Foula Airfield

Last updated

Foula Airfield
Foula Airfield.jpg
Summary
OwnerFoula Airstrip Trust [1]
Serves Foula, Shetland Islands
Elevation  AMSL 150 ft / 46 m
Coordinates 60°07′18″N2°03′12″W / 60.12167°N 2.05333°W / 60.12167; -2.05333
Website http://www.shetland.gov.uk/transport/internal_air.asp
Map
Shetland UK location map.svg
Airplane silhouette.svg
FOA
Location in Shetland
Runways
Direction LengthSurface
ftm
18/36 1,252382

Foula Airfield( IATA : FOA) is an airfield located on the remote island of Foula, part of the Shetland Islands in the north of Scotland.

Contents

History

The airstrip opened in the 1970s and is run by the Foula Airstrip Trust, Scottish charity number SC021728. [2] Foula is also served by a ferry service running three times a week but it is claimed that tourists prefer the short flight to the 135 minute ferry crossing.[ citation needed ] Also, the ferry is based on Foula, so a day trip to the island is only possible by air. The flights are used to transport essentials such as medical prescriptions to the island, which has a population of 38. [1] [3]

The airfield also provides the island's only public toilet and telephone. [4] [5]

Airline and destination

Foula is served by a PSO service from Tingwall Airport run by Airtask Group and funded by Shetland Islands Council. [6] [7] The service uses a Britten Norman Islander aircraft and runs 7 times a week in winter [8] and 13 times a week in summer, [9] with a flying time of 15 minutes. [3] Flights are heavily weather dependent due to fog and crosswind. [4]

AirlinesDestinations
Directflight Lerwick

Accidents and incidents

In June 2014 flights were suspended as it was believed that the airfield's insurance was not suitable following the closure of the island's fire station in 2012. [3] [10] Flights have since resumed.


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Isle</span> Island in Shetland, Scotland

Fair Isle, sometimes Fairisle, is the southernmost Shetland island, situated roughly 38km from the Shetland Mainland and about 43km from North Ronaldsay. The entire archipelago is located off of the northernmost coast of Scotland, in the North Sea. As the most remote inhabited island within the United Kingdom, Fair Isle is known for its wild bird observatory, interesting historic shipwrecks, Scottish and Shetland-style traditional music, and its traditional style of knitting. The island has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shetland</span> Archipelago in the Northern Atlantic

Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh Airport</span> Airport in Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2019, handling over 14.7 million passengers. It was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by total passengers in 2019. It is located 5 NM west of the city centre, just off the M8 and M9 motorways. It is owned and operated by Global Infrastructure Partners, which is also a minority shareholder of Gatwick Airport. The airport has one runway and one passenger terminal and employs about 2,500 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lerwick</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Lerwick is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foula</span> Island of the Shetland Islands, Scotland

Foula, located in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland, is one of the United Kingdom's most remote permanently inhabited islands. Owned since the turn of the 20th century by the Holbourn family, the island was the location for the film The Edge of the World (1937). The liner RMS Oceanic was wrecked on the nearby Shaalds of Foula in 1914. The island has a post office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whalsay</span>

Whalsay is the sixth largest of the Shetland Islands in the north of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Isles</span> Pair of archipelagos near Scotland

The Northern Isles are a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and highly influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney. There are a total of 36 inhabited islands, with the fertile agricultural islands of Orkney contrasting with the more rugged Shetland islands to the north, where the economy is more dependent on fishing and the oil wealth of the surrounding seas. Both archipelagos have a developing renewable energy industry. They share a common Pictish and Norse history, and were part of the Kingdom of Norway before being absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 15th century. The islands played a significant naval role during the world wars of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumburgh Airport</span> Shetlands airport

Sumburgh Airport is the main airport serving Shetland in Scotland. It is located on the southern tip of the mainland, in the parish of Dunrossness, 17 NM south of Lerwick. The airport is owned by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) and served by Loganair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruray</span>

Bruray is one of the three Out Skerries islands of Shetland, and contains Scotland's most easterly settlement.

