Port Stanley Airport

I1 i3 i5 i6 i7 i10 i12

The airfield of Port Stanley (IATA: PSY, ICAO: SFAL ) is a small airport in the Falkland Islands, which is about three kilometers away from the capital, Stanley. The airfield is the only civilian airport on the islands with a paved airstrip. The airfield is maintained by the Government of the Falkland Islands and it is used for inter-island flights.

History

Before 1972 there was no airport in the Falkland Islands with a paved airstrip. You could reach the islands just over the waterway. In the early seventies the " Falkland Islands Company" has decided to South America because of the rising popularity of the airways to cancel the monthly boat service to Montevideo in Uruguay.

1971, the isolation of the islands is interrupted with an amphibian, the Argentine Air Force. These were the type to Grumman HU- 16, which took off from Comodoro Rivadavia and whose flights were performed by the LOAD aircraft. 1973 signed the United Kingdom an agreement with Argentina to finance an airfield on the islands. Now the flights took off again from Comodoro Rivadavia, but this time there were aircraft of type Fokker F28.

In the Argentine occupation in April 1982, the airport played in the initial phase a crucial role, just so you could the surprise coup to conquer the Malvinas with their " defense force " of 40 British soldiers in a surprise attack to succeed; only then will the Argentine ships could Forward with troops. Therefore, the British bombed at the start of reclaiming a month later, the first airport of Stanley ( Operation Black Buck ) to ensure that the Argentine air force largely off to then focus on the naval and landing on the Islands ( Falklands War ) can. After 72 days of Argentine occupation of the Falkland Islands were British again, the Royal Air Force used the airfield for the supply and reinforcement stationed at Mount Pleasant British troops until the troops base with its about 1,500 soldiers a private military airfield (coordinates: 51 ° 49 ' 18 "S, 58 ° 27 '2" W 51.821577777778 58.450638888889 - ) got.

The airport of Stanley is now widely used again civil, especially for flights to the islands and a flight to Chile.

Flights

The Government of the Falkland Islands ( Falkland Islands Government Air Service; short FIGAS ) handles mainly flights between the Falkland Islands from the airfield from. The British Antarctic Survey also used the airfield. The Port Stanley Airport is thereby used for the air connections to the UK research stations in Antarctica. It was opened on 15 November 1972, the Argentine Air Force. The Argentine President Néstor Kirchner has stopped all flights from Argentina in 2003. Since then, most flights now come from Punta Arenas in Chile, which are performed by the LAN Airlines to Mount Pleasant.