Aviation Specials – May 2018

Extreme Airports // 65

in desk. Baggage reclaim is outside and

everyone walks across the damp beach

as they board or disembark the waiting

Twin O er, which is usually on the ‘ground’

for only 20 minutes. The three-storey

tower beside the passenger building is

staff ed when movements are expected

but provides only an air/ground radio

service. No fuel is available, so aircraft

carry enough for a round trip from the

mainland. And the unique nature of the

airport means few maintenance vehicles

are necessary; the runway is cleaned

and repaired naturally twice a day, snow

and icing rarely cause problems, and

the manoeuvring area needs only to be

inspected as the tide recedes to ensure

debris has not been washed up. There

are of course no instrument approaches

so the scheduled fl ights are occasionally

delayed when the weather turns bad, and

night operations are prohibited except

when a patient has to be fl own to hospital

on the mainland – in these cases, one

of the runways can be illuminated by

portable lights and vehicles.

Most beautiful – almost

In February PrivateFly (a private jet

booking platform) conducted a poll

to identify the world’s most beautiful

landing spot. An initial 112 candidate

sites were whi led down to a shortlist of

just 10. More than 8,500 voters made

their selection and Barra was placed

second only to Donegal in Ireland. That

might make Loganair’s fl ights even more

popular. Landing on Traigh Mhor remains

a unique experience that features on

many aviation enthusiast’s bucket list.

AIRPORTS STATISTICS

IATA code: BRR

ICAO code: EGPR

Location: 57° 01.22’ N 007° 26.35’ W

Elevation: 3.6ft (1m)

Runways: 07/25 2,621 x 197ft (799 x 60m)

11/29 2,231 x 151ft (680 x 46m)

15/33 2,776 x 151ft (846 x 46m)

Frequencies: Information 118.07

Website: http://www.hial.co.uk/barra-airport

A member of

the ground team

gives the pilots

the signal to

start engines.

The beach is

accessible when

no fl ights are

scheduled, but

walkers must be

clear ahead of

each arrival and

departure.

BARRA

62-65_Barra.indd 65 11/05/2018 15:53