Tingwall Airport, also known as Lerwick/Tingwall Airport, is located in the Tingwall valley, near the village of Gott, 4 NM northwest of Lerwick in Mainland, Shetland, Scotland. Although it is the nearest airport to Lerwick, it is not Shetland's main airport, which is Sumburgh, rather, it is Shetland's inter-island flight hub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Isle Airport</span> Airport on Fair Isle, Scotland

Fair Isle Airport, is a small airport located in Fair Isle, Shetland, Scotland. It is owned by the National Trust for Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oban Airport</span> Airport in North Connel, Argyll and Bute

Oban Airport is located 5 nautical miles northeast of Oban, near the village of North Connel, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Operated by Argyll and Bute council, it has a CAA licence as a commercial airport following recent upgrading. Currently Hebridean Air Services is the only airline based at Oban. It operates scheduled flights on two routes, to the Isles of Colonsay and Islay return and to the Isles of Coll and Tiree return.

Air ambulance services in the United Kingdom provide emergency medical functions, patient transport between specialist centres, or medical repatriation. Services are provided by a mixture of organisations, operating either helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft. All emergency air ambulance helicopters in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are operated by charities, while Scotland has one charity service in addition to its two NHS-funded helicopters. Fixed-wing air ambulances, used for patient transport, may be government or privately operated. Air ambulance helicopters are complemented by Coastguard SAR helicopters.

Shetland Islands Council Ferries is a company operating inter-island ferry services in Shetland, a subarctic archipelago off the northeast coast of Scotland. The company operates services across 10 of the Shetland islands.

Okiwi Airfield, also called Okiwi Station Airfield, is a small airfield located near the village of Ōkiwi on Great Barrier Island, New Zealand. It has a single bitumen runway, and a small terminal in the form of a wooden hut. The airfield is owned by Auckland Council and is used for general aviation.

ForsterAirport is a private Australian airfield located on Wallis Island, in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales. The island, which sits within Wallis Lake is not connected by road to any of the surrounding communities and is only accessible by boat or the airport itself. There are currently no commercial or scheduled flights servicing it. The airport's single runway is 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) long with a mixed grass/gravel surface.

Directflight Limited, trading as Airtask Group, is a British airline based in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England and operating flights mainly in the Shetland Islands. It is a subsidiary of Airtask Group Ltd. Directflight (Scotland) Limited was dissolved on 12 July 2013 and merged into Directflight Limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papa Stour Airstrip</span> Airport in Papa Stour

Papa Stour Airstrip is a small airstrip in the village of Biggings on the island of Papa Stour. Shetland, Scotland.

Highland Airways Limited was established in Inverness, Scotland, by Ted Fresson in 1933 to provide passenger and freight air services between the Scottish mainland and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland, and between their islands. The airline was taken over by Scottish Airways, absorbed by British European Airways in 1947.

Scottish Airways was an airline serving most of Scotland, especially the Highlands and Islands. It was active from 1937 until 1947, when it was merged into British European Airways.

References

  1. 1 2 Griffiths, Rosalind (20 June 2014). "Foula flights halted over lack of fire cover". Shetland Times.
  2. "Foula Airstrip (Number 2) Trust, SC021728". www.oscr.org.uk. Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator . Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "Foula". Visit Shetland.
  4. 1 2 "Foula" (PDF). Shetland Heritage.
  5. "General Information". Foula Heritage. Archived from the original on 30 October 2017.
  6. "Shetland Islands Inter Island Air Service". Airtask Group.
  7. "Roads, Transport and Parking > Transport > Tingwall Airport". shetland.gov.uk. Shetland Island Council. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  8. "Winter timetable" (PDF).
  9. "Summer Timetable" (PDF).
  10. Bevington, Pete (19 June 2014). "Foula and Skerries flights suspended". Shetland News. Retrieved 2 January 2022.