Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Karratha Airport (YPKA) serves the Pilbara mining town of Karratha in Western Australia, sitting close to the ports of Dampier and Walcott and handling a mix of regional passenger jets, fly-in fly-out charters and a large helicopter presence supporting the North West Shelf gas and iron ore industries. For a visiting VFR pilot it offers a single long, lit hard-surface runway capable of handling everything from light aircraft to wide-body jets, making it an interesting and busy regional field to plan into.
Karratha Airport is a public aerodrome owned and operated by the City of Karratha, located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is the principal air gateway for the Karratha township and the nearby industrial ports of Dampier and Walcott, and is notable to visiting pilots for its mix of regional jet services, fly-in fly-out traffic and a substantial resident helicopter fleet supporting offshore gas and marine pilot transfer operations.
The airport lies about 14 km from Karratha and roughly 5 nautical miles south of Dampier, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Area air traffic services in the vicinity are provided by Melbourne Centre.
Karratha has a single physical runway, 08/26, a hard-surfaced and lit strip of about 7,461 to 7,462 feet in length. There is no ILS at the field.
Pilots should use the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) of 127.35 MHz for airfield traffic, with a Flight Service Station frequency of 122.4 MHz also associated with the field. Overlying area control is provided by Melbourne Centre.
Karratha Airport traces its origins to the early development of the Pilbara iron ore industry in the early 1960s, when Dampier was chosen as the port for Hamersley Iron's operations. The nearest airfield at the time was at Roebourne, but in 1966 Hamersley Iron built a new airport on the current Karratha site, with a sealed gravel runway and a small terminal, naming it Dampier Airport. The introduction of Fokker F28 jets by MacRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA) in 1969 saw regular passenger services shift away from the unsealed Roebourne strip. After operating for several years as a private airport, it was taken over by the Shire of Roebourne, and has since undergone several upgrades including a new runway and new terminal buildings; the original runway is now used as a taxiway and as a helicopter landing area. Over the decades the airport has been served by aircraft including the Fokker F27 and F28, British Aerospace 146, Fokker 100, Boeing 717, Embraer E-Jets and the Boeing 737, with MMA the dominant operator from the 1960s to the 1980s before East-West Airlines and later Ansett entered the market. A major $35 million terminal redevelopment was completed and officially opened by Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss on 25 September 2015.
Karratha Airport remains a busy regional field, ranked as one of the busier airports in Western Australia for commercial traffic, with the great majority of its passengers being fly-in fly-out workers supporting the mining and gas industries. The runway is capable of handling aircraft up to Boeing 737-800 size routinely, and can accommodate larger types such as the Boeing 767-300, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III or even the Antonov An-124 Ruslan. Scheduled operators have included Qantas, QantasLink and Virgin Australia and its regional arm, generally on services to and from Perth, along with charter and regional operators such as Alliance Airlines and Nexus Airlines. The airport also hosts a significant helicopter presence, with operators including Bristow Helicopters, CHC Helicopter and Helicopters (NZ) based there flying types such as the AgustaWestland AW109 and AW139, Sikorsky S-76, Aerospatiale Super Puma and Airbus Helicopters EC225 in support of North West Shelf gas field operations and marine pilot transfers for ships using Dampier and Walcott.