Misplaced Pages

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56-894: Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA , Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport is assigned LBX by the FAA and LJN by the IATA (which assigned LBX to Lubang Airport in the Philippines ). On March 24, 2010, the Brazoria County Commissioners' Court voted to change the name of the airport to Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport, effective October 1, 2010. Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport covers an area of 674 acres (273  ha ) which contains one concrete paved runway (17/35) measuring 7,000 x 100 ft (2,134 x 30 m). For

112-809: A commuter/regional air carrier based in Louisiana, then assumed many of the routes that were previously operated by Metro into Houston. However, in 1987 Royale declared bankruptcy and ceased all scheduled passenger flight operations. Metro Airlines spun off its certificated airline, being Metro Airlines, and formed an airline holding company. Among the commuter and regional air carriers acquired or created by Metro were: In 1991 Metro went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and then in May 1993 Metro Airlines went completely out of business. The airline assets were promptly purchased and renamed by AMR Corporation whom were already involved with Metro Airlines by way of

168-491: A four-character identifier, such as 1CA9 for Los Angeles County Fire Department Heliport. The location identifiers are coordinated with the Transport Canada Identifiers described below. In general, the FAA has authority to assign all three-letter identifiers (except those beginning with the letters K, N, W, and Y), all three- and four-character alphanumeric identifiers, and five-letter identifiers for

224-706: A new code sharing passenger feed agreement with American Airlines . The Convair 580 aircraft were operated by the Metroflight Airlines division which also flew DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft on American Eagle services. Metro Airlines operated out of DFW via its wholly owned Metroflight division under the American Eagle brand beginning on November 1, 1984. In 1985 the airline announced that it would end service to Houston Intercontinental Airport (now George Bush Intercontinental Airport ). Royale Airlines ,

280-519: A number of different airlines, including as the banner carrier (commercial aviation) operating feeder services for Eastern Airlines as Eastern Metro Express which was based in Atlanta, GA and Metroflight which operated American Eagle service from the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1993, and the assets were acquired by AMR Simmons Airlines . In 1969 the airline

336-649: A staffed air traffic control facility or navigational aid within airport boundary; to airports that receive scheduled route air carrier or military airlift service, and to airports designated by the United States Customs Service as airports of entry . Some of these identifiers are assigned to certain aviation weather reporting stations. Most one-digit, two-letter identifiers have been assigned to aviation weather reporting and observation stations and special-use locations. Some of these identifiers may be assigned to public-use landing facilities within

392-579: Is a three- to five-character alphanumeric code identifying aviation-related facilities inside the United States, though some codes are reserved for, and are managed by other entities. For nearly all major airports, the assigned identifiers are alphabetic three-letter codes, such as ORD for Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Minor airfields are typically assigned a mix of alphanumeric characters, such as 8N2 for Skydive Chicago Airport and 0B5 for Turners Falls Airport . Private airfields are assigned

448-547: Is listed with the national civilian code УХММ, the national military code ЬХММ, and the "international" UHMM. The World Meteorological Organization used a system of five-digit numeric station codes to represent synoptic weather stations. An example is 72295 for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). A modernization of WMO station identifiers was performed as part of the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS). A presentation at

504-545: Is no specific organization scheme to IATA identifiers; typically they take on the abbreviation of the airport or city such as MNL for Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport. In the United States, the IATA identifier usually equals the FAA identifier, but this is not always the case. A prominent example is Sawyer International Airport in Marquette, Michigan , which uses the FAA identifier SAW and the IATA identifier MQT. The Federal Aviation Administration location identifier (FAA LID)

560-780: Is part of the Bristow Group . The airport's on-site restaurant, the Windsock Restaurant, closed in February 2011. Following renovations, the building was reopened as the Crosswind Cafe in December 2011. It was subsequently closed and reopened under new management with a seafood influenced menu as the Runway Cafe in 2014. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport was linked to

616-573: Is the Master Station Catalog or MASLIB code. This is a 6-digit numeric code that is essentially the same scheme as the WMO station identifier but adds an extra digit, allowing many more stations to be indexed. This extra digit is always "0" when referencing an actual WMO station using the five-digit identifier, but may be 1..9 to reference other stations that exist in the vicinity. The MASLIB identifiers are not generally recognized outside

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672-532: Is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control , telecommunications, computer programming, weather reports, and related services. The International Civil Aviation Organization establishes sets of four-letter location indicators which are published in ICAO Publication 7910 . These are used by air traffic control agencies to identify airports and by weather agencies to produce METAR weather reports. The first letter indicates

