Such airports rank among the most complex and largest of all built typologies, with 15 of the top 50 buildings by floor area being airport terminals. Such a base typically includes a stretch of open water for takeoffs and landings, and seaplane docks for tying-up.Īn international airport has additional facilities for customs and passport control as well as incorporating all the aforementioned elements. An airport for use by seaplanes and amphibious aircraft is called a seaplane base. Types of airports Īn airport solely serving helicopters is called a heliport. In US technical/legal usage, landing area is used instead of aerodrome, and airport means 'a landing area used regularly by aircraft for receiving or discharging passengers or cargo'. In jurisdictions where there is no legal distinction between aerodrome and airport, which term to use in the name of an aerodrome may be a commercial decision. That is to say, all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. In some jurisdictions, airport is a legal term of art reserved exclusively for those aerodromes certified or licensed as airports by the relevant civil aviation authority after meeting specified certification criteria or regulatory requirements. However, in general, the term airport may imply or confer a certain stature upon the aviation facility that other aerodromes may not have achieved. In colloquial use in certain environments, the terms airport and aerodrome are often interchanged. The terms aerodrome, airfield, and airstrip also refer to airports, and the terms heliport, seaplane base, and STOLport refer to airports dedicated exclusively to helicopters, seaplanes, and short take-off and landing aircraft. Airports are also vulnerable infrastructure to extreme weather, climate change caused sea level rise and other disasters.Īir bridges at Oslo Gardermoen Airport captured from an Icelandair Boeing 757-200 Additionally, airports have major local environmental impacts, as both large sources of air pollution, noise pollution and other environmental impacts, making them sites that acutely experience the environmental effects of aviation. Because they are sites of operation for heavy machinery, a number of regulations and safety measures have been implemented in airports, in order to reduce hazards.

Thus airports can be major employers, as well as important hubs for tourism and other kinds of transit. Operating airports is extremely complicated, with a complex system of aircraft support services, passenger services, and aircraft control services contained within the operation. In some countries, the US in particular, airports also typically have one or more fixed-base operators, serving general aviation. Larger airports may have airport aprons, taxiway bridges, air traffic control centres, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off and to land or a helipad, and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminals, to maintain and monitor aircraft.

Solar panels at Cochin International Airport, India, the world's first airport to be fully powered by solar energy.Īn airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport.

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