A public viewing area is a space set aside for members of the public to safely view sites of interest, such as airports, railroads, construction sites or other facilities. Sometimes they are known as visitor centers or interpretive sites.
In locations that have inherent dangers and would not normally be accessible to the public, viewing areas provide a way to satiate the public curiosity without exposing inordinate risk. Many sites contain descriptive signs, viewing pavilions, picnic facilities, toilets, radio receivers and brochures.
Many lock and dam facilities along the various rivers in the US have public viewing areas, including:
These are, by necessity, often temporary in nature. Harkening back to the "knotholes" in fences used by passersby to view the progress of a site, some large projects provide a glimpse into the construction by intentionally placing viewing ports in fences, often geared toward selling space in the final project.
Some stadiums provide locations where the public can view games in progress without entering the stadium or paying for an admission. AT&T Park in San Francisco, California, home of the San Francisco Giants has such an area.
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off and to land or a helipad, and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminals, to maintain and monitor aircraft. Larger airports may have airport aprons, taxiway bridges, air traffic control centres, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. In some countries, the US in particular, airports also typically have one or more fixed-base operators, serving general aviation.
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers (people) who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC worldwide is to prevent collisions, organise and expedite the flow of traffic in the air, and provide information and other support for pilots.
Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport is an international airport serving the area of Barranquilla, the capital city of the Atlántico department in Colombia. The airport is located in the suburban municipality of Soledad. It owes its name to one of the pioneers of Colombian aviation, Ernesto Cortissoz.
Norfolk International Airport is seven miles (11 km) northeast of downtown Norfolk, an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is owned and operated by the Norfolk Airport Authority: a bureau under the municipal government. The airport serves the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of southeast Virginia as well as northeast North Carolina. Norfolk International currently flies to one destination outside of the United States via Frontier Airlines’ service to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Palm Beach International Airport is a public airport in Palm Beach County, Florida, located just west of the city of West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, for which it serves as the primary airport. It is also the primary airport for most of Palm Beach County, serving the suburbs and cities of Wellington, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, and Palm Beach Gardens. It is the third busiest airport in the Miami metropolitan area after Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. The airport is operated by Palm Beach County's Department of Airports. Road access to the airport is direct from I-95, Southern Boulevard, and Congress Avenue. The airport is bordered on the west by Military Trail.
Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, formerly Birmingham Municipal Airport and later Birmingham International Airport, is a civil-military airport serving Birmingham, Alabama. The airport also provides scheduled airline service for the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa metropolitan areas. It is located in Jefferson County, five miles northeast of Downtown Birmingham, near the interchange of Interstates 20 and 59.
Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport is a public use airport located 1.15 miles north of the central business district of Bullhead City, in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Mohave County. The airport is across the Colorado River and one block away from Laughlin, Nevada. Many of the rooms at Laughlin's casino-hotels offer a view of the airport. It was named 2011 Airport of the Year by the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Region of Waterloo International Airport or Kitchener/Waterloo Airport is an international airport serving the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Woolwich, Ontario, Canada, west of Toronto. It has year round daily flights to Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Calgary, Orlando, Halifax, Fort Lauderdale and Kelowna through Flair Airlines and WestJet. It also has seasonal flights to Cancun through Sunwing Airlines and Flair Airlines. In 2022, the airport ranked seventh-busiest in Canada by total aircraft movements and twentieth-busiest by passenger traffic.
Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport is a general aviation airport located within the city limits of Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County, Florida, United States, five miles (8.0 km) north of downtown Fort Lauderdale. It is a division of the Transportation and Mobility Department of the City of Fort Lauderdale.
Sendai Airport is an international airport located in the city of Natori, Miyagi, 13.6 km (8.5 mi) south southeast of Sendai metropolis, Sendai, Japan. The airport is alternatively referred to as Sendai International Airport. Operations at Sendai consist primarily of domestic flights to other airports in Japan, with a handful of flights to cities in the Far East.
