Walt Disney World Airport

IATA: ~~DWS~~ – ICAO: none

Summary

Airport type

Private

Owner

Walt Disney Company

Location

Bay Lake, Florida

Coordinates

28°24′00″N 81°34′17″W / 28.4°N 81.5715°W

Runways

Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
16/34^[1]	2,000 x 100	609.6 x 30.5	Asphalt

Walt Disney World Airport, also known as Lake Buena Vista Airport and Lake Buena Vista STOLport, (IATA: ~~DWS~~) is a former private-use airport owned by the Walt Disney Company, located within Walt Disney World, just east of Walt Disney World Speedway, in Bay Lake in Orange County, Florida, United States. When it was active it accommodated smaller regional airliners capable of operating from short runways, an arrangement often known as a STOLport. It is currently not registered as an active airport by the FAA, ICAO nor IATA anymore.

History

Lake Buena Vista Airport was built in 1971 to serve as a private STOL airfield for Walt Disney World guests and employees, with scheduled passenger service to Orlando Jetport at McCoy (now Orlando International Airport, MCO) and Tampa International Airport (TPA) provided by Shawnee Airlines, using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. This Shawnee Airlines service is mentioned in the "Air Commuter Service" section of the Sept. 9, 1972 Eastern Air Lines system timetable as a connecting service to and from Eastern flights at Orlando and Tampa. The airport was never large, with only enough space to accommodate four aircraft at a time; no hangar space was ever built. This STOL airfield was intended as a proof-of-concept for a planned, but was ultimately rejected in favor of a vision for a larger, full-service airport within Walt Disney World itself.^[1] All passenger service was discontinued by the 1980s, largely due to extensions of the Walt Disney World Monorail System on either side. As of 2009, flight operations are prohibited by a no-fly zone in place since 2003; however, the runway is fully intact and may be visible to motorists traveling along World Drive toward the Transportation and Ticket Center, as well as by passengers on the monorail.

Service

There has been no scheduled or unscheduled commercial service to this airport since the early 1980s, despite being listed in the airport databases of airlines such as Allegiant Air. The next nearest airport, Kissimmee Gateway Airport, briefly offered passenger service through the now defunct DayJet; currently, most Walt Disney World guests arrive through Orlando International Airport and Orlando Sanford International Airport.

References

1 2 "Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Florida: Southwestern Orlando area". http://www.airfields-freeman.com. Retrieved 23 November 2015. External link in |website= (help)

External links

Airports in Florida

Primary	Daytona Beach Destin–Fort Walton Beach Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood Gainesville Jacksonville Key West Melbourne Miami Northeast Florida Northwest Florida Beaches Orlando Orlando Sanford Palm Beach Pensacola Punta Gorda St. Pete–Clearwater Sarasota–Bradenton Southwest Florida Tallahassee Tampa

Reliever	Boca Raton Clearwater DeLand–Taylor Fort Lauderdale Executive Herlong Jacksonville Executive Kissimmee Gateway Knight Lakeland Linder Lantana Miami Executive Naples New Smyrna Beach North Palm Beach North Perry Opa Locka Orlando Executive Ormond Beach Page Tampa Executive Venice Whitted

General	Airglades Apalachicola Arcadia Bartow Belle Glade Brooksville–Tampa Bay Calhoun County Cecil Cross City Crystal River Dade-Collier DeFuniak Springs Destin Dunn Dunnellon–Marion County Everglades Fernandina Beach Flager Hilliard Homestead Immokalee Inverness Keystone Heights LaBelle Lake City Gateway Lake Wales Leesburg Lewis Marathon Marco Island Marianna Merritt Island Miami Seaplane Ocala Okeechobee County Pahokee Palatka–Larkin Perry–Foley Plant City Pompano Beach Prince Quincy St. Lucie County Sebastian Sebring Sikes Space Coast Suwannee County Tri-County Umatilla Valkaria Vero Beach Wauchula Williston Winter Haven Witham Zephyrhills

Public use	Carrabelle-Thompson Fort Walton Beach Jack Browns Massey Ranch Orlando Apopka South Lakeland Tavares Wakulla County

Private use	Ames Buckingham Gardner Hidden Lake Jumbolair Kathrinstadt Ocean Reef Club Osborn Ridge Landing Sandy Creek NASA/Shuttle Landing Facility Spruce Creek

Military	Avon Park AFR Cape Canaveral AFS Skid Strip Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater (at St. Petersburg-Clearwater IAP) Coast Guard Air Station Miami (at Opa Locka Airport) Duke Field Eglin AFB Homestead ARB Hurlburt Field Jacksonville Air National Guard Base (at Jacksonville IAP) NAS Jacksonville (Towers Field) NAS Key West MacDill AFB NS Mayport (McDonald Field) Patrick AFB NAS Pensacola (Sherman Field) Tyndall AFB NAS Whiting Field North Field South Field NOLF Choctaw NOLF Santa Rosa NOLF Saufley NOLF Spencer

Defunct	All-American Bushnell AAF NAS DeLand (now DeLand-Taylor) Disney Drew AAF (now Tampa IAP) Epcot Jacksonville–Imeson McCoy AFB (now Orlando IAP) NAS Cecil Field (now Cecil Airport) NAAS Corry Field NAS Ellyson Field NAS Pensacola - Chevalier Field Naval Air Station Sanford (now Orlando-Sanford IAP) Opa-locka West Panama City–Bay County NAS Richmond Tampa Bay Executive

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