Ian Fleming International Airport
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Ian Fleming International Airport (IFIA) (previously Boscobel Aerodrome) is an international airport located in Boscobel, Saint Mary Parish,
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
, east of
Ocho Rios Ocho Rios (Spanish for "Eight Rivers") is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica, and is more widely referred to as ''Ochi'' by locals. Beginning as a sleepy fishing village, Ocho Rios has seen explosive growth in the ...
, in northern
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
. The airport historically provided service to the United States and to other Caribbean islands. It is named for Ian Fleming, the creator of the
James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
novels, whose Goldeneye estate is located in St. Mary parish.


History

Previously known as Boscobel Aerodrome, the airport was originally a limited service facility that processed about 20,000 passengers annually. Boscobel Aerodrome was in operation for over 30 years and had scheduled passenger service provided by local air carriers such as Air Jamaica Express, Jamaica Air Service,
Jamaica Air Shuttle Jamaica Air Shuttle was a domestic and western Caribbean regional airline based at the Tinson Pen Aerodrome in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica. The airline began service on 7 December 2009, offering "on-demand" scheduled and private charter ...
and Trans Jamaican Airlines which flew small prop and turboprop aircraft such as the
Beechcraft 99 The Beechcraft Model 99 is a civilian aircraft produced by Beechcraft. It is also known as the Beech 99 Airliner and the Commuter 99. The 99 is a twin-engine, unpressurized, 15 to 17 passenger seat turboprop aircraft, derived from the earlier Be ...
,
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 ai ...
,
de Havilland Heron The de Havilland DH.114 Heron is a small propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugged ...
, and
Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 19 ...
. Renovations began in early 2009, and the total cost of construction was $300 million (JMD). The new airport was opened on January 12, 2011 by Prime Minister
Bruce Golding Orette Bruce Golding (born 5 December 1947) is a former Jamaican politician who served as eighth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 11 September 2007 to 23 October 2011. He is a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which he led from 2005 to h ...
, who said that the intention of the airport was to handle small jets, international arrivals and to attract the high-end tourism market to Jamaica's north coast, including Ocho Rios, Oracabessa, and
Port Antonio Port Antonio is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for b ...
. Also present for the opening was Ian Fleming's niece, Lucy Fleming, and Goldeneye's current owner, Chris Blackwell. The new airport welcomed its first international flight on Friday, May 7, 2010 (eight months prior to its official opening) when a single-engine Pilatus PC-12 turboprop flew in from the
Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
with singer-songwriter and businessman Jimmy Buffett, of "
Margaritaville "Margaritaville" is a 1977 song by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett from the album '' Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes''. This song was written about a drink Buffett discovered at Lung's Cocina del Sur restauran ...
" fame, being the first international passenger to be processed by customs and immigration officers at the facility. The renaming of the airport was controversial, with some locals feeling that a prominent Jamaican should have been honoured in preference to the British Ian Fleming. Prime Minister Golding acknowledged the controversy in his remarks at the opening of the airport. He explained that Ian Fleming gave Jamaica "an image much larger than it would otherwise have had", and that this was the place where the creativity emerged that enabled him to write 13 James Bond novels, and to become one of the world's most famous authors. On 31 March 2022,
American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...
announced that it would begin non-stop flights from Miami to the airport on 5 November 2022, under its
American Eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...
regional brand. The flights, designated Flight 4007, mark the first by a US airline to the airport. That route has since been postponed until further notice due to American's request that additional Air Navigation Aids be provided at the airport.


Facilities

The Ian Fleming International Airport is at an elevation of above
mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...
. It has one runway designated 09/27 with an asphalt surface measuring . The airport is designed to handle private and commercial aircraft as large as the
Cessna Citation Excel The Cessna Citation Excel is an American midsize business jet built by Cessna. Announced in October 1994, the Model 560XL first flew on February 29, 1996, certification was granted in April 1998, and over 1,000 have been delivered. The , 20,200 ...
. The airport features a modern terminal, landing lights, fire truck garage and a fuelling station. Passenger amenities include customs and immigration services, a passenger lounge, and pilot briefing rooms.


Airlines and destinations


Passenger


Passengers

The following table shows the number of passengers using the airport annually from 1997 through 2001.


References


External links


Official website

Airports Authority of Jamaica page

Aerial view
* {{authority control Airports in Jamaica Buildings and structures in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica Ian Fleming