Shah Amanat International Airport, Chattogram is an international airport serving Bangladesh's southeastern port city of Chittagong. Operated and maintained by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, it is the second-largest international airport in Bangladesh after Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is used by the Bangladesh Air Force as a part of 'BAF Zahurul Haq Base'. It was formerly known as MA Hannan International Airport, named after Awami League politician M. A. Hannan, but was renamed on 2 April 2005 by the Government of Bangladesh, after an 18th-century Islamic saint, Shah Amanat. It is capable of annually handling 1.5 million passengers and 6,000 tonnes of cargo. It also serves as a base for the Arirang Flying School.
The airport apron, apron, flight line, or ramp is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, boarded, or maintained. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on vehicles, it is typically more accessible to users than the runway or taxiway. However, the apron is not usually open to the general public, and a permit may be required to gain access. An apron's designated areas for aircraft parking are called aircraft stands.
Goulburn Airport is a general aviation airport located 7 km (4.3 mi) south of Goulburn, New South Wales. Throughout the 1990s, suggestions were put forward to have Goulburn airport as a secondary international airport to service Sydney.
Ashgabat International Airport, formerly known as Saparmyrat Türkmenbaşy International Airport, is one of five international airports in Turkmenistan. It is located within the city limits of Ashgabat (Ashkhabad). The old airport, with its air traffic control tower and a 3,700-metre-long (12,000 ft) precision approach runway (12L-30R), opened in 1994 and was named after the country's first president, Saparmyrat Niyazov. The new airport terminal opened in September 2016, after being completely redesigned and rebuilt and after the south runway was moved and lengthened to parallel the north runway.
Kalibo International Airport is an international airport that serves the general area of Kalibo, the capital of the province of Aklan in the Philippines, and is one of two airports serving Boracay, the other being Godofredo P. Ramos Airport in the municipality of Malay. It is the fastest growing airport in the Philippines in terms of passenger traffic with more than 50% growth in 2010, and 2nd fastest for seats offered for June 2014 over the corresponding month of the previous year (20%). The airport is classified as an international airport by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, a body of the Department of Transportation responsible for the operations of all airports in the Philippines except major international airports.
Tulsa Riverside Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located five nautical miles south of the central business district of Tulsa, a city in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States. The facility was known as Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. Airport for several decades but was formally renamed in January 2022 to reduce confusion with another airport in Oklahoma. In the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2021-2025, Riverside is classed as a national-level nonprimary airport, and a reliever airport for Tulsa International. National nonprimary airports are those that serve primarily general aviation (GA) users in metropolitan areas near major business centers, and have high traffic including many jets and multi-engine aircraft.
In aviation, a non-towered airport is an airport without a control tower, or air traffic control (ATC) unit. The vast majority of the world's airports are non-towered. In the United States, there are close to 20,000 non-towered airports compared to approximately 500 airports with control towers. Airports with a control tower without 24/7 ATC service follow non-towered airport procedures when the tower is closed but the airport remains open, for example at night.
Tuticorin Airport is a domestic airport serving Thoothukudi and its adjoining districts of Thoothukkudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, and Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu. It is located at Vagaikulam, 15.6 km (9.7 mi) west of the city centre, on National Highway 7A. The airport was ISO 9001:2015 quality certified on 13 April 2018. It is the fifth busiest airport in Tamil Nadu after Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, and Madurai airports.
L'Espérance Airport, also known as Grand Case Airport, is a public use airport located in Grand Case, on the French side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. The airport is mainly used for flights by regional passenger aircraft (ATR) flying to Guadeloupe and Saint Barth, as well as used by private aircraft. It is the second and smaller airport of Saint Maarten, after Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) which is located on the Dutch side of the island.
Skydive Chicago Airport is a privately owned, public use airport located four miles northeast of Ottawa, Illinois. The airport is the centerpiece of the Skydive Chicago Resort. Camping, RV parking, and lodging are available, as is a bar, lounge, observation area, and café.