Benbecula Airport

Benbecula Airport is situated by the B892 road, north of Balivanich, at the northwest end of the island of Benbecula. It consists of two runways of 1681m (5515 feet) and 1200m (3937 feet) respectively. The airport developed from a military field built during World War II, which opened in 1942 and became an important base for North Atlantic patrols against German U-boats. It was subsequently closely associated with the Hebrides Missile Range and the airport still provides support to this testing facility. In 2002, it was announced that the airport would benefit from a £500,000 upgrade associated with its participation in the test programme for the $32 billion Eurofighter project.

Today, Benbecula Airport is operated by the government-owned Highland and Islands Airports Limited and has the International Air Transport Association (IATA) location code "BEB". Flights operate to Glasgow, Stornoway and Barra.

The associated RAF Benbecula still provides long-range radar coverage of the North Atlantic feeding data into the UK Integrated Command and Control System.


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