Sir Captain Charles Kirkconnell International Airport is an airport serving
Cayman Brac
Cayman Brac is an island that is part of the Cayman Islands. It lies in the Caribbean Sea about north-east of Grand Cayman and east of Little Cayman. It is about long, with an average width of . Its terrain is the most prominent of the thre ...
,
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...
. It is one of the hubs for
Cayman Airways
Cayman Airways is the flag carrier airline of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. With its head office in Grand Cayman, it operates mainly as an international and domestic scheduled passenger carrier, with cargo services avai ...
with flights to
Owen Roberts International Airport
Owen Roberts International Airport is an airport serving Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. It is the main international airport for the Cayman Islands as well as the main base for Cayman Airways. The airport is named after British Royal Air Forc ...
on
Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands and the location of the territory's capital, George Town. In relation to the other two Cayman Islands, it is approximately 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Little Cayman and 90 miles ( ...
, and
Edward Bodden Airfield
Edward Bodden Airfield , also known as Little Cayman Airport, is an airfield on the southwest side of Little Cayman, one of the Cayman Islands.
The runway parallels the south shoreline, and approach and departures are over the water. Runway le ...
on
Little Cayman
Little Cayman is one of three Islands that make up the Cayman Islands. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, approximately 60 miles (96 km) northeast of East End, Grand Cayman and five miles (8 km) west of West End, Cayman Brac. Little C ...
. It is the only airport on Cayman Brac.
The runway is on the southwestern end of Cayman Brac, and parallels the south shoreline. Approach and departures are over the water. The Cayman Brac
non-directional beacon
A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are ...
(Ident: CBC) is located off the approach threshold of Runway 27.
The airport was renamed Charles Kirkconnell International Airport, in memory of Captain Charles Leonard Kirkconnell, a prominent local businessman with strong ties to the Sister Islands. Its previous name was Gerrard-Smith International Airport.
Airlines and destinations
Cayman Airways
Cayman Airways is the flag carrier airline of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. With its head office in Grand Cayman, it operates mainly as an international and domestic scheduled passenger carrier, with cargo services avai ...
operates
Boeing 737 MAX
The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG ...
jetliner service into the airport with limited flights operated on a less than daily basis nonstop to
Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands and the location of the territory's capital, George Town. In relation to the other two Cayman Islands, it is approximately 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Little Cayman and 90 miles ( ...
and
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
while
Cayman Airways Express flies
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter
The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...
STOL
A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft that has short runway requirements for takeoff and landing. Many STOL-designed aircraft also feature various arrangements for use on airstrips with harsh conditio ...
capable turboprops and
Saab 340B
The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30-36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 different o ...
regional turboprops to Grand Cayman with Twin Otter service also being operated to the neighboring island of
Little Cayman
Little Cayman is one of three Islands that make up the Cayman Islands. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, approximately 60 miles (96 km) northeast of East End, Grand Cayman and five miles (8 km) west of West End, Cayman Brac. Little C ...
.
Historical airline service
In 1965,
Cayman Brac Airways
Cayman Airways is the flag carrier airline of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. With its head office in Grand Cayman, it operates mainly as an international and domestic scheduled passenger carrier, with cargo services avai ...
(CBA), a subsidiary of
LACSA
Avianca Costa Rica S.A., formerly known as LACSA (''Spanish: Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A.''), minority owned by the Synergy Group, is the national airline of Costa Rica and is based in San José. It operates international scheduled servic ...
Airlines, was operating twice weekly round trip service flown with a
Beech Model 18
The Beechcraft Model 18 (or "Twin Beech", as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to November ...
twin prop aircraft on a routing of
Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands and the location of the territory's capital, George Town. In relation to the other two Cayman Islands, it is approximately 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Little Cayman and 90 miles ( ...
-
Little Cayman
Little Cayman is one of three Islands that make up the Cayman Islands. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, approximately 60 miles (96 km) northeast of East End, Grand Cayman and five miles (8 km) west of West End, Cayman Brac. Little C ...
(
flag stop
In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...
only) - Cayman Brac -
Montego Bay
Montego Bay is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Por ...
. According to the airline's 1 May 1965 timetable, connecting service to Miami via Grand Cayman was offered by LACSA, an airline based in
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
, while additional CBA connecting service to
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
as well as to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
was offered by
Pan Am
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...
via Montego Bay.
In 1968, the government of the Cayman Islands purchased a controlling interest in Cayman Brac Airways from LACSA and then formed
Cayman Airways
Cayman Airways is the flag carrier airline of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. With its head office in Grand Cayman, it operates mainly as an international and domestic scheduled passenger carrier, with cargo services avai ...
which operated several different aircraft types over the years between Cayman Brac, Grand Cayman and Little Cayman including the
Britten-Norman Trislander
The Britten-Norman Trislander (more formally designated the BN-2A Mk III Trislander) is an 18-seat three-engined piston-powered civilian utility aircraft produced in the 1970s and early 1980s by Britten-Norman of Britain. These STOL capable a ...
commuter three engine prop aircraft, the
Hawker Siddeley HS 748
The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed and initially produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Avro. It was the last aircraft to be developed by Avro prior to its absorption by Hawker Siddeley.
...
twin turboprop and the
Short 330
The Short 330 (also SD3-30) is a small turboprop transport aircraft produced by Short Brothers. It seats up to 30 people and was relatively inexpensive and had low maintenance costs at the time of its introduction in 1976. The 330 was based on ...
commuter twin turboprop. The first aircraft type to be operated by Cayman Airways into Cayman Brac was the
Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner
manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II.
It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...
which in 1972 was being used on flights to both Grand Cayman and Little Cayman from the airport. By 1985, Cayman Airways was serving Cayman Brac with
Boeing 727-200
The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpor ...
jetliners with nonstop flights to Miami three days a week as well as operating 727 and propeller aircraft service to Grand Cayman. Other jetliner types previously operated by Cayman Airways over the years into Cayman Brac included the
Boeing 737-200
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...
,
Boeing 737-300
The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft.
Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...
and
Boeing 737-400
The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft.
Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...
. During the early 1980s, U.S.-based regional air carriers Red Carpet Airlines and successor AeroSun International operated service on a once a week or twice a week basis between the airport and
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
with
Convair 440
The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...
prop aircraft.
[http://www.timetableimages.com, 26 April 1982 AeroSun International system timetable]
Statistics
See also
*
Transport in the Cayman Islands
The transport infrastructure of the Cayman Islands consists of a public road network, two seaports, and three airports.
Roads
As of 2000, the Cayman Islands had a total of 488 miles (785 km) of paved highway.
Driving is on the left, and speed is ...
*
List of airports in the Cayman Islands
This is a list of airports in the Cayman Islands.
The Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory. The islands lie in the northwest of the Caribbean Sea and are situated about south of Miami, south of Cuba, and northwest of Jamaica. Gran ...
References
External links
*
Cayman Brac Airportat
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...
*
Cayman Islands Airport Authority*
{{authority control
Airports in the Cayman Islands
Buildings and structures in Cayman Brac