Stornoway Airport (SYY) Information

Where is Stornoway Airport?
Stornoway Airport (IATA: SYY, ICAO: EGPO) is an airfield located 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) east of the burgh of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland. The Royal Air Force maintained an RAF airbase at the site of the airport until 1998.

Stornoway Airport is owned by HIAL, a company controlled by the Scottish Executive. The airfield was first opened in 1937, and used mainly for military purposes. NATO aircraft used the airport for missions over the North Atlantic and for stop overs to Greenland and the United States.

Stornoway Airport was also the location of an emergency landing made by a Lufthansa Boeing 747 jet in the early 1980s. Many people visited the airport to see the big stranded jet. The aircraft was en route from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany when it landed. The reason for the landing was that there was a medical emergency onboard. It stayed in Stornoway for 2 days.

Nowadays the airfield is mainly used for passenger services and Royal Mail. CHC Helicopters operate 2 Sikorsky S-92 helicopters, registration G-CGMU & G-SARB, equipped for search and rescue on behalf of HM Coastguard. The helicopter crews have flown on over 2900 callouts since the establishment of the service in May 1987.

123,199 passengers used the airport in 2009.