Bangor International Airport

Bangor International Airport
File:BGR Airport Logo.jpg
IATA: BGR ICAO: KBGR
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	City of Bangor
Serves	Bangor, Maine
Elevation AMSL	192 ft / 59 m
Coordinates	44°48′26″N 068°49′41″W
Website	www.flybangor.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 15/33 11,440 3,487 Asphalt

Bangor International Airport (IATA: BGR, ICAO: KBGR) is a public airport located 3 miles (5 km) west in the city of Bangor, in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. It is owned and operated by the City of Bangor and was formerly Dow Air Force Base. The airport possesses a single runway that is 11,439 ft (3486 m) long and 200 ft (60 m) wide. Bangor International Airport is also the home of an Air National Guard base.

The airport owes its prosperity to its location on the Great Circle Route, or major air corridor, between Europe and the East Coast of the United States. The skies above Bangor are perenially crisscrossed by the contrails of intercontinental jet flights, and the airport seeks to service a portion of this traffic. The 'international' in the airport's name thus doesn't refer to its proximity to Canada (to which is has no regular flights), but its role in transatlantic commerce.

Bangor International is operated as an "enterprise fund", which means that the expense of operating it comes from airport revenue. Revenues are generated by air service operations, resident aviation related industrial companies, real estate, cargo, international charter flights, and corporate/general aviation traffic. The airport serves the residents of central, eastern, and northern Maine as well as parts of Canada. BGR is the airport's official designation. The airport is one of three international airports in the state of Maine.

History

Bangor International Airport began as "Godfrey Field" in 1927, on land owned by local attorney Edward Rawson Godfrey (1877-1958). Regular air passenger service to Portland and Boston was begun in 1931 by Boston-Maine Airways, owned by the Boston and Maine and Bangor and Aroostook railroads, but under contract to Pan American, which was interested in the airport as one stop on its planned intercontinental air route between the US and Europe. In 1940 Boston-Maine became Northeast Airlines, which eventually merged with Delta Airlines in 1972. Amelia Earhart was a celebrity pilot on some of the earliest flights for Boston-Maine Airways in the 1930s. The airport was equipped with floodlights for night flights as early as 1937.

Just prior to the Second World War Godfrey Field was taken over by the US Army Air Corps and became the Bangor Army Air Field. Its mission was to serve as an embarkation point for military aircraft flying to Europe on the Great Circle Route. The name was changed to Dow Army Field in 1942, and in 1947, when the newly formed US Air Force took control, it became Dow Air Force Base. In 1958 the longest runway east of the Mississippi was constructed at Dow in order to accommodate B-52 bombers — the same runway that accommodates jet passenger aircraft today. In addition to strategic bombers, Dow was home to the 101st Fighter Wing which, converted to a refueling wing, still shares space with the airport today, flying predominantly Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. Some of the other military aircraft that regularly use the airport are McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender's and Boeing C-17 Globemasters.

Dow was closed in 1968 but the base was purchased by the city and reopened the following year as Bangor International Airport. From the 1970s into the 1990s the airport attracted 3,000-5,000 commercial flights a year, mostly charter jetliners flying between Europe and the West Coast of the United States, or the Carribean and Mexico. Bangor was a logical refueling stop, and as a US Port of Entry, passengers could go through customs and immigration checks while their plane was being serviced. Travelers from every part of the world mingled in the airport lounge - from the French & Belgian contingents of the Elvis Presley Fan Club on their way to Memphis, to President Jose Lopez Portillo of Mexico on his way to Moscow with members of his military staff. Laker Airways, World Airways, Lot Polish Airlines, Aeromexico, British Airways, Balair, Condor Airlines, LTU International, Capitol International Airways, Aeroflot and Pan American were a few of the companies whose livery became common in the skies above Bangor. Finnair briefly used Bangor as a hub for regularly-scheduled daily flights.

Erwin Kreuz, a 50-year-old German brewery-worker on his way to San Francisco, stepped off a refueling charter-flight in 1977 mistakenly believing he had reached his destination. Speaking no English, he spent four frustrating days in Bangor looking for San Francisco landmarks before realizing he was not in California. When his story made local and then national news, Bangorians were so delighted with his error that he received the 'key to the city', met the Governor of Maine, was made an honorary member of the Penobscot Indian tribe, and was even given a gift of local land. The San Francisco Chronicle paid his way to California, where he was similarly feted, and he was invited back to Bangor the following year to help open the Bangor Mall.

In Oct. 1969 a Trans World Airlines plane which had been hijacked in California refueled in Bangor on its was to Rome, where the hijacker was captured. In Oct. 1995 Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chermomyrdin held a brief summit at the airport to discuss economic cooperation.

