Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (IATA: AZA, ICAO: KIWA, FAA LID: IWA), formerly Williams Gateway Airport (1994–2008) and Williams Air Force Base (1941–1993), is a commercial airport located in the southeastern area of the city of Mesa, Arizona, and 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The airport is owned and operated by the Williams Gateway Airport Authority. It serves as a focus city for Allegiant Air. The airport authority is governed by a five member board, composed of the mayors and tribal governor of the town of Gilbert, city of Mesa, town of Queen Creek, Gila River Indian Community and the city of Phoenix.
According to the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2007–2011, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway was designated as a reliever airport, which is a general aviation airport that may be used to relieve congestion at a large commercial service airport. Allegiant Air began offering scheduled commercial service from this airport in October 2007. As per Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport records, the airport had 1,377,205 passenger boardings (or enplanements) in the calendar year 2012, a 44% increase over the previous year.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is assigned IWA by the FAA and AZA by the IATA (which assigned IWA to Yuzhny Airport in Ivanovo, Russia). The airport's former IATA code was CHD.
Read more about Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport: History, Facilities and Aircraft, The Future, Airlines and Destinations, Statistics, Board of Directors, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words gateway and/or airport:
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)
“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)