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80-522: Billings Logan International Airport ( IATA : BIL , ICAO : KBIL , FAA LID : BIL ) is in the western United States , two miles (three kilometers) northwest of downtown Billings , in Yellowstone County , Montana . It is the fourth busiest airport in Montana, having been surpassed in recent years by Bozeman , Missoula, and Flathead County (Kalispell) in number of annual enplanements. Owned by

160-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

240-731: A passenger terminal and maintenance hangar in Clear Lake City, Texas , near the Johnson Space Center . The Clear Lake City STOLport was specifically designed for Twin Otter operations. According to the February 1976 edition of the Official Airline Guide , Houston Metro operated 22 round-trip flights every weekday at this time between Clear Lake City (CLC) and Houston Intercontinental Airport, now George Bush Intercontinental Airport , in

320-477: A scheduled passenger airline shuttle operation. Houston Metro had agreements in place for connecting passenger feed services with Continental Airlines and Eastern Air Lines at Houston Intercontinental, with this major airport having a dedicated STOL landing area at the time specifically for Twin Otter flight operations. The Clear Lake City STOLport is no longer in existence. The Walt Disney World resort in Florida

400-456: A small hub for Cape Air , a commuter airline which operates nonstop flights with Cessna 402 prop aircraft within Montana to Glasgow , Glendive , Havre , Sidney , and Wolf Point . The airport has two fixed-base operators , Beacon Air Group and Edwards Jet Center, that offers fuel as well as maintenance , charter, crew lounge, snooze rooms, and more. The first recorded flight in Billings

480-641: A successful commuter airliner , typically seating 18–20 passengers, as well as a cargo and medical evacuation aircraft. In addition, the Twin Otter has been popular with commercial skydiving operations, and is used by the United States Army Parachute Team and the 98th Flying Training Squadron of the United States Air Force . Development of the aircraft began in 1964, with the first flight on 20 May 1965. A twin-engine replacement for

560-722: A total of 270 Twin Otters were in airline service, and 14 on order: 111 in North/South America, 117 in the Asia Pacific and Middle East (14 orders), 26 in Europe and 13 in Africa. In 2020, there were a total of 315 Twin Otters worldwide with 220 in service, 95 in storage and 8 on order. By region there were 22 in Africa, 142 in Asia Pacific (8 orders), 37 in Europe, 4 in the Middle East and 110 in

640-491: A total of 584 Twin Otter aircraft (all variants) remained in service worldwide. Major operators at the time included: Libyan Arab Airlines , Maldivian Air Taxi , Trans Maldivian Airways , Kenn Borek Air , and Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines . Some 115 airlines operated smaller numbers of the aircraft including Yeti Airlines in Nepal, Malaysia Airlines (which used the Twin Otter exclusively for passenger and freight transportation to

720-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

800-648: Is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada in the mid-1960s and still in production today. Built by De Havilland Canada from 1965 to 1988, Viking Air purchased the type certificate and restarted production in 2008, before re-adopting the DHC name in 2022. In 2023 DHC restarted production of the 300 series, in addition to the Series 400 produced by Viking. The aircraft's fixed tricycle undercarriage , STOL capabilities, twin turboprop engines and high rate of climb have made it

880-471: Is at 3,738 feet MSL is the lowest approach. The second runway is Runway 07/25 with a length of 5,501 feet and width of 75 feet; this runway serves as the crosswind runway. The final runway is Runway 10R/28L with a length of 3,800 feet and width of 75 feet. This runway serves as the primary runway for single engine and light piston aircraft. All three runways are asphalt. There are nine taxiways currently in use. Taxiway A runs parallel to Runway 10L/28R, serves as

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960-600: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

1040-518: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1120-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1200-595: Is mentioned in the "Air Commuter Section" of the 6 September 1972 Eastern Air Lines system timetable as a connecting service to and from Eastern flights. This STOL airfield is no longer in use. Another commuter airline in the United States, Rocky Mountain Airways , operated Twin Otters from the Lake County Airport in Leadville, Colorado . At an elevation of 3,026 m (9,927 ft) above mean sea level, this airport