728-812: The Clear Lake City STOLport located in the Houston area near the NASA Johnson Space Center , was abandoned and subsequently demolished in order to make way for suburban development. There is currently no trace of this pioneering airfield to be seen. In later years, Continental Express , a regional airline and a regional airline brand; and at that time survivor of the post-deregulation and highly controversial Houston based Texas Air Corporation Continental Airlines and Eastern Air Lines acquisition years, operated scheduled passenger air service from Ellington Field (EFD) near

784-525: The Official Airline Guide (OAG), the airline was operating 22 roundtrip flights every weekday in its passenger shuttle operation between Clear Lake City and Houston Intercontinental. The route system was later expanded to include a number of destinations in southeast and south Texas with flights to Houston Intercontinental. At one point, the airline also flew between Laredo, TX (LRD) and San Antonio, TX (SAT). All initial Houston Metro service

840-527: The USFS RAWS system, and by the stream gauges operated by the USGS , both of which report through GOES weather satellites operated by NOAA . These use three letters which are a mnemonic for the location, followed by the first letter of the U.S. state , followed by a numeral indicating the alphabetical order within that letter (for example, North Carolina stations end with N7). The mnemonic may be

896-695: The United States and its jurisdictions. The Department of the Navy assigns three-letter identifiers beginning with the letter N for the exclusive use of that department. Transport Canada assigns three-character identifiers beginning with Y. The block beginning with letter Q is under international telecommunications jurisdiction, but is used internally by FAA Technical Operations to identify National Airspace equipment not covered by any other identifying code system. The block beginning with Z identifies United States Air Route Traffic Control Centers . In practice,

952-419: The "banner carrier" codeshare flying that Metro performed for AMR via its Metroflight division with these services being created cooperatively by the legacy carrier , being American Airlines , and the regional , being Metro subsidiary Metroflight, as American Eagle during the mid-1980s. Under AMR many of Metroflight's assets found their way over to Simmons Airlines . Houston Metro's original home, being

1008-405: The 12-month period ending January 1, 2021, the airport had 77,981 aircraft operations, an average of 214 per day: 95% general aviation , 4% air taxi , 1% military, and <1% commercial. There were at that time 98 aircraft based at this airport: 82 single-engine, 9 multi-engine, 2 jet and 5 helicopter . The airport's runway was closed in December 2009 for a major reconstruction project, in which

1064-694: The 1980s, the old Lake Jackson Dow Airport (LJN) near Lake Jackson's town center was closed following the construction and opening of the new Brazoria County Airport north of the city limits of Lake Jackson. Prior to the opening of the present airport, in February 1976 Houston Metro Airlines was operating six nonstop flights every weekday from the old airport (LJN) to Houston (IAH) with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter STOL turboprops as well as two nonstop flights every weekday from LJN to Victoria (VCT), also with Twin Otters. The old Lake Jackson Dow Airport

1120-530: The American military services, assigns special use ICAO identifiers beginning with "KQ", for use by deployed units supporting real-world contingencies; deployed/in- garrison units providing support during exercises; classified operating locations; and units that have requested, but not yet received a permanent location identifier. One system still used by both the Air Force and National Climatic Data Center

1176-696: The FAA Identifier system described above, though a few conflicts exist. The Federal Civil Aviation Agency of Mexico ( Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil , AFAC) is a designator of airfield codes, each consisting of three letters, used to identify each civil airfield in Mexico. (These characters are chosen with the same methodology as for IATA codes, i.e. taking three letters of the airfield name, for example ZPU for Zacapu Airstrip.) These airfields can be airports, private airstrips, land heliports, boat heliports, and platform helipads. For more substantial airports

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1232-584: The IATA codes, they changed when renaming some cities of the former USSR in the 1990s, e.g. Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), which was ЛЕД and became СПТ . As of 2009, about 3,000 code combinations of internal code are in use. Many smaller aerodromes in Russia do not have an ICAO code. Instead, they are assigned an entry in the State and Experimental Aviation Point Location Index , or perhaps two: one civilian, normally beginning with Cyrillic "У" (=Latin "U"),

1288-548: The IATA designators are used, for example TLC for Toluca International Airport, although there are some exceptions, such IATA XAL and AFAC ALA for Alamos National Airport, Sonora. Within Russia (and before 1991 within the Soviet Union), there are airport identifiers (внутренний код - internal code) having three Cyrillic letters. They are used for e.g. ticket sales. Some small airports with scheduled flights have no IATA code, only this code and perhaps an ICAO code. Unlike

