Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport is an airport that serves the nation of

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

's largest city,

Belize City Belize City is the largest city in Belize and was once the capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2010 census, Belize City has a population of 57,169 people in 16,162 households. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, w ...

along the eastern coast of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. It was named after politician Philip S. W. Goldson, who died in 2001. The airport is about 30 minutes drive from Belize City's centre, in

Ladyville Ladyville is the largest village in the country of Belize, eight miles northwest of Belize City in the Belize District. The Philip Goldson Highway connects Ladyville to Belize City. History Although originally a separate settlement, Ladyville ...

. The airport is at an elevation of , which means both the airport and the entirety of Belize City are at risk of serious

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

due to its low elevation and coastal location. For this reason, Belize's capital has been moved to

Belmopan Belmopan () is the capital city of Belize. Its population in 2010 was 16,451. In addition to being the smallest capital city in the continental Americas by population, Belmopan is the third-largest settlement in Belize, behind Belize City and Sa ...

, but the airport remains the largest and busiest in the country. With stable passenger growth, Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport is currently the fifth busiest airport in Central America.

History

Originally known as Belize International Airport, the airport was renamed in honor of Philip S. W. Goldson on 7 February 1988.

Military use

Due to the

Belizean–Guatemalan territorial dispute The Belizean–Guatemalan territorial dispute is an unresolved territorial dispute between the states of Belize (FKA British Honduras, British Settlement in the Bay of Honduras) and Guatemala, neighbours in Central America. During the late 160 ...

, Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport has hosted several military units over the years since its construction. In 1984, a senior

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

General stated that it was "the best defended airfield in Central America". Most notable residents have been Headquarters British Forces Belize,

No. 1417 (Tactical Ground Attack) Flight RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

operating

Harrier jump jet The Harrier, informally referred to as the Harrier jump jet, is a family of jet-powered attack aircraft capable of vertical/short takeoff and landing operations (V/STOL). Named after a bird of prey, it was originally developed by British ma ...

s, No. 1563 (Helicopter support) Flight RAF, resident Anti-Aircraft Squadrons of the RAF Regiment, resident helicopter units of the

Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps: * Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army * Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941) * United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...

HarDet Belize No. 1417 Flight RAF (1417 Flt) was an independent Flight (military unit), flight of the Royal Air Force which existed between 1941 and 1993 at various times in a variety of roles. This Flight had probably the most interesting incarnations of all ...

, Butcher Radar and

Belize Defence Force The Belize Defence Force (BDF) is the military of Belize, and is responsible for protecting the sovereignty of the country. The BDF is under the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security, which is currently headed by Hon. Florencio Marin Jr ...

s, among others.

Price Barracks Price Barracks is a military installation located just north of Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport which is located in Ladyville some 8 miles to the north west of Belize City. It is the main base of the Belize Defence Force. History The ...

is a military installation located just north of the airport, which was formerly known as Airport Camp, the headquarters of British Forces Belize.

Historical airline service

In 1950,

TACA Airlines Transportes Aereos del Continente Americano, (''Air Transports of the American Continent'', known and branded formerly as TACA International), operating as Avianca El Salvador, is an airline owned by Kingsland Holdings based in El Salvador. As ...

(which is now

Avianca Honduras Isleña de Inversiones S.A. de C.V. branded Avianca Honduras was an regional airline based in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It offered mostly scheduled and chartered passenger flights out of its hub at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airpo ...

) was operating weekly nonstop flights to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

and San Salvador as well as weekly direct one stop service to

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicar ...

with

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1 ...

propliners. TACA subsequently began operating

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The Vi ...

turboprops on a weekly southbound service flying a routing of New Orleans - Belize City -

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

- San Salvador -

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

- Managua - San Jose, Costa Rica -

Panama City, Panama Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is loca ...

. In 1953, British West Indian Airways (BWIA, which is now

Caribbean Airlines Caribbean Airlines Limited is the state-owned airline and flag carrier of Trinidad and Tobago. The airline is also the flag carrier of Jamaica and Guyana. Headquartered in Iere House in Piarco, the airline operates flights to the Caribbean, ...

) in association with

British Overseas Airways Corporation British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the pass ...

(BOAC, which is now

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

) was operating one flight a week to Belize from Kingston, Jamaica via an intermediate stop in

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 (1 ...

with a

Vickers VC.1 Viking The Vickers VC.1 Viking is a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. After the Second World War, the Viking was a ...

twin-prop aircraft with this flight offering connecting service via Kingston from a BOAC flight that operated a routing from

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

via stops in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, Nassau, Bahamas and

Montego Bay, Jamaica Montego Bay is the capital of the parish of St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore, all of which form the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, ...

. BWIA in conjunction with BOAC would later operate weekly nonstop service between the airport and Kingston with

turboprop aircraft. Thirty years later in 1983, four airlines were operating jet service into the airport according to the

Official Airline Guide OAG is a global travel data provider with headquarters in the UK. The company was founded in 1929 and operates in the USA, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China. It has a large network of flight information data including schedules, flight st ...

( OAG) including

Air Florida Air Florida was an American low-cost carrier that operated from 1971 to 1984. In 1975 it was headquartered in the Dadeland Towers in what is now Kendall, Florida in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida. Air Florida's IATA code is now used by ...

with nonstop

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

flights from

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and San Pedro Sula, Servicio Aereo de Honduras (

SAHSA ''Servicio Aéreo de Honduras S.A.'' otherwise known as SAHSA Airlines was the national flag carrier airline of Honduras from October 22, 1945, to January 14, 1994. The airline was a subsidiary of Pan American Airways and merged with ''Transpor ...

) with nonstop Boeing 727-100 flights from

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

(via

Houston Intercontinental Airport George Bush Intercontinental Airport is an international airport in Houston, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Located about north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

and San Pedro Sula,

International with nonstop Boeing 737-200 and British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven flights from Houston (via Houston Intercontinental Airport), Miami, New Orleans and San Salvador, and Transportes Aereos Nacionales ( TAN Airlines) with nonstop Boeing 737-200 flights from Miami and San Pedro Sula while local air carrier Maya Airways was operating domestic service in Belize with Britten-Norman Islander twin-prop aircraft. Also according to the OAG, by 1989 TACA had introduced wide body

Boeing 767-200 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified on ...

nonstop service to Miami in addition to its Boeing 737-200 flights with other service to Miami at this time being operated by

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...

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 airpo ...

s as well as TAN with Boeing 737-200s.

Belize Airways Belize Airways Limited was Belize's first and only national airline. The carrier began flights from Belize International Airport (now Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport) on October 1, 1977. In 1980, the airline declared bankruptcy. Its fin ...

Ltd. was a scheduled passenger airline based at the airport which operated flights to

, San Pedro Sula, San Salvador and

La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida and a port city on the northern coast of Honduras in Central America. It is located on the southern edge of the Caribbean, forming part of the south eastern bo ...

with

Boeing 720 The Boeing 720 is an American narrow-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Announced in July 1957 as a 707 derivative for shorter flights from shorter runways, the 720 first flew on November 23, 1959. Its type certificate was ...

and stretched British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven series 500 jetliners operated at various times during its existence from 1977 to 1980 according to its timetables.http://www.timetableimages.com/i-s/st80ca.jpg

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Future plans

Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport will have integrated access with proposed Belize City Central Railway Station.

References

External links

*
Official website
{{authority control Airports in Belize Belize District Belize Rural Central