VC Bird International Airport

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V.C. Bird International Airport
IATA: ANU - ICAO: TAPA
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Antigua and Barbuda Millennium Airport Corporation
Serves		St. John's
Elevation AMSL		62 ft (19 m)
Coordinates		17°08′12.3″N, 61°47′33.6″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
07/25	9,003	2,744	Asphalt

V.C. Bird International Airport (IATA: ANU, ICAO: TAPA) is located on the island of Antigua, 8km northeast of St. John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda.

[edit] History

The airport was built as an American military air base during World War II and named Coolidge Airfield after Capt. Hamilton Coolidge (1895-1918), a United States Army Air Service pilot killed in World War I. A few years after the war, the airfield was turned over to the government of Antigua to become a civil airport. It was known as Coolidge International Airport until 1985, when it was named in honor of Sir Vere Cornwall Bird (1910-1999), the first prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.

In December 2005, the Antigua and Barbuda Millennium Airport Corporation announced it would invite tenders to construct the first phase of a new passenger terminal designed to serve the airport for 30 years.

[edit] Incidents

On 17 September 1965, a Pan Am Boeing 707-121B en route from Fort de France, Martinique, to St. John's struck Chance Peak on Montserrat, an island to the southwest of Antigua, killing all 30 aboard. The pilot mistakenly believed he was descending into Antigua. As a result, a VHF omnirange (VOR) transmitter was installed at the St. John's airport.

On 30 May 2002, a British Airways Boeing 777 that arrived from London Gatwick became stuck in the newly resurfaced tarmac. The aircraft was eventually freed by the use of a truck from a nearby American air base, after it appeared that there might not be anything big enough to free the aircraft on the island.

[edit] Airlines

Air Canada (Toronto-Pearson)
Air Caraibes (Pointe-à-Pitre)
American Airlines (San Juan)
- American Eagle (San Juan)
bmi (Manchester (UK))
British Airways (London-Gatwick)
BWIA (Barbados, London-Heathrow, Kingston, Trinidad)
Caribbean Helicopters
Caribbean Star Airlines (Barbados, Beef Island, Curaçao, Dominica, Georgetown, Grenada, Santo Domingo, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad)
Condor Airlines (Frankfurt)
Continental Airlines (Newark)
Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
Liat Limited (Anguilla, Barbados, Dominica, Guadaloupe, Nevis, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Vincent, Santo Domingo, Tortola, Trinadad)
US Airways (Charlotte)
Virgin Atlantic Airways (London-Gatwick)
Windward Islands Airways (St. Maarten)