1280-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1360-503: Is not only to help govern the operations of the airport, but also to act as a citizens' advisory board to the City Council. They are to make sure that city policies are implemented and carried out. Shortcomings are to be reported and recommendations are to be made to the City Council. Billings Logan International Airport has three runways. The primary runway is Runway 10L/28R with a length of 10,518 feet and width of 150 feet. ILS/DME on 28R

1440-419: Is the highest airfield in the United States ever to have received scheduled passenger airline service, thus demonstrating the wide-ranging flight capabilities of the Twin Otter. Rocky Mountain Airways went on to become the worldwide launch customer for the larger, four-engine de Havilland Canada Dash 7 STOL turboprop, but continued to operate the Twin Otter, as well. Larger scheduled passenger airlines based in

1520-494: Is the primary taxiway from the terminal area to the cargo ramps. Two hotspots exist on the airfield side of operations. Hotspot 1 is located at the intersection of Runway 10R/28L and Runway 7/25. Hotspot 2 is located at the intersection of Taxiway C and Runway 10L/28R. In the year ending December 31, 2023, the airport had 99,748 operations, an average of 273 aircraft operations per day: 58% general aviation , 29% air taxi , 13% airline, and 1% military. 197 aircraft were then based at

1600-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

1680-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

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1760-754: The Kelabit Highlands region in Sarawak ), and in the United Kingdom, the Scottish airline, Loganair which uses the aircraft to service the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides . This daily scheduled service is unique as the aircraft lands on the beach and the schedule is partly influenced by the tide tables. Trials at Barra Airport with heavier planes than the Twin Otter, like the Short 360, failed because they sank in

1840-486: The type certificates from Bombardier Aviation for all out-of-production de Havilland Canada aircraft ( DHC-1 through DHC-7 ). The ownership of the certificates gives Viking the exclusive right to manufacture new aircraft. On 17 July 2006, at the Farnborough Airshow , Viking Air announced its intention to offer a Series 400 Twin Otter. On 2 April 2007, Viking announced that with 27 orders and options in hand, it

1920-409: The 1950s and early 1960s, Northwest operated Douglas DC-3 , Douglas DC-4 , Douglas DC-6B and Douglas DC-7C propeller aircraft into Billings. Inland Air Lines was serving the airport in 1939 as a stop on a route between Denver and Great Falls. Western Airlines then acquired Inland Air Lines and in 1944 was serving Billings with Douglas DC-3 and Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar twin prop aircraft on

2000-710: The AC electrical system, modernization of the electrical and lighting systems, and use of composites for non load-bearing structures such as doors. The 100th Series 400 Twin Otter (MSN 944) was displayed at the July 2017 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh . At the time 38% were operated as regional airliners , 31% were in military aviation use, 26% in industrial support and 5% were in private air charter . Seventy were on regular landing gear wheels, 18 were configured as straight or amphibious floatplanes , 10 had tundra tires and two had wheel skis . In 2019, Viking started making plastic components for

2080-456: The Rims to build a runway. The 1,820-foot (550 m) runway and small administrative building was built by horse-drawn equipment; the airport opened on May 29, 1928. In 1933, Northwest Airlines introduced the first scheduled passenger air service. Northwest was serving Billings in 1935 as a stop on a route between Chicago and Seattle flown with Lockheed Model 10 Electra twin prop airliners. During

2160-435: The Series 400 on 21 July 2010. Six years after, in July 2016, 100 series 400 have been delivered to 34 customers operating in 29 countries. In June 2017, 125 have been made since restarting production in 2010. In 2016, there were 281 Twin Otters in airline service with 26 new aircraft on order: 112 in North/South America, 106 in Asia Pacific and Middle East (16 orders), 38 in Europe (10 orders) and 25 in Africa. In 2018,

2240-583: The Series 400 technical demonstrator, C-FDHT, took place 1 October 2008, at Victoria International Airport . Two days later, the aircraft departed Victoria, British Columbia for a ferry flight to Orlando, Florida , site of the 2008 National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Conference and exhibition. The first new build Series 400 Twin Otter (SN 845) made its first flight on 16 February 2010, in Calgary , Alberta . Transport Canada presented Viking Air Limited with an amended DHC-6 Type Certificate including

