Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport occupies Beef Island off the eastern tip of Tortola, linked to the main island by the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, and serves as the principal gateway to the British Virgin Islands. It offers a single hard-surfaced runway with tower and ground control, handling everything from island-hopping light aircraft to regional jet services from Miami and San Juan.
Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, previously known as Beef Island Airport, is the main airport serving the British Virgin Islands and is operated by the BVI Airports Authority (BVIAA). It sits on Beef Island, a small island off Tortola's eastern end, and functions as the principal air gateway for travellers heading on to the smaller islands of the territory by ferry as well as those connecting to the nearby US Virgin Islands. For a visiting VFR pilot it offers a compact but active Caribbean airport with a control tower, a single runway, and a mix of turboprop, regional jet and light general aviation traffic.
The airport lies on Beef Island, just off the eastern end of Tortola, to which it is connected by the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. Road Town, the BVI's capital on Tortola, lies a short distance to the west. The field serves the whole of the British Virgin Islands and is the territory's principal international aerodrome.
The airport has one physical hard-surfaced runway, 07/25, which is lit. Runway 25 is 4,450 feet long and Runway 07 is 4,161 feet long. Field elevation is 10 feet. There is no ILS.
Air traffic services are provided by Beef Island Tower, transmitting on 118.4 MHz for tower and 121.9 MHz for ground movements. The airport's ICAO code is TUPJ and its IATA code is EIS.
The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge connecting Beef Island to Tortola is a prominent and unmistakable landmark for pilots approaching the field, sitting immediately adjacent to the airport.
The airport was originally known as Beef Island Airport before being renamed in honour of Terrance B. Lettsome. It underwent a major 55 million dollar renovation completed in 2004, which included a runway extension, a new 46,000 square foot terminal, an enlarged apron, a new control tower and expanded road and parking facilities; this was the largest capital project undertaken in the territory up to that time. From 2014 onward there was extensive discussion of a further runway expansion intended to extend the runway to around 7,100 feet and permit direct service by mainline jets such as the Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A320, with China Communications Construction Company winning the tender in December 2016, though by June 2017 the government indicated the expansion would not proceed. In 2019 an Airbus A318-100 operated by Titan Airways landed at the field, the largest aircraft yet to have operated there. Air BVI, a regional carrier based at the airport, operated scheduled services from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s using Britten-Norman Islanders, Douglas DC-3s and Hawker Siddeley HS 748 turboprops to destinations including Anegada, Antigua, the Dominican Republic, St Thomas, San Juan and Virgin Gorda. British Caribbean Airways briefly operated BAe 146-100 jet service to Miami in 1986, and BVI Airways later announced a similar Miami service using Avro RJ100 aircraft that never began flying, the airline laying off its staff shortly before Hurricane Irma struck in 2017. American Airlines began nonstop jet service to Miami in June 2023 using American Eagle Embraer 175 regional jets, growing from a single seasonal flight to several daily year-round frequencies. On 5 April 1971 a Vinair Douglas C-47 crashed on landing while operating an international cargo flight from San Juan, and on 6 May 1993 a Short 330 turboprop was involved in an incident at the airport.
The airport remains the main air gateway to the British Virgin Islands, handling scheduled passenger services from carriers including American Eagle, Cape Air, InterCaribbean Airways, Sunrise Airways, Tradewind Aviation, VI Airlink and Winair to destinations across the Caribbean and to the United States. It houses the BVI Outstation of the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority.