Tampa Executive Airport , formerly known as Vandenberg Airport, is located in unincorporated Hillsborough County,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, six

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s (11 km) east of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

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 ...

. VDF covers 411 acres (166 ha) of land. The airport was renamed in January 2009 in order to better identify the facility with the Tampa Bay area, and to lessen confusion with Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It is a

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

servicing the downtown Tampa business traffic, as it is only 15 minutes from the heart of Tampa. Tampa Executive has two

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s, one 3,264 feet and the other 5,000 feet. Tampa Executive is operated by Skyport Aviation, which is the only fixed-base operator on the field providing fuel and other services to general aviation aircraft. The airport is located near the intersection of I-4 and I-75. The airport is open 7:00 A.M. - 10:00 P.M. Monday- Friday and 7:00 A.M. -7:00 P.M. Saturday and Sunday, and after-hours service is available upon request. The airport's original name was Vandenberg Airport. Jules Vandenberghe immigrated to this country from Belgium, and started a vegetable farm at this location. His two sons, Julian and George, later learned to fly and decided to put in an airstrip on their father's farm. Son George took the airport development seriously, and grew the field into one of the most popular and busiest general aviation airports in Florida. Many pilots learned to fly there from Eddie Vandenberghe, George's son. Quite a few private aviation service businesses started and flourished there, including: Sun State Aviation, Gulf Coast Avionics, Jefferies Aviation, Baker Aircraft Service, Dodge Aviation, Hawk Aircraft Refinishing, and more. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department Aviation unit has been based there for over 40 years. This airport is assigned a three-letter location identifier of VDF by the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

, but it does not have an

International Air Transport Association (IATA) airport code An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a three-character alphanumeric geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the I ...

References

External links

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Skyport Aviation
operator of Tampa Executive Airport * *
{{Use mdy dates, date=November 2016 Airports in Florida Transportation buildings and structures in Hillsborough County, Florida Airports in the Tampa Bay area