2320-530: The Twin Otter by 3D printer to help reduce cost. Twin Otter production was suspended in 2019 during the COVID-19 pandemic . In July 2022, DHC announced that it was reviewing the program and supply chain, with a decision on when to resume production expected "in the near future". In 2023, its equipped price was $ 7.25M. In June 2023 Viking, now operating as De Haviland Canada started production of new DHC-6 Classic 300-G. Twin Otters could be delivered directly from

2400-615: The Twin Otter is used in skydiving operations in many countries. The United States Air Force operates three Twin Otters for the United States Air Force Academy 's skydiving team. On 26 April 2001, the first ever air rescue during polar winter from the South Pole occurred with a ski-equipped Twin Otter operated by Kenn Borek Air . On 25 September 2008, the Series 400 Technology Demonstrator achieved "power on" status in advance of an official rollout. The first flight of

2480-542: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter

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2560-676: The United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Australia, particularly jetliner operators, also flew Twin Otters, with the aircraft providing connecting feeder service for these airlines. Jet aircraft operators which also flew the Twin Otter included Aeronaves de Mexico , Air BC , Alaska Airlines , ALM Antillean Airlines , Ansett Airlines , Cayman Airways , Frontier Airlines , LIAT , Norcanair , Nordair , Ozark Air Lines , Pacific Western Airlines , Quebecair , South Pacific Island Airways , Time Air , Transair , Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), Wardair and Wien Air Alaska . In many cases,

2640-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

2720-704: The airline was serving Billings with Canadair CRJ-700 regional jets. Horizon Air continues to serve the airport at the present time on behalf of Alaska Airlines with the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 propjet which is the largest and fastest member of the de Havilland Canada DHC-8 regional turboprop family of aircraft. Additional airlines operating regional jets from the airport in the past included America West Express operated by Mesa Airlines with Canadair CRJ-200 aircraft and Frontier JetExpress flown by Horizon Air with Canadair CRJ-700 aircraft with both air carriers operating nonstop service to Denver. Big Sky Airlines

2800-566: The airport became Billings Logan International Airport. By 1961, Northwest Airlines was operating Lockheed L-188 Electra propjet service into the airport on a routing of New York Idlewild Airport (IDL, now JFK Airport ) - Detroit (DTW) - Milwaukee (MKE) - Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) - Bismarck, ND (BIS) - Billings (BIL) - Great Falls (GTF) - Spokane (GEG) - Yakima (YKM) - Seattle (SEA). The jet age arrived in Billings by 1966 when Northwest introduced Boeing 727-100 "Fan Jet" flights in addition to its Electra turboprop service. In 1968, Northwest

2880-427: The airport had commuter airline service operated by Big Sky Airlines , Centennial Airlines and Pioneer Airlines with the latter air carrier operating as Continental Express on behalf of Continental Airlines . Another airline which operated jet service into Billings was Horizon Air which in 1999 was operating Fokker F28 Fellowship twin jets with nonstop flights to Seattle on behalf of Alaska Airlines . By 2003,

2960-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

3040-458: The airport terminal was modernized and expanded for the first time since the 1990s. The project cost was approximately $ 45 million. The number of gates increased to 9 (from 6), and the number of jet bridges increased to 8 (from 4). The airport remodeled both the A and B concourses and constructed new screening, lobby, restaurant, and gift shop facilities. The project's purpose was to provide capacity for future growth, attract air carriers, and increase

3120-471: The airport to Bismarck, ND , Boise, ID , Dickinson, ND , Havre, MT , Jamestown, ND , Kalispell, MT , Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN , Missoula, MT , Moses Lake, WA , Seattle, WA , Spokane, WA and Williston, ND at various times during its existence as well. Besides operating as an independent air carrier, Big Sky also operated Northwest Airlink service from Billings via a code sharing agreement with Northwest Airlines in 1989. Between 2019 and 2024,

