Smallest Airport With 747 Service

DAL7e7 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 1:56 am

I know there's been a post about the largest airport without 747 service, but what about the smallest airport with 747 service. SXM comes to mind because there's not much space there, but what about others?

Thanks in advance,
Trey in TVI

sw733 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:18 am

It depends, do you mean commercial or cargo? because a lot of small airports have cargo 747's (HSV comes to mind from personal experience), but nothing bigger than an MD80 in commercial

DIJKKIJK · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:20 am

How about Paramaribo, Suriname ?

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Irving Tjin

[Edited 2004-09-12 19:22:05]

Christa · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:22 am

Hey,

CWL handles around 2 million passengers a year and has a runway length of 7723ft or 2354m.. On a daily basis we get 737, 757, 767, A320, A321, ATR42, F70/100.. along with some other aircraft such as A330, 747, 777 and some business jets!
http://www.cial.co.uk

Well here at CWL, we have a 747-200 service, courtesy of Travel City Direct, granted it fly's only once a week, but it's expected to fly at least 4 times a week next summer..

BTW, the routes it fly from CWL are CWL-SFB and LAS..

http://www.jetphotos.net/images/images2/t/TF-ABA_1024-final.jpg.20536.jpg

No pictures of the aircraft on A.net.. sorry

We also get BA's 744 in here for maintenance..

View Large View Medium

Photo © Shaun Grist

View Large View Medium

Photo © Steve Hall

Regards,

Christa

[Edited 2004-09-12 19:24:58]

AlitaliaMD11 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:38 am

hey

SWF gets Atlas Air 747s and has a KLM 742 in storage. We tend to get AN-124s and An-225..... but it is an air force base so.... but the commercial service we don get anything bigger than an 727.
We also do get DC-8s from ARROW.

AMS · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:58 am

I am quite sure about Paramaribo Pengel Airport in Surinam. Off course PBM is served by KL/PY 747's due to the high density of passengers on this route.

Regards,
AMS

warren747sp · Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:05 am

Lillongwe in Malawi comes to mind.

Alessandro · Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:09 am

Isn´t neighbouring French Guyana a smaller airport that gets the B747?

Cubsrule · Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:32 am

How about SFB? It doesn't strike me as a very large airport in terms of passengers at all, but I believe they get 747 charters from Europe.

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Morris Biondi

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Justin Cederholm

AMS · Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:42 am

Isn´t neighbouring French Guyana a smaller airport that gets the B747?

I am not aware of current 747's in Cayenne, French Guyana. Air France is operating A343 at the moment to/from Paris.

Regards,
AMS

Rampero · Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:08 am

Small caribbean airport with 747 service :

Antigua (anu)
St. Marteen (sxm)
La Romana , Dominican Republic (lrm) Pullmatur and Crosair
Punta Cana , Dominican Republic (puj) Air France,Pullmatur,Crosair and Aereolineas Argentinas.

swissgabe · Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:16 am

Warren747sp
Who the hell is operating 747 regularly into Lillongwe?

My guess goes for Langkawi Island which get's a twice weekly LHR-LGK-KUL service operated by Malaysia Airlines 744.

TWA902fly · Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:49 am

PPT Papeete.... not too many flights there at all..

Air France 744
Air New Zealand 763
Air Caledonie A330
Air Tahiti Nui A340
Air Tahiti ATR42/72
Hawaiian 763

think thats about it, plus charters. And i dont know if Corsair still flies the OAK-PPT route?

TWA902

KCmike · Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:31 am

Dothan Regional here in Alabama, Theres a maintenance center here and every once in a while a 747 pops in. I dont think weve had one in awhile though

warren747sp · Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:57 am

@Swissgabe
Both AF and BA and maybe KLM use to fly B744 into Lilongwe.
I have not checked lately.

CPT · Mon Sep 13, 2004 6:21 am

SAA 747s have been landing at Ilha do Sal , Cape Verde Islands for many years for fuels stop and to pick up PAX. The flights continue to JFK and ATL.

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Christopher Sundseth

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Julian Whitelaw

isitsafenow · Mon Sep 13, 2004 6:40 am

My vote goes to Alpena, Michigan with a once-in-a-while 747 in for maintenance.

planemannyc · Mon Sep 13, 2004 6:43 am

Chittagong in Bangladesh had 3 weekly Phuket Airlines B747 service, but then it became B757 and is not going back to B747 service. Routing is BKK-CGP-DXB, but now there are talks of BKK-CGP-JED as well.

