Scatsta Airport

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Scatsta Airport
IATA: SCS - ICAO: EGPM
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		SERCO-IAL Ltd. on behalf of BP
Serves		Lerwick
Elevation AMSL		81 ft (25 m)
Coordinates		60°25′58″N, 001°17′46″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
06/24	4,462	1,360	Asphalt

Scatsta Airport (IATA: SCS, ICAO: EGPM), is a commercial airport on Shetland in Scotland. It is located 24 miles (39 km) NNW of Lerwick and 5 miles (8 km) SW of Sullom Voe oil terminal.

The airport was first developed in 1940 as RAF Scatsta, a Royal Air Force fighter plane base to support Coastal Command flying boat operations at RAF Sullom Voe, and was the most northerly base in the British Isles.

It was abandoned after World War II, but reinstated as a civilian airport in 1978 to support the Shetland oil industry, and the Sullom Voe oil terminal in particular. It is the fifth largest airport in Scotland, ranked by international passengers.[1] This classification may be on the basis of helicopter flights to and from oil rigs in the Norwegian and/ or Faroes sectors of the North Atlantic/ North Sea oil region, or some classification of flights to foreign-registered (though UK-crewed and serviced) oil rigs as being "foreign" destinations. The only fixed wing route operating regularly from Scatsta is the 7 or 8 times daily shuttle to and from Aberdeen. The balance between oil service flights and "civilian" flights can be judged from the fact that the airport service area has no bar (the nearest is some 3 miles away), no public telephones (but a direct line to Shell's Aberdeen switchboard), no taxi service (to anywhere), no parking for non-employees, and three large rooms for helicopter passengers to don their immersion suits before embarking. It does manage to service an average of two or three "civilian" passengers on each trip to/ from Aberdeen (judging from personal observations), though how they get there or how they get to anywhere else is a puzzle.