Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (KBHM) is Alabama's largest and busiest commercial airport, lying in Jefferson County a few miles northeast of downtown Birmingham. It is a busy civil-military field with a Category II ILS-equipped main runway capable of handling everything from general aviation traffic to widebody jets, and it shares its ramps with an Air National Guard KC-135 tanker wing.
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport is the principal commercial airport for Birmingham, Alabama, and the busiest airport in the state by passenger volume. It is a civil-military field, sharing its infrastructure with the Alabama Air National Guard's Sumpter Smith Air National Guard Base, and it hosts a staffed U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility. For a simulator pilot it offers a substantial mix of airline, corporate, air-ambulance and military traffic on a long, ILS-equipped main runway, making it an interesting Class C destination with a genuinely varied traffic mix.
KBHM sits within Class C airspace. The airport is located in Jefferson County, Alabama, about five miles northeast of Downtown Birmingham, close to the interchange of Interstates 20 and 59. The Federal Aviation Administration notes that, owing to its proximity to the city and its complex taxiway system, the airport can be difficult to locate at night.
The airport has two physical runways. Runway 06/24 is the primary runway, a hard-surfaced, lit strip with an instrument landing system, measuring 11,980 ft when flown as runway 06 and 10,783 ft when flown as runway 24. Runway 18/36 is a secondary hard-surfaced, lit runway of 7,102 ft in both directions, with an ILS serving runway 18. Field elevation is 630 ft.
Air-to-ground/tower communications are available on 123.8 MHz, with the airport's ATIS broadcasting on 119.4 MHz. Clearance delivery works on 125.675 MHz, ground control on 121.7 MHz, and tower on 119.9 MHz. A remote radio outlet for Anniston is available on 122.2 MHz, and UNICOM is on 122.95 MHz. The airport is served by a Category II ILS, permitting operations down to a quarter-mile visibility on the main runway.
KBHM operates within Class C airspace with full air traffic control, so arriving and departing traffic is sequenced by ATC rather than flying a traditional visual circuit. The airport's configuration of intersecting runways 06/24 and 18/36, combined with a complex taxiway layout, means pilots should expect detailed ground and tower instructions, particularly when taxiing to and from the terminal and general aviation ramps.
The airport lies close to the interchange of Interstates 20 and 59, which serves as a useful landmark when approaching from the Birmingham area, with Downtown Birmingham itself lying a few miles to the southwest.
Commercial air service to Birmingham began in 1928 at Roberts Field, but the airport that became Birmingham-Shuttlesworth opened on 31 May 1931 with a Georgian-style terminal and a single east-west runway, built after American Airways' Ford Tri-Motors proved unable to use the older field. Traffic growth from American Airlines and Eastern Airlines in the 1930s prompted a second runway. During the Second World War the airport was leased to the United States Army Air Forces for a nominal sum and operated as Birmingham Army Airfield, a fighter base under the Third Air Force's 310th Army Air Force Base Unit, which paved additional taxiways, built a control tower, and constructed an aircraft modification centre. In the 1940s Birmingham was considered as a potential air-transport hub for the Deep South, but Delta, Eastern and the U.S. Postal Service ultimately favoured Atlanta, partly owing to a local aviation fuel tax and Birmingham's Central Time Zone location. The airport returned to city control in August 1948, and by 1959 its main runway had been extended to 10,000 feet, allowing Capital Airlines to introduce Vickers Viscount jet-prop services. In July 2007 a 2,000-foot eastward extension brought runway 6/24 to its current 12,007-foot length (as later adjusted), enabling fully loaded Boeing 747 operations. The airport was renamed Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International in July 2008 in honour of the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a founding leader of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and a key figure in the Birmingham civil rights campaign.
Today the airport is a civil-military facility handling scheduled airline services for the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa metropolitan areas alongside significant corporate and general aviation traffic. It hosts multiple fixed base operators and numerous corporate hangars, a staffed U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, and air ambulance operator AirMed International, which operates worldwide from the field. The Alabama Air National Guard's Sumpter Smith Air National Guard Base is located on the airport, home to the 117th Air Refueling Wing and its Boeing KC-135R Stratotankers, operating alongside the U.S. Air Force's 99th Air Refueling Squadron. The Southern Museum of Flight also operates on Airport Authority property to the east of the north-south runway.