3200-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

3280-792: The airport: 106 single-engine, 62 multi-engine, 22 jet, and 7 helicopter . IATA airport code The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

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3360-457: The beginning of Series 200 production included improving the STOL performance, adding a longer nose that was equipped with a larger baggage compartment (except for aircraft fitted with floats), and fitting a larger door to the rear baggage compartment. All Series 1, 100, and 200 aircraft and their variants (110, 210) were fitted with the 550 shp (410 kW) PT6A-20 engines. In 1969, the Series 300

3440-773: The city of Billings, the airport is on top of the Rims , a 500-foot (150 m) cliff overlooking the downtown core, and covers 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) of land. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year). According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 387,368 passenger boardings (enplanements) in 2013, 388,329 in 2010 and 397,073 in 2009. Billings Logan International Airport has scheduled nonstop flights to several airline hubs such as Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Portland, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Chicago, and Seattle. Billings also serves as

3520-565: The city's economic vitality. The Aviation and Transit Board governs BIL, with seven members, each appointed for four-year terms. It is required of the position of a board member to possess the qualifications fit for the Mayor's office. With the consent of the Council, the Mayor elects the board members. No board member may be reelected once his or her term expires. The purpose of the Aviation and Transit Board

3600-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

3680-919: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

3760-652: The excellent operating economics of the Twin Otter allowed airlines large and small to provide scheduled passenger flights to communities that most likely would otherwise never have received air service. Twin Otters are also a staple of Antarctic transportation. Four Twin Otters are employed by the British Antarctic Survey on research and supply flights, and several are employed by the United States Antarctic Program via contract with Kenn Borek Air . On 24–25 April 2001, two Twin Otters performed

3840-449: The factory with floats , skis , or tricycle landing gear fittings, making them adaptable bush planes for remote and northern areas. Areas including Canada and the United States, (specifically Alaska ) had much of the demand. Many Twin Otters still serve in the Arctic and subarctic , but they can also be found in Africa, Australia, Asia, Antarctica, and other regions where bush planes are

3920-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

4000-516: The first winter flight to Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station to perform a medical evacuation. On 21–22 June 2016, Kenn Borek Air's Twin Otters performed the third winter evacuation flight to Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station to remove two people for medical reasons. The Argentine Air Force has used the Twin Otter in Antarctica since the 1970s, with at least one of them deployed year-round at Marambio Base . The Chilean Air Force has operated

4080-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

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4160-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

4240-491: The improved reliability of turboprop power and the improved performance of a twin-engine configuration made it an immediately popular alternative to the piston-powered Otter which had been flying since 1951. The first six aircraft produced were designated Series 1, indicating that they were prototype aircraft. The initial production run consisted of Series 100 aircraft, serial numbers seven to 115 inclusive. In 1968, Series 200 production began with serial number 116. Changes made at

4320-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

4400-503: The last exit of Runway 10L and connects to the terminal area. Taxiway B runs through Runway 10L/28R as an access taxiway to the Northern Air Tanker Base. Three Taxiways, C, E and F, serve as exit taxiways that vary in width to serve certain size aircraft. Taxiway D intersects Runway 10L/28R and serves as a northern exit point for Runway 25. Two taxiways (G and H) provide all exits for Runway 10R/28L and Runway 7. Finally, Taxiway J

4480-403: The late 1970s to early 1980s, Billings was served by wide body McDonnell Douglas DC-10 jetliners operated by Northwest Airlines . In 1979, Northwest was flying DC-10 service on a round trip routing of Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) - Detroit (DTW) - Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) - Billings (BIL) - Great Falls (GTF) - Spokane (GEG) - Seattle (SEA). By 1982, the airline

4560-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

4640-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

4720-423: The optimum means of travel. Their versatility and manoeuvrability have made them popular in areas with difficult flying environments such as Papua New Guinea . In Norway, the Twin Otter paved the way for the network of short-field airports, connecting rural areas with larger towns. The Twin Otter showed outstanding reliability, and remained in service until 2000 on certain routes. Widerøe of Norway was, at one time,

