Broome International Airport is a regional airport located west of the Broome GPO,

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Broome International Airport is the regional hub of the northwestern part of Western Australia. It is considered the gateway to the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

. In the year ending 30 June 2011 the airport handled 409,663 passengers. It is ranked the 20th busiest airport in Australia.

Fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

1 July – 30 June Refers to "Regular Public Transport (RPT) operations only"

History

;World War II The airport field was attacked on the morning of 3 March 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The attack on Broome resulted in at least 88 deaths. The airport field was being used by the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

(RAAF) and allies, the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

raid destroyed at least 22 aircraft, parts of which are still on display to this day at Broome Historical Museum. ;Postwar The airport runway was extended in around 2004–2006. It also has had several upgrades to helicopter infrastructure. It is home to state-of-the-art firefighting equipment. The airport entry road, Macpherson Road, is named after the man who helped pioneer the town. The road was purpose built for the cable that ran from 200 meters east of vine walking trail at a junction box now enclosed in private property to

Broome Court House The Broome Cable House opened on 9 April 1889 and is now known as the Broome Court House. Constructed in 1879, the facility was used as a cable station until March 1914. It is listed on the Western Australia State Heritage Register. The buildin ...

, formerly Cable House. From 18 November 2010 Broome International became a Class D non-radar controlled aerodrome which means that aircraft are separated by air traffic controllers based on estimates provided by pilots and reporting their distances and altitudes from the airfield. The Kimberly Qantas lounge was upgraded in 2014–2015 when the terminal had landscaping and maintenance work carried out.

SilkAir SilkAir Singapore Private Limited, operating as SilkAir, was a Singaporean airline with its head office in Changi, Singapore. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines and at its peak operateed scheduled passenger services from Si ...

operated four charter flights to Broome from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

; the first flight began on 22 May 2018 and the last flight operated on 2 June 2018. This was repeated in 2019. A Qantas A330 landed in Broome on 14 May 2019 after an electronics failure on QF44 DPS-SYD, making it the largest aircraft to ever land there.

Airlines and destinations

Operations

Accidents and incidents

*On 21 January 1974,

Douglas C-47A The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in ...

PK-GDC of the

Burmah Oil Co Burmah may refer to: *Burma (Myanmar), a Southeast Asian country *Burmah Oil Company The Burmah Oil Company was a leading British oil company which was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 1966, Castrol was acquired by Burmah, which was ...

was damaged beyond economic repair in an accident. *On 11 July 2012, a

Piper PA-34 Seneca The Piper PA-34 Seneca is a twin-engined light aircraft, produced in the United States by Piper Aircraft. It has been in non-continuous production since 1971. The Seneca is primarily used for personal and business flying. Development The Senec ...

Golden Eagle Airlines Golden Eagle Airlines was a regional airline of north Western Australia with bases at Port Hedland, Derby and Broome. It flew charter flights to regional destinations. Accidents * On 11 July 2012, a Golden Eagle Airlines Piper Seneca crash ...

crashed into sand dunes near the runway threshold. The aircraft, registration VH-LCK was operating a scheduled cargo flight to

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

in good weather conditions at night. The pilot who was the sole occupant. He was killed in the accident. Investigations by the

Australian Transport Safety Bureau The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is Australia's national transport safety investigator. The ATSB is the federal government body responsible for investigating transport-related accidents and incidents within Australia. It covers air ...

into the cause of the accident found that the collision was due to a likely loss of engine power.

References

External links