Lynden Pindling International Airport , formerly known as Nassau International Airport, is the largest airport in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

and the largest international gateway into the country. It is a major hub for Bahamasair,

Western Air Western Air is a privately owned airline in The Bahamas established in 2001. Western Air is headquartered at the San Andros International Airport on Andros Island, Bahamas. The airline conducts a minimum of 40 flights daily throughout the Bahama ...

, and Pineapple Air. the airport is located in western New Providence island near the capital city of Nassau. The airport is named after

Lynden Pindling Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, NH, KCMG, PC, JP (22 March 193026 August 2000) was a Bahamian politician who is regarded as the "Father of the Nation" of the Bahamas, having led it to majority rule on 10 January 1967 and to independence on 10 Ju ...

, the first prime minister of the Bahamas.

History

Early years

Lyndon_Pindling_International_Airport,_Nassau_(1976)

In August 1942, No. 111 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF was established at Nassau Airport to train general reconnaissance crews using the North American Mitchell and Consolidated Liberators. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, on 30 December 1942, the airport was named Windsor Field (after the

Duke of Windsor Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, ...

) and became a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

(RAF) station. Windsor Field was the second airport in The Bahamas and was used for delivery flights of US-built fighter and bomber aircraft such as the

Boeing B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

and

Consolidated B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

bombers, and the

Curtiss P-40 The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and ...

fighter from the aircraft manufacturers to the North African and European theaters. It was also a base station for

Consolidated Liberator I Consolidated Liberator I was the service name of the first Consolidated B-24 Liberator four-engined bombers to see use with the Royal Air Force (RAF). A small number of B-24s were purchased for the RAF but assessment showed that they were not ...

and Mitchell patrol bombers combating the German Navy's

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

threat. 111 OTU returned to the UK in August"Mitchells: The North American Mitchell in Royal Air Force service." ''Aeromilitaria'' (

Air-Britain Air-Britain, traditionally sub-titled "The International Association of Aviation Enthusiasts", is a non-profit aviation society founded in July 1948. As from 2015, it is constituted as a British charitable trust and book publisher. History Air-Brit ...

Historians), Issue 2, 1978, pp. 41–48. or September 1945. (National Archives) and was disbanded. After the

, on 1 June 1946, the RAF withdrew from Windsor Field and it reverted to civilian use. Oakes Field (now Thomas Robinson Stadium) remained as the main airport in the Bahamas due to its close proximity to downtown Nassau. At the Regional Caribbean Conference of the International Civil Aviation Organization held in Washington in September, 1946, Oakes Field was recommended for designation as a long range regular airport. Oakes International Airport was kept in operation until midnight, 1 November 1957, when Nassau International Airport at Windsor Field was brought into full operation. The name of the airport was officially changed on 6 July 2006 in honour of The Rt Hon. Sir Lynden Pindling (22 March 1929 – 25 August 2000), first

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

(1967 – 1992). Sir Lynden is recognized as the Father of the Nation, having led the

Majority rule Majority rule is a principle that means the decision-making power belongs to the group that has the most members. In politics, majority rule requires the deciding vote to have majority, that is, more than half the votes. It is the binary deci ...

in 1967 as well as full Independence from the United Kingdom within the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

six years later.

Expansion and renovations

With more than 3 million passengers and over 80,000 takeoffs and landings, the airport had reached its capacity by 2011 and its facilities were outdated and insufficient. In 2006, Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) entered a 10-year management agreement with YVR Airport Services Ltd. (YVRAS), the commercial arm of Vancouver Airport Authority, to manage, operate and redevelop the airport. The redevelopment updated the airport facilities to international standards and expanded terminal capacity. The work was carried out in three stages. The first stage included the design and construction of a new U.S Departures Terminal, at a cost of $198.1 million. Stage 2 consisted of the complete renovation of the current U.S terminal, to serve as the new U.S/International Arrivals Terminal, with a budget of $127.9 million. Stage 3 involved the design and construction of a new domestic arrivals and departures terminal, as well as an International Departures Terminal at the location of the existing International Arrivals Hall. This last stage cost $83.5 million. The financing had to be restructured and therefore slightly delayed because of the turmoil on financial markets in the wake of the

Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, was the climax of the subprime mortgage crisis. After the financial services firm was notified of a pending credit downgrade due to its heavy position in subprime mortgages, the Federal ...

. Nevertheless, the first stage of the project was completed in March 2011. The $409.5 million invested resulted in of terminal space, a 21% increase, as well as the ability to accommodate 50% more passengers. The third and final phase of the project was completed in October 2013. The airport now features 10

jet bridge A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...

capable gates. Other features include four gates capable of taking Boeing 747-sized aircraft and one capable of handling the Airbus A380, the world's largest airliner. An additional 1 million square feet of airport operating surface has been added. There are also 24 new retail outlets and 16 bars and lounges located across the sprawling terminal complex. The airport handled 3.2 million passengers in 2008; and it is expected that the expansion will allow for roughly 5.2 million passengers to be processed by 2020, according to NAD. The airport contains US Border preclearance facilities allowing all US flights to operate as domestic flights upon arrival at their destination. In February 2015, the US Border Preclearance Facility installed 20 Automated Passenger Control (APC) self serve kiosks to improve the efficiency of passenger processing for US bound travelers.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Operations

The airport had the highest Turnaround Costs (landing, boarding bridge, passenger facility charge, security, measured on an

Airbus 320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

) of Latin American airports in 2009.

References

17. File: https://nassaulpia.com/lpia-ends-2019-with-a-record-4-1-million-passengers-and-revenue-growth File: https://nassaulpia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/NAD-2019-Annual-Report_.pdf

External links

Official website
* * {{authority control Buildings and structures in Nassau, Bahamas Airports in the Bahamas Airports with United States border preclearance Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command on Atlantic Ocean islands Space Shuttle Emergency Landing Sites