Centreburg Gateway International Airport

Centreburg Gateway International Airport (IATA:CGW, ICAO:CCTB) is the primary international airport serving Centreburg, and is also the main international gateway into Corraile. Located some 20km away from the Centreburg Downtown Region, it is also the largest international airports in North America, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North America (36,229,010 international passengers in 2010), and is also one of the largest freight centres in North America. In 2010, the airport handled over 46 million passengers, making it the 14th busiest airport in the world.In the last few years it has made extensive improvements to terminals, roadways and inter-terminal transportation.

Built in the late 1960s to alleviate congestion in the city's old Westlane Airport, the airport was officially inaugurated on June 7, 1971, when the airport received it's first 747, Pan Am Clipper 226 from John F. Kennedy International Airport. Since then, the airport has become a major hub for both Corrailite and foreign carriers alike, who use the airport as a transit point for long-distance transatlantic flights.

Centreburg Gateway has three passenger terminals with a total annual handling capacity of 70 million passengers. Terminal 1 opened in 1971, followed by Terminal 2 in 1987 and Terminal 3 in 2012. Plans for a fourth terminal are currently in the pipeline, and if approved, will likely be opened in 2020.

Inception
Ever since the end of World War II, Centreburg was served by Westlane Airport, which was the largest airport in the Centreburg area at the time. However, due to its proximity to both urban areas and the sea, it was unable to expand its facilities to cope with the increasing demands of the commercial aviation sector - the number of passengers passing through the airport grew at an average rate of 15% per year between 1955 and 1965, while aircraft serving the airport also became increasingly larger in size. However, the airport's relatively short runways then, at approximately 1600m (5249ft), prevented larger jet aircraft from landing at the airport without strict weight restrictions. Until the introduction of short-field capable jets such as the Boeing 727 and Douglas DC-9, the only jet service provided at the airport was the regular Freedo-Colganston-Centreburg shuttle, served by the Boeing 720 which could carry only 100 passengers (as opposed to it's capacity of 147) due to weight regulations. With growth in global aviation transport, the airport was facing congestion problems. Its inability to cope with the rising traffic became critical by the 1970s, when widebodied aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-10 entered service with Corrailite and foreign carriers.



It was therefore decided that Centreburg, as a growing metropolis (and future capital), required a much larger airport, situated further away from the city, to better serve the growing demand for air travel to the city. Thus, initial surveys for a suitable site were begun in 1959, just as expansion works were being carried out to extend Westlane Airport's operating life and capacity. Care was taken in choosing a site that would not impede on further urban and suburban development of the city, and as a result planners decided to develop the airport at an inland site rather than a coastal area, believing (rightly, as later proved) that future development would be situated near the coastline. The site selected was a piece of farmland some 20km from the city centre, and was approved as the site for the new airport. Initial construction began a year later, and after years of earthworks which included flattening the land in the area (which included filling the land with more than 3 million sq m of soil) and piling works to ensure that the land could handle the heavy weight of operating aircraft.

Opening


In 1971, Centreburg Gateway opened for initial operations with a single runway (Runway 28/10, today 28L/10R) and a single terminal, the rest of the airport still in the final stages of construction. It was not until 1973 that all three runways, along with the cargo facility, opened for full operations. The airport, with both it's main runways longer than 3000m, was finally able to serve the city effectively, allowing dense operation of large aircraft, timely given that the first major widebodies (Boeing 747, Douglas DC-10) were just entering service. Corraile Airways, along with other Corrailite carriers based in Centreburg, shifted all operations to the airport, and Corraile Airways began it's first scheduled widebody service with a Boeing 747-100 operating a transatlanic service to London.

