History
The airfield began life as Kindley Field, a joint US Army Air Forces (USAAF)/Royal Air Force (RAF) base, during the Second World War. The RAF forces in Bermuda were withdrawn at the end of the War. The local RAF Commander, however, stayed on, on loan to the Bermuda Government, and converted the RAF facilities into the Civil Air Terminal, operated by the local government. When the pre-War airport, a flying boat facility on Darrell's Island, closed in 1948, Bermuda's air routes were taken over by land planes operating through the airfield, which by then was operated by the United States Air Force, as Kindley Air Force Base. In 1970, the field was transferred to the United States Navy, which operated it as US Naval Air Station, Bermuda until 1995 when the US Navy terminated its 99-year lease and the field was transferred to the Bermuda Government, which now operates the airport as part of the Ministry of Tourism & Transport.
The US Navy was not required to meet international civil air standards, despite the operation of civil airlines to the base. The Bermuda Government, however, was required to meet these standards very quickly on assuming control, and at some expense. This involved changes to the airfield lighting, erecting new fences, levelling anything over a certain height and within a certain distance of the runway (including the former base commander's residence, and the hill it stood on), and other changes.
The airport is located at the west of St. David's Island, and to the south of Ferry Reach. This places it in the East End of the archipelago, several miles from the current capital, Hamilton.
The airfield was constructed between 1941 and 1943 by levelling Longbird Island and several smaller islands, and filling in the waterways between them and St. David's Island. This created a landmass contiguous with St. David's, and the airfield is typically described as being in, or on, St. David's. The field originally had three runways, but only the longest is still in use. One of the others, most of which lies on a narrow peninsula, which juts into Castle Harbour, has been blocked by munitions bunkers that were built at the harbour end. There are further bunkers on the west side of the peninsula, and the US Navy had referred to the area as the Weapons Pier. Airport workers, today, refer to it as The Finger. The other former runway is used today as a taxiway to connect aprons one and two to the active runway, and the taxiway which parallels it. This was last used as a runway in 1978. It has its own former taxiway paralleling it, which now serves as a dispersal area for visiting aircraft.
On 16 April 2007, the airport was formally renamed "L.F. Wade International Airport" in honour of L. Frederick Wade, father of L. Frederick Wade, Jr. L. Frederick Wade was a leader of the incumbent governing party (the Progressive Labour Party) when it was in opposition. The name was criticised by the opposition United Bermuda Party for being politically biased.
Read more about this topic: L.F. Wade International Airport
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