Summary
- Barra Airport serves 14,800 passengers annually with 1,400 aircraft movements per year.
- Flights to Barra Airport are dictated by tide times due to being submerged during high tide.
- The airport underwent a $1.95 million refurbishment in 2023 to enhance visitor facilities and accommodate an extended café.
Barra Airport is the only airport in the world where scheduled passenger flights land on a beach. Though other airports, such as Copalis State Airport in the US have beach runways, Barra has a different charm. Flying on a DHC-6 Twin Otter amid the picturesque surroundings of this airport is a prized asset for avgeeks. The other great distinction of this airport is that it is the only one whose flights are dictated by tide times.
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The airport handles just two flights per day.
A few numbers behind Barra Airport
Barra Airport is submerged underwater during high tide. This is why the flights to this Scottish airport are dictated by tide times. The operations at the airport started in 1978, and despite being deluged with water. Nonetheless, the airport has some impressive numbers:
- The airport serves 14,800 passengers annually (pre-pandemic figures).
- 1,400 aircraft movements per year, with 60 light jets.
- Two active DHC-6 airplanes that have a capacity of 19 passengers and a marginal separation between the main cabin and cockpit give views of the cockpit as well as the surrounding highlands.
How tide times dictate the operations of Barra Airport
Barra Airport is operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited, which dubs the airport “one of the world’s most distinctive airports”. Operations at Barra take place from Glasgow and back. After its construction, the airport has served around 1,000 locals.
In a video posted on the official YouTube page of Barra Airport, the airport manager, Michael Galbraith, said:
“It’s almost frozen in time and space here, and in the modern world, we’ve managed to stay compliant with nature as simple as it is and untouched. It is good to see the plane landing and the splash in the puddles in the sea..You feel like a wee film star when you come off the plane.”
The compliance with nature, as touched upon by Galbraith, refers to how the airport authorities have been able to run operations, giving into the working of the tides. During high tide, “when the water advances to its furthest extent on the shoreline”, the airport halts operations as the waters from the North Atlantic Ocean envelope the airport’s runway.
Photo: Craig Graham Captures / Shutterstock
The difference in the water level between the high tide and low tide on the runway of this airport, which can experience as many as four seasons in a day, can be more than 3 meters. Some of the other lesser-known facts about this airport include:
- Approaching Barra airport leaves no room for pilots to use the autopilot mode.
- The airport isn’t licensed for night use, though emergencies might allow nighttime operations.
- The three runways in the airport are arranged in a triangle, in directions 07/25, 11/29, and 15/33. The runways are marked by wooden poles at their ends.
- A sign at the airport reads, “Keep off the beach when the wind sock is flying, and the airport is active,” meaning that the beach is open to anyone when the wind sock isn’t flying.
Expansion of the airport and other facilities
Some of the facilities in the Barra airport include:
- Car parking
- Visitor center
- Waiting areas
In 2023, this airport underwent a refurbishment of $1.95 Million (£1.5 million) of the terminal and facilities as the airport looked to accommodate an extended café catering concession for visitors to this airport. Talking to BBC, the airport manager explained why the café would be an integral part of this airport:
“It’s amazing when you don’t have something the amount of people that come in and ask, ‘when’s the café opening?’…we have locals coming in, who want a wee snack, or a coffee and cake. You have the tourists coming in who want to see the plane landing, you have coach tours coming in, and you’ve also got the passengers themselves.”
Photo: Dave Atherton/Shutterstock
Barra Airport is perceived to have (one of) the best approach to an airport
We must be careful before applying epithets such as “the best approach” or “the most scenic,” as this can be subjective. While Lukla Airport in Nepal is thought to be the most dangerous airport in the world, Ujjwal Tiwari, an air traffic controller, working for the Nepalese government, had a dissenting view:
“There are other airports too which are more challenging than Lukla, Talcha (also known as Rara airport), Juphal ( Dolpa airport). These airports have tailwind limitations of 8 knots, which is sometimes reduced to 6 knots depending upon the wind direction and tendency. Having worked in various airports and talked with numerous pilots, they have shared their experiences and challenges, and never have I ever found Lukla as being the most challenging or dangerous airport for landing.”
Photo: 4 season backpacking/Shutterstock
Much in the same way, some might oppose the idea that Barra Airport has the best approach to an airport. In a poll conducted by PrivateFly.com in 2011, Barra Airport was nominated as the one with the best approach, with the airport getting some acclaim:
“(Barra has) beautiful scenery and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to land on a beach… Spectacular approach over beautiful islands, soft landing on the beach of white shells, taxiing up to the tiny terminal and then realizing the whole island breathes to the rhythm of the tide, as you can only land at low tide so the bus, the post-office and the shops open after the plane has landed with mail, people and newspapers.”
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Avgeeks and travelers alike might have such romantic notions, but Justin Surette, a contributor for Simple Flying, chose the following airports in his list of the ones with the best approaches:
- Velana International Airport, which is surrounded by the Indian Ocean and lies along the shore next to the Maldivian capital city of Malé.
- Donegal Airport, which has Mount Errigal in the background and is surrounded by water, sand, and fields.
- Princess Juliana International Airport, which is perched on the Dutch-controlled portion of a Caribbean island
While we might struggle to find an objective yardstick that helps us compare Barra’s approach with the airports listed above, the fact that it is a paradise of an airport is attested by almost everyone who has been here.