Expansion
The airport continued to grow rapidly into the 1970s and 1980s, in tandem with the growth of Centreburg as the largest city in Corraile but also with the continued expansion of Corraile's "Big Three" airlines of the period: Corraile Airways, Corraile Central and Corraile Airlines International. Passenger use surpassed the milestone of 5 million in 1982, and crossed the 10 million mark by 1990. To cope with rising passenger numbers, and the give Corrailite carriers a dedicated terminal space, Terminal 2 was opened in 1987, boosting the airport's passenger handling capacity to 35 million. At the same time, the number of foreign carriers operating out of the airport increased steadily as the availability of a major airport with modern equipment in a strategically important location encouraged foreign carriers to operate out of the city. European carriers especially, such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France used the airport as a stopover between their respective European home bases and cities in the US West Coast such as Los Angeles or San Francisco. In addition, Centreburg between 1983 and 1985 was the only North American destination served by Aeroflot after the Soviet carrier was barred from US airspace in 1983. Landing rights were later denied in 1985 due to pressure by the US Government.

The liberalisation of the Corrailite aviation industry in the wake of the demise of Corraile Airways led to even further growth despite the reduction in passenger numbers handled by the airport after the bankruptcy of it's largest tenant and operator. Terminal 2, along with Corraile Airlines, the sole remaining carrier of the "Big Three", was used by the newer small carriers that had mushroomed to take the place of Corraile Airways. The growth of these companies throughout the decade would fuel the growth of the airport further, and by 2002 the airport had reached it's maximum capacity of 35 million. To help the airport cope, an enlargement and refurbishment of Terminal 1 was carried out, bringing the airport's capacity up to 45 million.

Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT)


The Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) was constructed as part of the initial phase of the construction of the airport, opening in 1971 and replacing the tower at Westlane International Airport as the local air traffic controller for Centreburg airspace.

Runways
Centreburg Gateway has two parallel runways, 28L/10R and 28R/10L, 28L/10R being 3,750m (12,303 feet) and 28R/10L being 3,600m (11,811 feet) long. Both runways are 60m (197 feet) wide. 28L/10R was completed and opened in 1971 as part of the airport's first phase. It has a displaced threshold of 700 m (2,297 ft) leaving the rest of the runway at 3,050 m (10,006 ft) long. 28R/10L, was opened with phase 2 in 1972, a year after the airport began operations, 1.5 km (0.93 mi) apart from 28L/10R. Four instrument landing systems (ILS) are installed on the two runways to guide landing aircraft safely under all weather conditions. A third runway, 01/19, which was opened in 1972 as part of the airport's second phase, was perpendicular to the two parallel runways and had a total distance of 2,250m (7,382 feet). However, as part of the airport expansion programme of 1992, the runway was closed to traffic and converted into a taxiway linking both parallel runways.

A new parallel runway (to be named 28R/10L when opened) is currently under construction 1.5km (0.93mi) north of the current runway 28R/10L. The new runway is expected to be opened to traffic by 2014 and will facilitate in future expansion plans.

Passenger Terminals
Centreburg Gateway currently has three terminals, T1, T2, and T3, with a total annual handling capacity of 65 million. Terminals 1, 2, and 3 are connected via a underground InterTerminal people mover system, with airside passengers being able to freely move between the terminals without going through immigration via the system. Landside passengers and visitors are also able to make use of the InterTerminal system via a separate service that segregates airside from landside passengers.

The Regional Terminal is a purpose-built for regional carriers and is physically separated from the main terminals towards the northwest, where connections are possible via a zero-fare shuttle bus service to Terminals 1 and 2. Current users include Corraile Shuttle, Air Canada Jazz and TransIslandic.

Terminal 1


Centreburg Gateway International Airport's oldest terminal operated as the sole terminal from its opening on 7 June 1971 right up until the opening of Terminal 2 sixteen years later. Configured in a U-shaped layout to maximise the number of aerobridges which may be built, it underwent major upgrading works in 1998 at a cost of CR$210 million to expand the space available for arriving and departing passengers. Further expansions followed in 2002 with the construction of 2 finger piers, adding over 15 aerobridges in the process and expanding the terminal's handling capacity to 20 million. The terminal also received a facelift in 2004. Today, the terminal spans an area of 296,500 m² and can accommodate a maximum passenger capacity of 20 million passengers a year.