1344-491: The Metroflight Airlines division which would eventually operate American Eagle flights. Metroflight also independently served several destinations in Oklahoma and north Texas from Dallas/Ft. Worth and Oklahoma City (OKC). In 1982 Metro purchased fourteen (14) Convair 580 aircraft from the original Frontier Airlines . These 50 passenger twin turboprops were then used to initiate the first ever American Eagle service via

1400-413: The United States and its jurisdictions, which do not meet the requirements for identifiers in the three-letter series. In this identifier series, the digit is always in the first position of the three-character combination. Most one-letter, two-digit identifiers are assigned to public-use landing facilities within the United States and its jurisdictions, which do not meet the requirements for identifiers in

1456-531: The United States. There have been rare instances where identifiers have been transplanted to new locations, mainly due to the closure of the original airport. Prominent examples are DEN/KDEN, which migrated from Stapleton International Airport to Denver International Airport in 1996, and AUS/KAUS, which migrated from Austin Mueller Municipal Airport to Austin–Bergstrom International Airport in 1999. Both of these cases occurred because

1512-510: The WMO site explains: The National Weather Service uses several schemes for identifying stations. It typically relies on the ICAO and WMO identifiers, although several weather forecast offices (WFOs) and weather radar sites that have moved away from airports have been given their own codes which do not conflict with existing codes. These typically end in X, such as where Birmingham, Alabama ( BHM ) had its radar site replaced by one south of

1568-492: The airport flying its employees to and from MBS International Airport in Freeland, Michigan and also to Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Louisiana. At present, no regularly scheduled commercial passenger airline service is offered from this airfield. Location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport , navigation aid , or weather station , and

1624-587: The assigned identifiers are not always consistent with the current "encoding" rules adopted by the FAA, nor are all the assigned identifiers distinct between the United States and Canada. The coding system has evolved over time, and to ensure safety and reduce ambiguity, many "legacy" codes have remained intact, even though they violate the currently ordered rules. For this reason, the FAA regularly publishes detailed listings of all codes it administers In general, three-letter identifiers are assigned as radio call signs to aeronautical navigation aids; to airports with

1680-492: The carrier joining the ranks of the regional airline industry via its use of larger aircraft. The company was also independently operating flights from the DFW at this time with DHC-6 Twin Otter and Short 330 aircraft with services to several destinations in east Texas with some of these flights continuing on to or originating from Houston Intercontinental (IAH). These Twin Otter and Short 330 passenger services into DFW were flown by

1736-675: The city (BMX), or where the Knoxville ( TYS ) office was moved to nearby Morristown, Tennessee (MRX). Others have changed such that Miami, Florida is now MFL instead of MIA , and Dallas/Fort Worth (formerly DFW ) is now FWD. Climatological applications use the WBAN (Weather Bureau Army Navy) system, which is a five-digit numeric code for identifying weather stations under its jurisdiction. Recently it began using four-letter-plus-one-digit identifiers for specialized weather requirements such as hydrometeorological stations. These are used by

Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-511: The first orders for five (5) Short 330 twin turboprops were announced. [1] These Irish-manufactured aircraft would be used to complement the Twin Otters already in use on higher demand routes as well as new service to Lafayette , LA and Lake Charles, LA and offered far more comfortable seating for passengers. The addition of the 30 passenger Short 330 turboprops required Metro to make provisions for flight attendants and also resulted in

1848-600: The first two, middle, or last two positions of the four-character code. The use of the FAA identifier system in meteorology ended in 1996 when airways reporting code was replaced by METAR code . The METAR code is dependent wholly on the ICAO identifier system. Since January 2019, the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) issues a six-digit designator called Aerodrome Identification Code ( Portuguese : Código de Identificação de Aeródromo , CIAD) for each aerodrome. The first two digits are

1904-425: The following destinations: Saab 340 turboprop aircraft and additional destinations were added beginning in late 1987. These destinations were served with British Aerospace Jetstream 31 and/or Short 330 turboprops: These destinations were served with British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 turboprops and/or with de Havilland Canada DHC-8-100 Dash 8 turboprops: After the acquisition of the airlines "Sunaire" and

