George F. L. Charles Airport
| George F. L. Charles Airport | |||||||||||
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| IATA: SLU – ICAO: TLPC | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Operator | Saint Lucia Air & Sea Ports Authority | ||||||||||
| Location |  Castries, Saint Lucia |
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| Elevation AMSL | 22 ft / 7 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | ||||||||||
| Website | http://www.slaspa.com/ | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2012) | |||||||||||
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0.7%George F. L. Charles Airport (formerly Vigie Airport) (IATA: SLU, ICAO: TLPC) is the smaller of two airports in Saint Lucia, the other being Hewanorra International Airport. It is located 2 km (1.2 mi) north of Castries, the capital city. George F. L. Charles Airport is managed by the Saint Lucia Air and Seaports Authority (SLASPA). Its runway runs parallel to a pristine beach, Vigie Beach, which is a popular tourist attraction.
History
George F. L. Charles Airport was renamed on 4 August 1997 in honor of Saint Lucia politician Sir George Frederick Lawrence Charles (1916–2004).[2]
Traffic
On average, George F. L. Charles Airport handles 32,000 flights per year carrying 394,000 passengers. Most of the airlines operate flights primarily with turboprop aircraft such as the ATR 72-500 or de Havilland Canada Dash 8 DHC-8-300. Smaller air carriers also operate flights with prop aircraft.
The airfield currently does not have any scheduled jet service; however, British West Indies Airways (BWIA) did operate flights with McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jetliners into the airport in the past before this airline became Caribbean Airlines. Caribair (Puerto Rico) also formerly operated jet service from the airfield with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jetliners while this airline was in existence. Currently, jet service to this airport is still rarely seen, and are mostly Bombardier Challenger 300 or Cessna Citation business jet aircraft. All airline jet service into St. Lucia including transatlantic international flights are currently operated via the Hewanorra International Airport located on the southeast portion of the island.
Airlines
The following airlines fly passenger services to George F. L. Charles Airport:
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air Antilles | Fort-de-France |
| Air Caraïbes | Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre |
| Air France operated by Air Antilles |
Seasonal: Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre |
| Caribbean Airlines | Port of Spain |
| Caricom Airways | Paramaribo |
| Corsair operated by Air Antilles |
Seasonal: Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre |
| Hummingbird Air | St. Croix |
| LIAT | Antigua, Barbados, Douglas–Charles Hall, Fort-de-France, Port of Spain, Saint Kitts, Sint Maarten, Saint Vincent |
Charter
Other facilities
The airport houses the George Charles Outstation of the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority.,[3] General Aviation Services, and the Island Flyers Club.
The airport offers an RNAV, and NDB approach for only runway 9, landings on runway 27 are strictly visual.
References
- ↑ Airport information for TLPC at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "George Charles Oustation." Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority Retrieved on 23 December 2012.
