Curaçao International Airport

Hato International Airport Curaçao International Airport
IATA: CUR – ICAO: TNCC
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Curaçao Airport Holding
Operator	Curaçao Airport Partners
Serves	Curaçao
Location	Willemstad, Curaçao
Hub for	Insel Air Divi Divi Air EZAir
Elevation AMSL	29 ft / 9 m
Coordinates
Website	curacao-airport.com
Map
CUR Location in Curaçao
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 11/29 3,410 11,188 Asphalt
Source: DAFIF

Hato International Airport or Curaçao International Airport (formerly Dr. Albert Plesman International Airport) (IATA: CUR, ICAO: TNCC) is the airport of Willemstad, Curaçao. It has services to the Caribbean region, South America, North America and Europe. Hato Airport is a fairly large facility, with the third longest commercial runway in the Caribbean region after Rafael Hernández Airport in Puerto Rico and Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe. The airport serves as a main base for Insel Air.

History

World War II

During World War II, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces Sixth Air Force conducting antisubmarine patrols. Flying units using the airfield were:

• 59th Bombardment Squadron (VI Bomber Command) 10 March 1942 – 13 July 1943 (A-20 Havoc)
• 32d Fighter Squadron (36th Fighter Group, Antilles Air Command, XXVI Fighter Command) 9 March 1943 – 13 March 1944, (P-40 Warhawk)

Detachment operated from: Dakota Field, Aruba, 9 March 1943 – 9 March 1944

Detachment operated from: Losey Army Airfield, Puerto Rico, 9 March-4 June 1944

• 25th Bombardment Group (VI Bomber Command), 1 August-5 October 1943

Later development

A new terminal was officially opened in 2006 and it accommodates a maximum of 1.6 million passengers per year.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Air Berlin	Düsseldorf
Air Canada	Seasonal: Montreal–Trudeau (ends January 28, 2016)
Air Canada Rouge	Toronto-Pearson Seasonal: Montreal–Trudeau (begins February 4, 2016)
Air Transat	Seasonal: Toronto-Pearson
American Airlines	Charlotte, Miami
Aruba Airlines	Aruba, Santo Domingo-Las Americas
Avianca	Bogotá
Avior Airlines	Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia
Avior Regional	Caracas
Copa Airlines	Panama City
Divi Divi Air	Bonaire
Insel Air	Aruba, Barranquilla, Barquisimeto, Bonaire, Caracas, Georgetown, Havana, Kingston–Norman Manley, Las Piedras, Manaus, Maracaibo, Medellín-JMC, Miami, Paramaribo, Port of Spain, Port au Prince, Puerto Ordaz, Santo Domingo-Las Américas, Sint Maarten, Valencia
Insel Air Aruba	Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Maarten
JetBlue Airways	New York-JFK
KLM	Amsterdam
PAWA Dominicana	Santo Domingo-Las Américas
RUTACA Airlines	Caracas
Sunwing Airlines	Seasonal: Toronto-Pearson
Surinam Airways	Paramaribo, Port of Spain
TUI Airlines Netherlands	Amsterdam
WestJet	Seasonal: Toronto-Pearson

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Amerijet International	Miami
DHL Aero Expreso	Panama City
FedEx Express	Memphis
Lineas Aereas Suramericanas	Bogota
Martinair Cargo	Amsterdam
Aerosucre	Bogota
Emirates	Amsterdam

Coastguard Air Station HATO

Located at the west side of Hato Airport there is a small hangar for the 2 Dash-8 patrol aircraft of the Coast Guard Netherlands Antilles & Aruba. This was until 2007 a naval airbase of the Royal Netherlands Navy who operated the base for 55 years. With a wide variety of aircraft in the past years Fireflies, Avengers, Trackers, Neptunes, Fokker F-27's, P-3C Orions, Fokker F-60's and several helicopters. After the political decision to sell all Orions the airbase wasn't needed anymore.

The west end of the airport is a USAF Forward Operating Base (FOB). The base hosts AWACS and transport aircraft. Until 1999 the USAF operated a small fleet of F-16 fighters from the FOB.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

External links

• Airport information for TNCC at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
• Accident history for CUR at Aviation Safety Network