Diversion airport
Encyclopedia
Diversion airports are suitable airports capable of handling a particular ETOPS rated aircraft during an emergency landing and whose flying distance at the point of emergency shall not exceed the ETOPS diversion period of that particular aircraft.
It is, therefore, important that any airports designated as an en route diversion airport have the capabilities, services and facilities to safely support that particular aircraft and that the weather conditions at the time of arrival provide a high assurance that safe landing is achievable with an engine and/or systems malfunctioning.
An ETOPS
flight may only be approved by the ATC
if the diversion airports are available throughout the length of the flight. Unavailability due to bad weather, for example, will be a reason for an inflight rerouting.
Common diversion airports on Atlantic routes:
Common diversion airports on Pacific routes:
Common diversion airports on Polar route
s:
Common diversion airports on Indian Ocean routes:
It is, therefore, important that any airports designated as an en route diversion airport have the capabilities, services and facilities to safely support that particular aircraft and that the weather conditions at the time of arrival provide a high assurance that safe landing is achievable with an engine and/or systems malfunctioning.
An ETOPS
ETOPS/LROPS
ETOPS is an acronym for extended operations as re-defined by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2007 . This rule allows twin-engined airliners to fly long-distance routes that were previously off-limits to twin-engined aircraft...
flight may only be approved by the ATC
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
if the diversion airports are available throughout the length of the flight. Unavailability due to bad weather, for example, will be a reason for an inflight rerouting.
Common diversion airports on Atlantic routes:
- Bangor International AirportBangor International AirportBangor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located west of the city of Bangor, in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. It is owned and operated by the City of Bangor and was formerly a military installation known as Dow Air Force Base. The airport possesses a single...
- Gander Airport
- Keflavik Airport
- Shannon AirportShannon AirportShannon Airport, is one of the Republic of Ireland's three primary airports along with Dublin and Cork. In 2010 around 1,750,000 passengers passed through the airport, making it the third busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland after Dublin and Cork, and the fifth busiest airport on the island...
- Bermuda Airport
- Lajes Airport
- RAF Ascension Island
Common diversion airports on Pacific routes:
- Midway AtollMidway AtollMidway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...
(Henderson FieldHenderson Field (Midway Atoll)Henderson Field is a public airport located on Sand Island in Midway Atoll, an unincorporated territory of the United States. The airport was once used as an emergency diversion point for ETOPS operations. It is subsidized by Boeing...
) - Easter IslandEaster IslandEaster Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
(Mataveri International AirportMataveri International Airport-See also:*Extreme points of Earth*Shuttle Down, a 1980 novel by American author G. Harry Stine , which gives a fictional account of the Space Shuttle Atlantis making an emergency landing.-External links:***...
) - Faa'a International AirportFaa'a International Airport- Overview :The Faaa International Airport is a relatively small airport. Air Tahiti has flights every day going to all the other islands in French Polynesia while international flights go to different countries such as the United States or New Zealand. The airport is on Tahiti which is an island...
- Wake IslandWake IslandWake Island is a coral atoll having a coastline of in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu west to Guam east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior...
- Kwajalein Airport
- Shemya Island (Eareckson Air StationEareckson Air StationEareckson Air Station is a United States Air Force military airport located on the island of Shemya, in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. It was closed as an active Air Force Station on 1 July 1994, however the airport is still owned by the USAF and is operated by the USAF 611th Air Support Squadron...
) - Cold Bay AirportCold Bay AirportCold Bay Airport is a public-use airport located in Cold Bay, a city in the Aleutians East Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is owned by the state and is one of the main airports serving the Alaska Peninsula.-Overview:...
Common diversion airports on Polar route
Polar route
A polar route refers to an aircraft route across the uninhabited polar ice cap region. The American Federal Aviation Administration defines the North Polar area of operations as the area lying north of 78 deg north latitude , which is entirely north of Alaska and most of Siberia...
s:
- Svalbard AirportSvalbard AirportSvalbard Airport, Longyear is the main airport serving Svalbard in Norway. It is located 1.6 nautical miles northwest of Longyearbyen, and it is the northernmost airport in the world with public scheduled flights. The first airport near Longyearbyen was constructed during World War II...
