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Port Stanley Airport (SFAL) is a small civil airfield on the Cape Pembroke peninsula, two miles east of Stanley in the Falkland Islands, and is the home base of the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS). It offers a paved main runway and a shorter crosswind strip, and carries a remarkable history as the only civilian airfield to have been fought over and bombed during the 1982 Falklands War.
Port Stanley Airport sits on the Cape Pembroke peninsula a couple of miles east of Stanley, the Falkland Islands' capital, and is the only civilian airport in the islands with a paved runway. It is owned by the Falkland Islands Government and operated by the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS), which uses it as its principal base for internal flights linking the islands' scattered settlements, as well as for flights to and from Antarctica. For the simulator pilot it offers a compact, historically rich island airfield quite different in character from the much larger military-run RAF Mount Pleasant, which serves as the Falklands' international gateway.
The airfield lies at the eastern tip of East Falkland, close to the coast at Cape Pembroke, about two miles from Stanley. RAF Mount Pleasant, the islands' international airport with a longer runway able to take wide-body aircraft, lies to the west of Stanley and handles flights permitted by the UK Ministry of Defence.
Port Stanley Airport has two physical runways. The main runway, 09/27, is 3619 feet long on runway 09 and 2617 feet on the reciprocal 27, hard-surfaced and lit. The secondary runway, 18/36, is 1098 feet long in both directions, also hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 72 feet.
The published radio facilities are RDO on 558 MHz and TWR on 118.1 MHz. There is no ILS at the field.
The airfield is located on the Cape Pembroke peninsula, with Yorke Bay to the north and Surf and Rookery Bays to the south-east, both notable coastal features close to the aerodrome. Stanley itself, some two miles to the west, is a useful landmark for pilots orientating themselves in the area.
Before 1972 the Falkland Islands had no airport with a paved runway, and all passenger traffic arrived by sea. From 1971 the Argentine Air Force began flying amphibious Grumman HU-16B Albatross services from Comodoro Rivadavia, and in 1973 the United Kingdom signed a Communications Agreement with Argentina to fund an airstrip on the islands, after which Fokker F-28 jet services operated until 1982. Initially these flights used a temporary airstrip at Hookers Point, east of Stanley, built with Marston Mat pierced steel planking, but a storm destroyed much of this runway in 1978. On 1 May 1979 a new airport was opened at Cape Pembroke by Sir Vivian Fuchs, with a 4,000-foot paved runway, and it immediately became home to FIGAS and its Britten-Norman Islanders and de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beavers. During the Falklands War of 1982, invading Argentine forces occupied the airport; its short runway prevented the basing of advanced fighter jets, but FMA IA 58 Pucara ground-attack aircraft, together with Argentine Navy Aermacchi MB-339s and T-34 Mentors, operated from it, with the Pucaras used against British land forces (shooting down a Westland Scout) and the Aermacchis against the British fleet. On 1 May 1982 the RAF bombed the airport in Operation Black Buck, followed by further raids by embarked Sea Harriers; over the conflict the airfield was struck by 237 bombs, some 1,200 naval shells and sixteen missiles, leaving craters from the two Black Buck raids still visible on satellite imagery today. Despite this bombardment the runway was never put fully out of action, and after a single direct hit it was repaired within 48 hours to allow Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Lockheed L-188 Electra and Fokker F-28 transports to resume night resupply flights, which continued until the end of the war bringing in supplies and evacuating the wounded. The Argentines attempted to disguise the runway's serviceability by covering it with earth by day, though the British were aware supply flights continued and lost a C-130 on 1 June while attempting to interdict such traffic, though that aircraft was not on a resupply mission. During the war the Argentines also laid minimum-metal mines around Yorke Bay to the north and Surf and Rookery Bays to the south-east of the airport, anticipating a British amphibious landing nearby; this did not occur, as British forces instead landed at San Carlos on the west coast. The beaches around the airport remained mined long afterwards, as clearance was judged impractical given shifting sand dunes and the presence of breeding Magellanic penguins, which are too light to trigger the mines.
Port Stanley Airport remains in active use as the base for the Falkland Islands Government Air Service, which operates internal flights connecting Stanley with outlying Falklands settlements and to Antarctica. RAF Mount Pleasant, to the west of Stanley, continues to serve as the islands' main international airport for larger civilian aircraft, with access requiring prior permission from the UK Ministry of Defence.
