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54-461: Piarco International Airport ( IATA : POS , ICAO : TTPP ) is an international airport serving the island of Trinidad and is one of two international airports in Trinidad and Tobago . The airport is located 30 km (19 mi) east of Downtown Port of Spain , located in the suburban town of Piarco . The airport is the primary hub and operating base for the country's national airline, as well as

108-631: A flight school at the airport. In 2006 the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago commissioned a study for land use planning and urban development planning. All-Inclusive Project Development Services Limited was commissioned to conduct the study. The study was completed in October 2007 and approved by the Board. In 2011, work on the infrastructure of the North Aviation Business Park began. It

162-550: 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

216-707: A total of fourteen parking positions as well as offices for the Airport Administration Centre and the Airport Authority. The airport is served by the east-west Churchill-Roosevelt Highway which runs to the north of the airport, and connects to the airport circular via BWIA Boulevard. The airport is also accessible from the south via the Caroni South Bank Road, which connects to the north-south Uriah Butler Highway at Caroni. The Public Transport Service Corporation runs an hourly service during

270-499: 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

324-600: 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

378-541: Is connected to the rest of the airport via the joint southern atrium. Gates 8-14 form the eastern concourse serving all international Caribbean Airlines flights, as well as the location of the Club Caribbean lounge and eight remote stands. The two concourses together form the international departures section of the airport, with a duty free mall area and panoramic views of the airfield and the Northern Range. The rest of

432-518: 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

486-650: 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 ,

540-486: Is high. The densely forested peaks are home to over 100 species of mammals and 430 species of birds. Animals such as red howler monkeys , capuchin monkeys , neotropical river otters , collared peccary , ocelots and red brocket deer , to name a few, inhabit the lush forests, making the Northern Range the only mountain range in the Caribbean to host such species. The hills are mostly forested, although deforestation and

594-513: 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

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648-532: 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

702-488: Is the main passenger terminal built in 2001, handling all commercial passenger airline traffic. It has a total of fourteen jetway gates spread among two concourses, with a total of twenty-nine parking positions spread among the three concourses. The concourses are not strictly named, but are split among Caribbean Airlines and all other airlines. The western concourse includes a VIP Lounge, four remote stands, and serves all international airlines through gates 1-7. This concourse

756-416: 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

810-561: 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

864-647: The Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard is being constructed at the Piarco Air Base. Also, a military airfield will be constructed near the air base. The control tower at the old terminal building is currently used for air traffic control. The tower at the new terminal building is used for ramp control and runway movement control. A new nine-story control tower was opened in 2011. The new North Terminal consists of 35,964 m (387,110 sq ft) of building with 14 second-level aircraft gates for international flights and 2 ground-level domestic gates. The overall layout of

918-494: The United States Army Air Forces Sixth Air Force and United States Navy air squadrons. The airport was used both as a transport airfield and also for anti submarine patrol flights over the south Caribbean. In World War II the United States Army Air Forces Sixth Air Force stationed the following units at the airport performing anti submarine patrols: It was returned to civil control after

972-534: The Caribbean's largest airline, Caribbean Airlines . Piarco International Airport has direct scheduled service to destinations in the United States, Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. It is also a significant transit hub for the Southern Caribbean and serves as the primary connection point for many passengers travelling from Guyana . The Piarco Airport opened on 8 January 1931, to serve Venezuela 's Compagnie Generale Aeropostale . Before this,

1026-567: The North Terminal consists of the check-in hall, public atrium, arrivals hall, local food court and the Tobago concourse, located just outside the check-in hall. The Tobago concourse strictly serves domestic flights to Tobago and as such does not require the same infrastructure as an international departure hall, which is why there are just three parking positions. The check-in hall contains 82 ticket counter positions, where Caribbean Airlines occupies

1080-479: The Northern Range. The caves feature stalagmite and stalactite formations. These caves are inhabited by nocturnal oilbirds , and bats. Numerous sulphur springs occur on the river beds of Rio Seco Falls, demonstrating the volcanic nature of the region. The biodiversity within the Northern Range, which represents a combination of species from the South American continent and from the Caribbean islands further north

1134-511: The Northern Range. The highest waterfall is Maracas waterfall, towering 91.5 metres (300 ft) high. Other waterfalls include the Rincon Falls, Rio Seco Falls and Marianne Falls. The Northern Range consists mainly of sedimentary rocks , schists and limestones ; portions at the eastern end of the range are of volcanic origin. The country's largest cave system, the Aripo Cave , is located in

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1188-684: The Queen's Park Savannah, the Mucurapo Field, and the Cocorite Docks (for flying boats ) were used as airstrips to serve the island. In World War II the original airfield was used by the Royal Navy for the Fleet Air Arm No. 1 Observer Training School with the base known as RNAS Piarco (HMS Goshawk). The following squadrons were based there until disbanding in 1945: In 1942 it was also used by both

1242-496: 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 . Northern Range The Northern Range is the range of tall hills across north Trinidad ,

1296-481: 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

1350-440: 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,

1404-418: 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

1458-452: The building consists of three main elements: a landside core structure, a single-level duty-free shopping mall, and a two-level, Y-shaped concourse. 100-foot (30 m) cathedral ceilings and glass walls provide passengers and other visitors to the North Terminal with a sense of open space and magnificent views of the Piarco savannah and the nearby Northern Range mountains. The public atrium has

1512-491: 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

1566-544: The eastern extreme desks and the western extreme desks (designated for Tobago), and all other airlines occupy the remaining counters. The arrivals hall has 4 baggage claim belts, rental car facilities and restaurants. The public atrium itself is a social space consisting of fast food, shopping and seating underneath the largest glass dome in the Caribbean. It connects the international departures hall, Tobago concourse, arrivals hall and check-in hall. The south terminal now serves general aviation, cargo and helicopter flights. It has

