Christmas Island Airport (IATA: XCH, ICAO: YPXM) is an airport located on Christmas Island, a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. The island is located 2,600 km (1,600 mi) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, 500 km (310 mi) south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and 975 km (606 mi) east-northeast of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
Although located on Australian territory, the airport is classified as a Category 4 international airport for all arrivals, including those from Australia. It is owned by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, but is operated under contract by Toll Remote Logistics. The Government's decision to contract its airport operations in 2004 resulted in a reduction of the work force, which caused major industrial upheaval on a local basis, seeing Forte Airport Management, the contractor at the time, forced to defend in the Industrial Relations Commission its right to recruit staff under an Australian Workplace Agreement.
Read more about Christmas Island Airport: History, Facilities, Airlines and Destinations, Traffic, Statistics
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“The eleventh day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Eleven ladies dancing,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 76–78)
“I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, confronted for a moment by this band of Island girls; their stiffness, formality, and affectation contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens. It would be the Venus de’ Medici placed beside a milliner’s doll.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“It was like taking a beloved person to the airport and returning to an empty house. I miss the people. I miss the world.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)