(LongyearbyenLongyearbyenLongyearbyen is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of Svalbard, Norway. It is located on the western coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, on the southern side on Adventfjorden , which continues inland with Adventdalen...
) - Thule Air BaseThule Air BaseThule Air Base or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Air Force's northernmost base, located north of the Arctic Circle and from the North Pole on the northwest side of the island of Greenland. It is approximately east of the North Magnetic Pole.-Overview:Thule Air Base is the...
- Iqaluit AirportIqaluit AirportIqaluit Airport serves Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada and is located adjacent to the town. It is operated by the government of Nunavut. It hosts scheduled passenger service from Ottawa, Montreal, Rankin Inlet and Kuujjuaq on carriers such as First Air and Canadian North, as well as from smaller...
- Whitehorse Airport
- Yellowknife AirportYellowknife AirportYellowknife Airport is located in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. The airport is part of the National Airports System, and is operated by the government of the Northwest Territories. The airport has regular scheduled passenger service, and is also used as a forward operating base for...
- Wiley Post–Will Rogers Memorial Airport (BarrowBarrow, AlaskaBarrow is the largest city of the North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is one of the northernmost cities in the world and is the northernmost city in the United States of America, with nearby Point Barrow being the nation's northernmost point. Barrow's population was 4,212 at the...
) - Norilsk Airport
- Tiksi AirportTiksi AirportTiksi Aerodrome is located 1 km northeast of Tiksi, Russia and was built in the 1950s as a staging base for Soviet Long Range Aviation bombers to reach the United States . It is used regularly by Tupolev Tu-95 aircraft in military exercises, including one in 1999, in which bombers practice...
- Yakutsk AirportYakutsk AirportYakutsk Airport is an airport in Yakutsk, Russia. It has two runways and a capacity of 700 passengers per hour....
- Mirny AirportMirny AirportMirny Airport is an airport in Yakutia, Russia, located 4 km east of the mining town of Mirny. It handles medium-sized airliners and supports 24-hour flight operations. Mirny is a designated emergency airfield for the polar route between North America and Asia...
- Chulman Airport
- Pevek AirportPevek AirportPevek Airport is a civilian airport located 15 km northeast of Pevek. It mainly services medium-sized airliners. Its use for military operations is unknown but the runway and facilities are adequate for interceptor operations. The airfield elevation is given either as 3 or 14 meters according...
Common diversion airports on Indian Ocean routes:
- Socotra AirportSocotra AirportSocotra Airport is an airport in Socotra, Yemen . It is the only commercial airport that serves the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea and its capital town of Hadibo...
- Seychelles International AirportSeychelles International AirportSeychelles International Airport or Aéroport de La Pointe la Rue as it is known locally is located on the island of Mahé, Seychelles near the capital city of Victoria...
- RéunionRéunionRéunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
(Roland Garros AirportRoland Garros AirportRoland Garros Airport , formerly known as Gillot Airport, is located in Sainte-Marie on Réunion, The airport is east of Saint-Denis; it is named for the French aviator Roland Garros who was born in Saint-Denis....
) - MaldivesMaldivesThe Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
Malé International AirportMalé International AirportIbrahim Nasir International Airport , more commonly known as Malé International Airport, previously known as Hulhulé Airport, is the main international airport in the Maldives... - Diego GarciaDiego GarciaDiego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands Airport
- RAAF LearmonthRAAF LearmonthRAAF Learmonth, also known as Learmonth Airport , is a joint use Royal Australian Air Force base and civil airport. It is located near the town of Exmouth on the north-west coast of Western Australia. As an RAAF base, Learmonth is one of the RAAF's three 'bare bases'...