4800-555: The route between Denver and Great Falls. Western operated Convair 240 and Douglas DC-6B propeller aircraft into the airport during the 1950s and early 1960s. The original Frontier Airlines was serving Billings in 1950 with Douglas DC-3 aircraft operated on routes to Denver and Salt Lake City. By 1962, Frontier had introduced Convair 340 aircraft on its flights into the airport and would later serve Billings with Boeing 737-200 jets as well as with Convair 580 and de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops. Improvements over

4880-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

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4960-450: The sand. The Twin Otter is also used for landing at Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport , the world's shortest commercial runway, on the Caribbean island of Saba , Netherlands Antilles . The Twin Otter has been popular with commercial skydiving operations. It can carry up to 22 skydivers to over 5,200 m (17,000 ft) (a large load compared to most other aircraft in the industry); presently,

5040-606: The single-engine DHC-3 Otter retaining the DHC-3's STOL qualities, its design features included double-slotted trailing-edge flaps and ailerons that work in unison with the flaps to boost STOL performance. The availability of the 550 shaft horsepower (410 kW) Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-20 turboprop in the early 1960s made the concept of a twin feasible. A DHC-3 Otter with its piston engine replaced with two PT6A-4 engines had already flown in 1963. It had been extensively modified for STOL research. To bush plane operators,

5120-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

5200-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

5280-560: The type since 1980, usually having an example based at Presidente Frei Antarctic base of the South Shetland Islands . Alfredo Stroessner , Paraguayan head of state from 1954 until 1989, used a Twin Otter as a presidential aircraft; although the Twin Otter remained in the Paraguayan Air Force inventory after he was deposed, subsequent presidents switched to other, private aircraft for official duties. As of August 2006,

5360-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

5440-478: The world's largest operator of Twin Otters. During one period of its tenure in Norway, the Twin Otter fleet achieved over 96,000 cycles (take-off, flight, and landing) per year. A number of commuter airlines in the United States got their start by operating Twin Otters in scheduled passenger operations. Houston Metro Airlines (which later changed its name to Metro Airlines ) constructed their own STOLport airstrip with

5520-469: The years include runway lights in 1935 to the new 120-foot (37 m) air traffic control tower in 2005. Major terminal expansions were made in 1958, 1972, and 1992. In early 2006 the airport added electronic monitors giving info on arrivals and departures. The name changed from the Billings Municipal Airport to Billings Logan Field in 1957, after Dick Logan, the airport manager, died. In 1971

5600-869: The years. In 1983, four airlines were operating mainline jet service into the airport: Continental Airlines with Douglas DC-9-10 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 nonstop flights to Denver and Great Falls, the original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) with Boeing 737-200 nonstop flights to Denver, Great Falls and Helena, Northwest Airlines with Boeing 727-200 nonstop flights to Great Falls, Helena, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Spokane with direct service to Chicago, Seattle and Portland, OR, and Western Airlines with Boeing 737-200 nonstop flights to Salt Lake City with direct service to Los Angeles and San Francisco. By 1985, Northwest had once again added nonstop service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport flown with Boeing 727-200 aircraft while United Airlines had begun flying Boeing 737-200 nonstop service to Denver. Also in 1985,

5680-545: Was US$ 680,000, In 1976, a new -300 would have cost $ 700,000 ($ 3 million 31 years later) and is still worth more than $ 2.5 million in 2018 despite the -400 introduction, many years after the -300 production ceased. 844 had been produced by the time the first production end run ended in 1988. After Series 300 production ended, the remaining tooling was purchased by Viking Air of Victoria, British Columbia , which manufactures replacement parts for out-of-production de Havilland Canada aircraft. On 24 February 2006, Viking purchased

5760-705: Was a commuter air carrier that was based in Billings from 1978 to 2008. Big Sky primarily operated small turboprop airliners including the Beechcraft 1900D , British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 , Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (Metro III and Metro 23 models) and Handley Page Jetstream as well as Cessna prop aircraft. The airline operated nonstop flights from the airport to Butte, MT , Casper, WY , Denver, CO , Glasgow, MT , Great Falls, MT , Helena, MT , Lewistown, MT , Miles City, MT , Sidney, MT and Wolf Point, MT at various times during its existence. In addition, Big Sky operated direct, no change of plane flights from