1960-561: The former site of the Clear Lake City STOLport. Much like the original Houston Metro, and subsequent Eastern Metro Express short hop operations by amicable partner Metro Airlines ; short hop Continental Express flights commenced during the 1980s, utilizing ATR-42 and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops and then Embraer ERJ-135 regional jets to transport connecting passengers across the city to Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). However, this service

2016-527: The letters related to the State of the Federation where the aerodrome is located and the next four digits are numbers assigned by ANAC. In the case of military aerodromes, the first number is 9. Transport Canada assigns two-, three-, and four-character identifiers, including three-letter identifiers beginning with letters Y and Z, for its areas of jurisdiction. These identifiers are designed to mesh with

2072-521: The national airway grid with regularly scheduled airline service. Among some of the more unusual routes were nonstop flights to Victoria , Texas and the Clear Lake City STOLport [1] which were served as extensions or as an intermediate stop on the regularly scheduled passenger route between then-named Brazoria County Airport and Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) as this airport was called prior to airline deregulation . In

2128-667: The nearest town, or the name of the stream, or a combination of the two; and the same names may be rearranged into different mnemonics for different nearby locations. For example, VING1 is the gauge at Vinings, Georgia , and is differentiated from other stations along the Chattahoochee River (such as CHAG1 in nearby Oakdale) which are also at the Atlanta city limit like Vinings is, and from other streams in Atlanta such as Peachtree Creek (AANG1). The United States Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), acting on behalf of all

2184-1073: The original locations were closed. Occasionally a code will be discontinued entirely, with no successor. Sometimes this is a small airport that has closed, such as Stone Mountain Airport , whose identifier 00A is now used for an R/C heliport in Bensalem, Pennsylvania . In another case, the identifiers for Idlewild Airport in New York were changed to JFK and KJFK when it was renamed after John F. Kennedy , and its original IDL and KIDL were later reused for Indianola Municipal Airport in Indianola, Mississippi . Transplanted identifiers tend to be poorly documented , and can cause problems in data systems and software which process historical records and in research and legal work. A similar problem also exists for broadcast callsigns . Metro Airlines Metro Airlines , originally Houston Metro Airlines ,

2240-402: The other for "state" or military operations, almost always the same except that the first character is now a Cyrillic "Ь" (=Latin "X"). These codes are given in the official document which has separate columns for national codes (civilian), national codes (military & state), and some also have "international" codes; only the latter correspond to ICAO codes. For example, Magadan Sokol Airport

2296-467: The past include Comair operating Canadair CRJ regional jet aircraft and Aerodynamics Inc. (ADI) flying Fokker F28 Fellowship jets and Airbus A319 jetliners. [3] Both of these air carriers were operating scheduled corporate charters via respective contracts for Dow Chemical shuttling employees to and from Dow Chemical's Midland Michigan facilities. Currently, Dow Chemical operates two corporate-owned Bombardier ( Canadair ) CRJ-700 aircraft from

Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-508: The region; for example, K for the contiguous United States, C for Canada, E for northern Europe, R for the Asian Far East, and Y for Australia. Examples of ICAO location indicators are RPLL for Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport and KCEF for Westover Joint Air Reserve Base . The International Air Transport Association uses sets of three-letter IATA identifiers which are used for airline operations, baggage routing, and ticketing. There

2408-534: The runway's former asphalt surface was replaced with concrete. During the runway closure, aircraft temporarily used the airport's main taxiway for takeoffs and landings. Larger aircraft, such as the Aerodynamics (ADI) Dynajet Airbus ACJ ( A319 ) operated as a shuttle service for Dow Chemical , were diverted to William P. Hobby Airport in Houston during the runway closure. The runway reconstruction project

2464-658: The service at LBX from Metro Airlines, functioned as a feeder airline for Continental Airlines to and from IAH prior to Royale's bankruptcy and subsequent cessation of all flight operations. Several other small commuter air carriers served the airport as well over the years. In 1971, Amistad Airlines was operating turboprop service from the old Lake Jackson Dow Airport (LJN) to both Houston Hobby Airport (HOU) and to Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH). In 1985, Texas Airlines operated service to Houston Intercontinental which were flown with Piper prop aircraft. Other air carriers that have served Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport in

2520-461: The smaller de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter STOL turboprops on flights to and from Houston Intercontinental (IAH). In April 1981, Metro Airlines was operating six nonstop DHC-6 Twin Otter flights every weekday from the new LBX airport to IAH. Other regional aircraft serving LBX in scheduled airline service included Royale Airlines Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante turboprops as well as Beechcraft Model 99 turboprops. Royale, which had taken over