View Large View Medium

Photo © Wasim Choudhury

Photo of the city:

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Wasim Choudhury

Best,

Wasim / Planemannyc

[Edited 2004-09-12 23:46:12]

Carpethead · Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:51 am

How does one classify smallest airport with 747 service: runway length, movements, or pax numbers.

Komatsu & Hakodate in Japan see regular domestic 747 service and while the runway at those airports are 2700m & 2500m respectively, they see less than 20 commercial movements a day. Despite this half the aircraft are larger than 767/A300s! Also Komatsu gets Cargolux 74F a few times a week.

On a side note, I flew on a 744D with 569 pax seat filled-up from CTS to ITM. Aircraft was NH JA8964 which had a 55 minute turnaround. Took less than 15 minutes to load. Pushed-back right on time. That's Japanese efficiency.

UA772IAD · Mon Sep 13, 2004 9:36 am

Up until about 4 years ago UA used to have a daily 744 nonstop into Kona, HI (KOA-the big island) from San Francisco. Since then they downgraded to a 777 and then in the past two years a 767-300 Domestic. I believe JAL still has seasonal 747 service into Kona.
----------------
Kona is basically served by Aloha and Hawaiian. Both carriers have islands and mainland service. United has three flights daily. Two from SFO (763, 752) and one from LAX (752). Also, American aparently has flights to Kona but I've never seen an American plane there, and JAL has flights there too. So: thats Aloha Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines. 5 AIRLINES & the rest is GA traffic.

JC5280 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:13 am

The 777s still go into KOA. At least on the weekends from SFO. Also, when KOA gets the ORD flight, it will be a 777 as well.

Doesn't JAL still fly into KOA with a 747-400 or MD-11?

NW7E7 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:41 am

OGG doesn't get a 747 right? The biggest there is UA777.

Carpethead · Mon Sep 13, 2004 12:28 pm

JL ,or Jalways, operates 747 classics or DC-10s into KOA depending on the season.
744 or M11 would have to be a charter flight.

warren747sp · Mon Sep 13, 2004 12:33 pm

@Carpethead
Can you confirm the seating on the 747SR is configured as 3-5-3 seating in economy?
W

Carpethead · Mon Sep 13, 2004 12:51 pm

The 747SRs have never been configured 3-5-3. I am not exactly sure but the 747 isn't certified to fly with that configuration. The 744Ds are the normal 3-4-3 in main cabin with 3-3 coach on the upper deck.

FlySSC · Mon Sep 13, 2004 12:58 pm

In the Summer, AJACCIO (AJA) on the Island of Corsica is served daily by AF with a B742....

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Charles Sammut

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Jan Mogren

AirAmericaC46 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 1:40 pm

Excellent topic DAL7e7!

I believe PR still uses 747s to General Santos City in the island of Mindanao. I need confirmation on this.

How about VS 744 LGW-Tobago!

Apollo17 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 1:53 pm

From my personal experience it has got to be NAN (Nadi, Fiji Islands). It's small and not busy at all but they have their own Air Pacific 747s and I believe also Qantas...

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Charles Villiger

N730AS · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:33 pm

Up here in Alaska, the biggest passenger plane that FAI sees in the winter time is a 739, but we do see 747 freighters from Cargolux, and LH Cargo (I don't think that we will have the LH planes much longer, as I heard that they are on the way out of LH's fleet). In the summer we do get 752's and 753's from NW, and Condor/Thomas Cook 757's and 767's. I doubt we are the smallest, or even near the smallest, but we are pretty small, and centrally located for over the pole flights.

BOEING787 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:38 pm

MLE - Male International in the Maldives gets the occasional charter from Alitalia with 747-200 and with Singapore Airlines who have operated 744's and 743's during peak season.

BOEING787 · Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:42 pm

Here are the pics at MLE:

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © Mark Sluiters

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © B. van Langenberg

Indio66 · Tue Sep 14, 2004 1:47 am

how about saipan or rotanga? do they still have 747 from Japan?

COSPN · Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:41 am

Thanks Indio 66

JalWays and NW both serve Saipan with Daily 747-200's TO NRT Saipan has about 60,000 Residents Smile

Indio66 · Tue Sep 14, 2004 12:37 pm

cospn - Thanks and sorry for the typo. I intended to say "rota", but I think only saipan has the big jets. If I remember correctly, however, rota has the casinos!

airplane · Tue Sep 14, 2004 1:54 pm

UIO is also a tight, rough approach airport for a 747. A few 747 regularly operate there.

