field-Broome County Airport, a name it kept until the 1990s when it was again renamed to the Binghamton Regional Airport. The name Greater Binghamton Airport was chosen in 2003 to match the area's new marketing campaign under a unified name. The field on which the airport lies is still named in Link's honor.

[edit] History

Up until World War II, Tri-Cities Airport in Endicott, New York had served as the primary airport of the Binghamton, New York region. Plane size increases and the demand for night-time flying caused this airport to become inadequate for the area's needs. Construction of a new airport on Mount Ettrick in Maine, New York began in 1945, and concluded in 1951 when the airport was opened.

The main runway which is oriented north northwest-south southeast was 5,600 feet in length initially, but was later extended by about 700 feet to the south to 6,298 feet in 1969. In 1988 the main runway was extended again, this time on the north end, to 7,500 feet (2,286 meters). The crosswind east-west runway is 5002 feet long. In recent years, the main runway was shortened to 7,100 feet to add engineered materials arrestor beds to both ends of the runway. The arrestor beds are a crushable concrete surface that slows an aircraft in the event of an overrun. Given that the airport was built on a mountaintop, the terrain drops off abruptly shortly beyond the runway ends. Fifty years after its opening the airport finally received a renovation in 2001. In July 2004 the airport opened four new jet bridges that can accommodate regional and mainline jets.