Terminal 1 is used primarily for international carriers, after most Corrailite-based carriers moved into Terminal 2 after the latter's opening in 1987. It's 6 concourses are divided between carriers based on the carriers' home regions, with concourses 1 and 2 used for flights from the North American continent while concourse 3 is used for European carriers. The remaining concourses are used for flights from the African continent and the Asia-Pacific region. The terminal has 6 A380-ready gates, with one at each concourse.

Terminal 2


Terminal 2 opened on 26 May 1987 as part of the airport's expansion plan. The airport layout was designed in a mirror image to the layout of Terminal 1, and was opened solely for the use of Centreburg-based carriers Corraile Airways and Corraile Airlines International. After the demise of Corraile Airways in 1993, most of the gates were transferred back to the Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of Corraile, then the operator of the airport, and were subsequently leased to Corraile Airlines. The unused concourses 5 and 6 (now part of Terminal 2C) were then opened for the use of other Corrailite carriers. Today IslandFLY and Bird.com operate out of Terminal 2C, while Corraile Airlines flights to North and Central America use concourses 1 and 2 (part of Terminal 2A) and it's international flights concourses 3 and 4 (Terminal 2B). British also uses Terminal 2, using Terminal 2C with Bird.com and IslandFLY.

The offices of the Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of Corraile (C3A) are located within the Terminal. In addition Terminal 2 houses the offices of Lightfoot.

Terminal 3


Terminal 3 became operational on 28 August 2012, increasing the airport's annual passenger capacity by 20 million to a total of 70 million. The test flight out of Terminal 3 was a Corraile Airlines flight from Centreburg to San Francisco. The flight departed T3 at 1:00 pm local time, landing in San Francisco International Airport at approximately 7:30 pm (Centreburg time). The terminal has 36 aerobridge gates, with six capable of handling the Airbus A380. While the other two terminals use separate waiting areas for different gates, Terminal 3 has common waiting areas for some of the gates.

Terminal 3 departs from the largely utilitarian architecture in the first two terminals, through innovate design features such as skylights and green areas incorporated into the building design. Like other new airports in the region, it has a structure mainly made of glass, with big transparent spaces inside the terminal. However, unlike these newer airports, it incorporates "natural" features and "warm" tones extensively to balance the sterile feel of glass and steel. For example, the column is given a wood-like cladding and the floor of the terminal is mostly cream/ beige colour, contrasting with the grey of steel. The roof was designed to allow natural light to enter the building, helping to conserve energy whilst at the same time giving a bright, airy and welcoming feel to travellers.

Terminal 3 was opened to be used by foreign carriers, mostly carriers from AIN member nations. The first official flight that arrived in Terminal 3 was a Regno Aerei flight from Jennai, arriving at 12:25pm local time. Carriers that operate from the terminal include Air Queensland, American Airlines and Illium Airways.

Cargo Terminal
Centreburg Gateway is the Corraile’s busiest international air freight gateway by value of shipments and the second busiest overall by value including all air, land and sea freight gateways (behind the Port of Centreburg). Over 47% of all Corrailite international air freight by value and 51% by tonnage moved through Centreburg Gateway's freight centre in 2010.

The Cargo Terminal was opened in tandem with Terminal 1 on 7 July 1971 as part of the airport's initial phase. It replaced an earlier cargo facility at Westlane International Airport, and was initially underused due to the low demand for airfreight into Centreburg then. Beginning in the early 1980s, freight traffic increased steadily, as several dedicated freight carriers, such as FedEx Express and DHL Aviation began operating into the airport. Today, the freight centre has a capacity of 2.2 million tonnes, and handles multiple freight carriers from all over the world. It is also 21st busiest freight centre in the world by freight tonnage handled, handling over 1.2 million tonnes of airfreight in 2010. It is operated by Centreburg Airfreight, a subsidiary of the Ports Corraile International (PCI). The airport's dedicated airmail facility is managed by the Corraile Post Office, which has a total processing capacity of 300,000 tonnes of airfreight, solely dedicated to airmail services.

It is the main airfreight hub for Corraile Cargo Airlines, and is a focus city for DHL Aviation.