Bangor has been the port of entry for over half a million servicemen and women returning from the First and Second Gulf Wars and the action in Bosnia on military charters. Starting in 1991, a combination of local veteran's groups and interested citizens formed themselves into troop greeters to avoid the situation of the Vietnam War, when soldiers returned without ceremony or greeting. The civilian-driven 'ceremony of return' in Bangor has been well-organized and often ebullient. In 2006, former president Bill Clinton spontaneously joined the line of troop-greeters when his private plane made a refueling stop.

Diversion destination

Aerial view of Bangor International Airport

Bangor is the first major American airport encountered by airliners approaching the United States from the east as well as the last major airport for airliners heading towards Europe. Coupled with a runway that is more than two miles (3.2 km) long and an uncluttered airspace, the airport has been a favorite for airplanes diverted due to adverse weather conditions at the destination airport, bomb threats, or the presence of unruly passengers on-board.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bangor has also been used as a diversion point for airplanes approaching the United States from Europe which which may contain passengers on the Transportation Security Administration's No Fly List. One notable example was the diversion of singer Cat Stevens (now Usuf Islam) and his daughter, in September 2004.

In May 2005, Bangor handled two such flights in the span of four hours. A Britannia Airways Boeing 767, flying from Manchester, England to New Orleans, Louisiana, landed at Bangor on a Friday about noon. Four hours later, a British Airways Boeing 747, flying from London Heathrow Airport to Mexico City, did the same. Subsequent changes to the methodology of no-fly lists and enforcement by the airlines have rendered future such occurrences less probable.

Transatlantic flights are also sometimes diverted to Bangor when they experience mechanical trouble. Among those who've made unscheduled stops for that reason are former President George Bush and Colin Powell, and actors Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford.

Current service

Over 50 scheduled flights per day on five major domestic airlines give Bangor non-stop connections with Boston, Newark, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Orlando, and (seasonally) New York's LaGuardia Airport and Minneapolis.

Since the Second Gulf War, Bangor has also been busy with transcontinental and transatlantic military charter flights making refueling stops. Once in Bangor, planes will often disembark military passengers, refuel, reload the troops, and take off to air bases elsewhere in the U.S. or overseas.

The airport has undergone a significant evolution in domestic air service. Passenger counts went from 369,000 in 2001 to over 480,000 in 2005, ending 2005 with a 25% increase over the previous 5 years. A recent upgrading of airport marketing resources and strategies plays a major role in the current success.

In June of 2006, the airport introduced nonstop Delta service to Atlanta, which was oversold on the first flight. Atlanta is the third new destination added since 2003. In November 2007, the airport celebrated the inaugural flight of its new low cost carrier Allegiant Air.

Bangor has an excellent safety record, there having been no fatal accidents associated with commercial service at the airport since it was organized as a municipal corporation in 1969.

Airlines and destinations

• Allegiant Air (Orlando-Sanford)
• Continental Airlines
  • Continental Express operated by ExpressJet Airlines (Newark)
• Delta Air Lines
  • Delta Connection operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (Atlanta)
  • Delta Connection operated by Comair (Boston,Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky)
  • Delta Connection operated by Comair (New York-JFK) [seasonal]

• Northwest Airlines
  • Northwest Airlink operated by Pinnacle Airlines (Minneapolis/St. Paul) [seasonal]
  • Northwest Airlink operated by Mesaba Airlines (Detroit)
• US Airways
  • US Airways Express operated by Air Wisconsin (Philadelphia)
  • US Airways Express operated by Chautauqua Airlines (New York-LaGuardia) [seasonal]
  • US Airways Express Operated by Republic Airlines (Philladelphia)

International arrivals (Troop and/or charter planes)

• ATA Airlines (Various)
• Miami Air (Various)
• Omni Air Express (Various)
• World Airways (Various)
• North American Airlines (Various)

Ground transportation

Bangor International Airport is located off I-95. The airport is served by local taxi and limousine services as well as various rental car companies. The BAT Community Connector provides bus service between the airport and the surrounding region.

In fiction

Bangor International Airport was the main ground setting for Stephen King's novella The Langoliers, which was made into a two-part television mini-series.

References

• Goo, Sara Kehaulani (2004-10-17). Bangor Is Used to Surprise Landings. Washington Post. May 22, 2005.
• Bangor ANGB (2005-04-26). GlobalSecurity.org. May 23, 2005.
• FlyBangor.com.
• Maine airport plays key role for no-fly diverted flights (2005-05-20). USA Today. May 22, 2005.
• Zezima, Katie (2006-09-20). "Saying Thank You to Those Who Answered the Call of Duty". Bangor Journal. New York Times. Retrieved 2006-09-20.

BIA Terminal, hotel, and support buildings from far side of field

External links

• Bangor International Airport (official site)
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KBGR
  • ASN accident history for BGR
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KBGR
  • FAA current BGR delay information