2576-516: The subsequent name change to "Aviation Associates," de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 250 & 300 turboprops served the following destinations: Many of these destinations were previously served by Metro Airlines on an independent basis prior to a marketing alliance with Eastern Airlines and were operated with Metro's very own DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft: Metro was also operating Eastern Express service at this time from San Antonio International Airport (SAT) with service to Laredo, TX (LRD) After

2632-454: The three-letter series. Some of these identifiers are also assigned to aviation weather reporting stations. Two-letter, two-digit identifiers are assigned to private-use landing facilities in the United States and its jurisdictions which do not meet the requirements for three-character assignments. They are keyed by the two-letter Post Office or supplemental abbreviation of the state with which they are associated. The two-letter code appears in

2688-478: Was a commuter airline that was originally headquartered in Houston , Texas , United States . Metro subsequently moved its headquarters to north Texas. The airline had an operational base located on the grounds of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and also had offices on the airport property and in Grapevine, Texas . Metro evolved into an airline holding company with the acquisition or creation of

2744-548: Was also the site of an emergency landing of a hijacked National Airlines (NA) Boeing 727-200 jetliner which was followed by a short standoff by the hijackers with law enforcement personnel on July 12, 1972. [2] . Following the opening of the Brazoria County Airport (LBX), Metro Airlines , which by then had changed its name from Houston Metro Airlines , occasionally used larger, flight attendant staffed Short 330 commuter airliner turboprops in addition to

2800-451: Was also utilized by Metro for flights between IAH and Beaumont/Port Arthur (BPT) where one was destroyed by a tornado in 1983 while sitting empty on the airport ramp (see Accidents and incidents below). In 1972 the airline carried between 90,000 and 100,000 passengers per year. It displayed a profit of $ 156,510 U.S. dollars in an eight-month period. In early 1974, to capitalize on a perception among Dallas residents that Dallas Love Field

2856-648: Was completed in July 2010, and the airport became fully operational once again. Bristow U.S. LLC, which is one of the largest Part 135 commercial helicopter operators in the world, currently operates a base at the airport serving the offshore oil and gas industry in the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Turbine powered helicopter types operated by Bristow in the past from LBX include the AgustaWestland AW139 , Bell 206 L-4 " Long Ranger IV", Bell 407 , Eurocopter EC135 , Sikorsky S-76 C++ and Sikorsky S-92 . Bristow U.S.

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2912-601: Was finally discontinued as well. These destinations were served by Houston Metro Airlines during and after its name change to Metro Airlines from its Clear Lake City headquarters, with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops and/or Short 330 turboprops: These destinations were initially served independently by the Metroflight division with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft: Metroflight began codeshare services for American Airlines on November 1, 1984 flying Convair 580 turboprops as American Eagle to

2968-550: Was founded to serve the Houston area with "cross-town" flights. Houston Metro Airlines constructed their own 2,500 foot, short take-off and landing ( STOL ) airstrip along with a passenger terminal building and maintenance hangar adjacent to Clear Lake City, Texas near the NASA Johnson Space Center . The Clear Lake City STOLport was essentially Houston Metro's own private airport. The airline's initial route linked Clear Lake City (CLC) with Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) which opened in 1969. In early 1970, Houston Metro

3024-489: Was more convenient than the newly-opened Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Metroflight inaugurated seven-minute Twin Otter flights between Love and DFW. Airfare was only $ 10 ($ 62.00 in 2023), advertised as less than a typical one-way taxi fare between Dallas and DFW. However, the service proved unprofitable, and it was discontinued in September 1975. In 1978 Metro entered the "stand up widebody cabin age" when

3080-403: Was operated with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter twin turboprop STOL aircraft as the Clear Lake City STOLport was specifically designed for this aircraft. Additional new service was later extended to Lafayette, LA (LFT) and Lake Charles, LA (LCH) with flights to Houston Intercontinental (IAH) with these services being operated with larger Short 330 twin turboprop aircraft. The Short 330

3136-472: Was operating two routes: Clear Lake City - Houston Intercontinental and Houston Hobby Airport (HOU) - Houston Intercontinental. The February 1, 1970 Houston Metro timetable lists 24 round trip flights every weekday between the CLC STOLport and Houston Intercontinental and 14 round trip flights every weekday between Houston Hobby and Houston Intercontinental. According to the February 1976 edition of

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