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

COSPN · Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:02 pm

That is TIQ Tinnian But Only SPN and GUM have Big Aircraft..Dont Understand do the mean City or Airport DVO and UIO are Huge Cities ..????

Trolley Dolley · Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:11 pm

The smallest airport- in terms of airport size, not passenger numbers- that has had 747 services, to my mind is Wellington, New Zealand. Qantas purchased the 747SP specifically for WLG in the early 1980's. QF then realised the long range performance and used the stubby for what it was designed for! The 747 SP had great short field performance as well as long legs.

The runway is only 1936m long- just over one mile- with high ground on the northern climb out. It is so restricted that 737 ops are limited from the runway.

The range of the SP was limited to about 3 hours flying time. The runway was too small to take a fully grown 747 with an economic pax load, but a number of 747-200's have landed there on proving flights, diversions and to celebrate the opening of the new terminal.

I wouldn't like to guess which airport has taken Wellington's crown.

keno · Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:37 pm

View Large View Medium

Just to add on Swissgabe's post above, Langkawi Island has a population of 55,000. The main town, Kuah, has only 10,000 inhabitants. Yet the island receives 747-400 twice a week, year-round from Heathrow on Malaysia Airlines. The remaining scheduled services from LGK are :- 41x a week to KUL (37x on B737, 2x on A330, 2x on B747), 7x a week to PEN (B737) and 7x a week to SIN (4x on A319, 2x on B737)

[Edited 2004-09-14 07:48:06]

airplane · Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:44 pm

I think it refers to airport.
But yeah, UIO is not too small of a runway but it is a very demanding approach. The ILS makes first timers think they are drunk, and it directs you too far away from the end of the runway. And because of the altitude (9260 ft) the ground speed on approach is high.

ZKSUJ · Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:13 pm

I agree with TrolleyDolley, WLG is very small and the 747SP operated there for QF a while back.
Nadi in Fiji is home to Air Pacific and see's 747s from QF and NZ regularly.
Another one in Noumea in New Caledonia. AF operates 744's there and I know that Papeete PPT has seen a few 747's as well.

crugs1 · Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:34 pm

flew into Raratonga on a NZ 742 from Auckland on my way to Honolulu a few yrs back. That was one small airport with one SHORT runway!!!

chinaeastern · Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:50 pm

i think it should be in noumea international with AF744. PPT is much bigger than noumea as they get more flights from NZ and domestic air tahiti and air moorea do operate from that airport. in the case of noumea, NZ fly less frequently, TN doesn't visit at all and all domestic traffic are from magenta, a different airport from the international one.

MLE? well, i was there 2 months ago. first, it's not a very small airport. i'm not sure when the photos above were taken, but SQ now only operate 777s there. MH is using A330, other carriers like QR,EK and UL don't even have pax 747s. HM uses 767 not sure about european charter flights, not a small airport anyway.

AlitaliaMD11 · Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:43 am

Hey

Santiago De Compostela is a very small airport in north spain and there used to be a IB 742 service from there to JFK. Now in the summers Iberia, Air Plus Comet, and Aerolines Argentina opperate 747 service as charters from South America. Especially this summer becuase it was XACEBO 2004.

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

IBERIA747 · Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:53 pm

AlitaliaMD11...

It´s not XACEBO...it´s XACOBEO 2004

RICARDOAB · Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:50 pm

Faro comes to mind. It's runway can handle a 747 (it often handles TAP A340s) but it has got a very small apron, and the lack of airbridges can make turn around a long process. I have often seen Martinair 747s land there

vfw614 · Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:51 pm

Lilongwe no longer has British Airways flights. BA cut the flight to Lilongwe recently. AFAIK, the market is now served via Nairobi with franchisee Region Air operating the feeder flights to/from Lilongwe.

777ER · Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:56 pm

WLG has also had a UA B747 land there by accident. The B747 was a fully loaded flight. The flight was diverting from AKL to CHC due to AKL being closed due to fog.

BestWestern · Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:43 pm

Noumea international is no longer served directly by Air France... it's now a codeshare on Air Calin.. PPT is probably the smallest regular scheduled 744 airport.

Who is online

Popular Searches On Airliners.net