STOLport

A STOLport or STOLPORT was an airport designed with STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) operations in mind, usually for an aircraft class of its weight and size. The term STOLport did not appear to be in common usage as of 2008. A STOLport normally had a short single runway, in general shorter than 5,000 feet (1,524 m). STOLports only accepted certain types of aircraft, often only smaller propeller aircraft, often with limits on the amount of fuel that can be taken. In the United States, short runway facilities are simply known as airports and the term STOLport has not been commonly used since the early 1970s.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines STOLports as "unique airports designed to serve airplanes that have exceptional short-field performance capabilities."

In the United States, a STOLport is one of several types of facilities. STOLports are identified with an S at the end of the site ID. For example, Calvert Peak STOLport is listed as FAA site number 19448.1*S. As of January 2009, around 80 facilities are coded as STOLports by the FAA in the United States. According to the FAA in 1968, twenty-five potential STOLport sites were identified in the Northeast Megalopolis.In the early 1970s, a study was conducted to help the FAA to determine if it was necessary to create an elevated STOLport test facility. At one point in 1968, a 2,400 feet (730 m) STOLport was under consideration for a roof top in Manhattan. The Toronto island airport, with a longest runway of 3,988 feet (1,216 m), went into a period of decline in the 1980s and 1990s, but has since been revitalized as a city centre airport by Porter Airlines, flying de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 Q400 turboprops. However, it is not officially designated as a STOLport.

Between 1965 and 1987, approximately 30 regional airports were built in Norway, typically equipped with a 2,600-foot (792 m) long runway. They were intended to improve transportation systems and shorten travel times to areas that were considered difficult to reach by other means. In Norwegian, they are called "kortbaneflyplass" ("short runway airport"). As they were built in areas with relatively low population density and terrain that often wouldn't permit a standard length runway, it became essential to build shorter runways and use smaller airplanes. Today, the airports are frequented by airliners that have been awarded subsidies from the Norwegian government. They typically fly feeder routes to larger hub airports that have direct routes to Oslo and other major cities in Norway. Though most of the routes are flown by Widerøe, other airliners occasionally win bids on some of the routes.

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