Departure
99%
vs 95% ▲ 4
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Lajes Airport (ICAO: LPLA) is a joint military-civil airfield on Terceira Island in the Azores, serving the towns of Praia da Vitória and Angra do Heroísmo. It shares its single long runway with the Portuguese Air Force's Air Base No. 4 and a USAF detachment, making it one of the more unusual mixed-use fields a VFR pilot can visit in the mid-Atlantic.
Lajes is a multi-use international airfield on Terceira Island in the Azores, combining a civilian terminal with the Portuguese Air Force's Air Base No. 4 and a resident United States Air Force detachment operated by the 65th Air Base Group. It sits alongside the military installation known locally as Base das Lajes, and its single runway is the longest of any airfield in the Azores, a legacy of its wartime expansion and later use as a transatlantic staging point. For a simulator pilot, the field offers the novelty of flying into a shared civil-military aerodrome on a remote volcanic island, with a long ILS-equipped runway more usually associated with large transport types.
The airfield lies in the parish of Lajes, in the municipality of Praia da Vitória, on Terceira Island in the Azores, and serves both Praia da Vitória and Angra do Heroísmo, the latter roughly 15 kilometres to the southwest. It functions as a hub providing international access to the wider Azores archipelago. The military side of the field, Air Base No. 4, lies to the east of the runway.
Lajes has a single physical runway, 15/33, aligned north-west to south-east. It is 10,802 feet long with a hard surface, is lit, and is equipped with ILS on both approach directions, reflecting its role as the longest runway in the Azores and its use by both large military and civil transport aircraft.
Published frequencies for Lajes include Approach on 135 MHz, ATIS on 120.3 MHz, Ground/GCCD on 121.9 MHz, a further ground/miscellaneous frequency on 130.65 MHz, Tower on 122.1 MHz, and meteorological watch frequencies (PMSV) on 28.442 MHz and 30.877 MHz. The runway is served by ILS on both 15 and 33.
The origins of the airfield trace back to 1928, when Portuguese Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Gomes da Silva first reported on the possibility of building an airfield on the land at Lajes for the Aeronáutica Militar. Initial development instead went to Achada on São Miguel, but by 1934 that site was judged unsafe for its inadequate ground services, dimensions and weather, prompting construction of a landing field with supporting facilities for the Portuguese military at Lajes on Terceira. During the Second World War the site was designated Air Base No. 4; the runway was lengthened and Gloster Gladiator fighters were based there to support Allied convoys, special missions and meteorological flights, with the first Portuguese Junkers Ju 52 arriving in July 1942 for cargo work. In 1943 Britain and the United States were granted base rights in Portugal, and within a month of arriving on Terceira in October that year the Royal Air Force had rebuilt the airfield and lengthened its runway further, beginning anti-submarine patrols that led to the sinking of a German U-boat in November 1943 and around a dozen further attacks by February 1944, after which German forces avoided the area. A joint British-American agreement signed on 1 December 1943 defined the roles of the United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy at Lajes Field, with the US assisting the British in expanding the facilities in return for transport access; USAAF Air Transport Command aircraft began using the field almost immediately, and by June 1944 more than 1,900 American aircraft had passed through. Lajes Field also served as one of two refuelling stops for the first transatlantic crossing of non-rigid airships (blimps) in 1944.
Lajes remains a shared civilian and military airfield, home to the Portuguese Air Force's Azores Air Zone Command and Air Base No. 4, alongside a United States Air Force detachment operated by the 65th Air Base Group. Its long ILS runway continues to support both military transport operations and scheduled civilian air services into the Azores. Given its mixed military and civil status, prior permission (PPR) is required for operators wishing to use Lajes as a destination or intermediate stop.