1620-919: 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

1674-459: The existence of BWIA West Indies, its head office was on the airport property. The disused south terminal has been renovated into a VIP terminal for the Summit of The Americas. The North terminal has also received additional remote parking stands. In November 2009, upgrades on the south terminal were completed and the area now serves as a private/executive jet facility for high-end travellers. In 2022,

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1728-752: The existing car park on an unfinished roadway, to which shuttle services are provided. The Airport underwent expansion and renovation works in preparation for the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in November 2009. These improvements included: More recently, numerous upgrades have been conducted at the airport, and more are planned. These include: The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Trinidad: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

1782-557: 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

1836-407: The following areas; Gates 1–7 serving all other airlines, Gates 8-14 serving Caribbean Airlines, and the Tobago concourse serving flights to Tobago. The Club Caribbean lounge is located in the southern atrium, adjacent to Gates 8-14. The VIP Flyers lounge is located adjacent to Gate 1, just outside of the atrium. The Air Guard of Trinidad and Tobago is based at Piarco International Airport. During

1890-474: 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

1944-593: 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

1998-476: The head office of the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago . The North terminal is the main passenger terminal. It handles all the commercial passenger airline traffic. The north terminal has twenty-nine parking positions. In addition to passenger airlines, the airport also handles cargo traffic, general aviation, military and helicopter flights to the many oil rigs present offshore. The North Terminal

2052-482: 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

2106-860: The largest glass dome in the Caribbean The airport is also large enough to accommodate most international widebody airliners including the Boeing 747 , Airbus A330-300 , Boeing 777 , Boeing 767 and the Airbus A340 . Piarco International is capable of medium-sized aircraft including the Boeing 737 , Boeing 757 , Airbus A320 , Embraer 190 as well as small aircraft such as the DeHavilland Dash 8 , ATR 72 and other such turboprop aircraft. The airport layout consists of one main terminal building which includes three concourses. These concourses are not strictly identified as their name depicts but are divided into

2160-618: The major island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago . The hills range from the Chaguaramas peninsula on the west coast to Toco in the east. The Northern Range covers approximately twenty-five percent of the land area of Trinidad. The Northern Range runs from the Chaguaramas Peninsula in the west to Toco in the east. The eastern Northern Range (areas east of Arima ) remain most heavily forested. Portions west of Arima, especially

2214-612: 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

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2268-416: 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

2322-602: The presence of the Asa Wright Nature Centre in this valley. The hills rise abruptly from the lowlands of northern Trinidad (the so-called East–West Corridor ), but only the two tallest peaks, El Cerro del Aripo and El Tucuche top 900 m. The south-facing valleys run deep into the hills and support major rivers, such as the Caroni River, while the north-facing valleys are generally short and are drained by smaller streams. There are numerous streams and waterfalls in

2376-451: The recommended standards of ICAO and IATA. It also has a Flight Information Display System, which serves all airport users and a Baggage Information Display System. The terminal is a fully air-conditioned, smoke-free building, equipped to handle peak-hour passenger traffic of 1,500 processing passengers through a fully computerised immigration system. The Customs Hall has four baggage/cargo carousels. An administrative/operations building for

2430-501: 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

2484-494: The sod was turned for a $ 12M solar park at the airport. Piarco International Airport has two terminals. The south terminal was once the passenger terminal for the airport but has been renovated to serve as an executive terminal. It serves cargo flights, general aviation and helicopter flights. It has fourteen parking positions as well as light aircraft parking. In addition it has the Airports Administration Centre,

2538-413: The southern slopes and valleys, have been extensively deforested, since they lie immediately north of the most heavily populated parts of the island. At the western end of the Northern Range, the capital city, Port of Spain , climbs into the hills and the valleys are settled and largely deforested. The Arima Valley remains as the westernmost valley that is still primarily forested, in a large part due to

2592-497: 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

2646-504: 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

2700-529: 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

2754-485: The war ended. A major expansion of the airport, which included the construction of a new terminal building, and high-speed taxiways, was completed in 2001. The old airport building is currently used for cargo handling. Piarco International Airport is also the primary hub and operating base of Caribbean Airlines and was also the primary hub and operating base of the now defunct BWIA West Indies Airways and Air Caribbean . Briko Air Services and Aerial World Services operate

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2808-504: The week providing a bus connection between the airport and City Gate, Port of Spain. From City Gate, passengers can transit onto a bus to their final destination. Privately run taxi services are also available at the airport with fixed fares. Rental car services are also available at the airport's curbside arrivals hall, from both local and foreign rental companies. The airport contains a large ground-level car park with fixed daily, weekly and monthly fares, as well as secondary parking north of

2862-603: Was completed in 2013. In December 2019, the European Union awarded the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago a grant of 1.5 million euros to finance the installation of a large-scale solar panel system at the Piarco International Airport, where ground-mounted solar panels will be installed with an annual generation capacity of 1,443,830 kWh and potentially avoid 1,010 metric tons of CO 2 emissions annually. In 2021, 2022, and 2023 Piarco International Airport

2916-520: Was rated the best airport in the Caribbean by Skytrax, winning the honor over three consecutive years. In 2021, it was also named third best in the Caribbean and Latin American regions. At Piarco International Airport there are two high-speed taxiways and three connector taxiways (ICAO Code F for new large aircraft). This technologically state of the art airport has 82 ticket counter positions that operate under SITA's fibre-optic C.U.T.E. system which exceeds

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