5840-500: Was about 24 aircraft per year. In April 2015, Viking announced a reduction of the production rate to 18 aircraft per year. On 17 June 2015, Viking announced a partnership with a Chinese firm, Reignwood Aviation Group ; the group would purchase 50 aircraft and become the exclusive supplier of new Series 400 Twin Otters in China. Major changes introduced with the Series 400 include Honeywell Primus Apex fully integrated avionics , deletion of

5920-523: Was also operating direct Electra propjet service to Calgary (YYC) via a stop in Great Falls (GTF) during the late 1960s. By the early 1970s, Western was operating all of its flights into the airport with Boeing 737-200 jetliners. In 1979, Western was operating nonstop Boeing 727-200 service to both Minneapolis/St. Paul and Seattle as well as flying nonstop Boeing 737-200 service to Denver, Great Falls and Salt Lake City. For at least part of each year from

6000-620: Was also served with scheduled airline flights operated with Twin Otter aircraft. The Walt Disney World Airport , also known as the Lake Buena Vista STOLport, was a private airfield constructed by The Walt Disney Company with Twin Otter operations in mind. In the early 1970s, Shawnee Airlines operated scheduled Twin Otter flights between the Disney resort and nearby Orlando Jetport, now Orlando International Airport , as well as to Tampa International Airport . This service by Shawnee Airlines

6080-509: Was in 1913 by a local dentist named Dr. Frank Bell , using his home-made Curtiss 0-X-5, on Memorial Day 1913. With much publicity. Dr. Bell took off from Billings flying west-southwest to Park City and back, a 40-mile (65 km) round trip. This flight was captured by local artist J.K. Ralston in his painting entitled First Flight , displayed in the airport lobby. In 1927, the City of Billings approved $ 5,000 and 400 acres (160 hectares) on top of

6160-577: Was introduced, beginning with serial number 231. Both aircraft performance and payload were improved by fitting more powerful PT6A-27 engines. This was a 680 hp (510 kW) engine that was flat rated to 620 hp (460 kW) for use in the Series 300 Twin Otter. The Series 300 proved to be the most successful variant by far, with 614 Series 300 aircraft and their subvariants (Series 310 for United Kingdom operators, Series 320 for Australian operators, etc.) sold before production in Toronto by de Havilland Canada ended in 1988. In 1972, its unit cost

6240-591: Was operating nonstop 727 jet service from the airport to Chicago O'Hare International Airport , Minneapolis/St. Paul, Great Falls and Spokane as well as direct, no change of plane 727 flights to New York LaGuardia Airport , Newark, Washington, D.C. National Airport , Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Seattle and Portland, OR. Western Airlines was serving Billings in 1966 with Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprops with an example routing being Los Angeles (LAX) - San Diego (SAN) - Phoenix (PHX) - Denver (DEN) - Cheyenne (CYS) - Casper (CPR) - Sheridan (SHR) - Billings (BIL). Western

6320-602: Was operating the DC-10 on a round trip routing of Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) - Billings - Great Falls - Spokane - Seattle. The DC-10 was the largest aircraft ever to be operated in scheduled passenger service into the airport. For a short period in 1979, Northwest used a Boeing 747 to provide passenger service to MSP-BIL-SEA. This was at the tail end of a pilot/airline dispute. Northwest also served Billings with Boeing 727-200 , McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 , McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 , McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and Airbus A319 jetliners over

6400-477: Was restarting production of the Twin Otter, equipped with more powerful Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 engines. As of November 2007, 40 firm orders and 10 options had been taken and a new final assembly plant was established in Calgary , Alberta . Zimex Aviation of Switzerland received the first new production aircraft, serial number 845, in July 2010. By mid-2014, Viking had built 55 new aircraft at its Calgary facility. The production rate as of summer 2014

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