Henderson Field (Midway Atoll)

Henderson Field
IATA: MDY ICAO: PMDY FAA LID: MDY WMO: 91066
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	U.S. Dept. of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service
Operator	American Airports Corp. (under sub-contract with Chugach Industries, Inc.)
Serves	Midway Atoll
Location	Sand Island, Midway Atoll
Elevation AMSL	18 ft / 5 m
Coordinates	28°12′05″N 177°22′53″W / 28.20139°N 177.38139°W / 28.20139; -177.38139
Website	tba
Maps
Location on Sand Island. Former runways in gray.
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 6/24 7,800 2,377 Asphalt
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Henderson Field (IATA: MDY, ICAO: PMDY) is a public airport located on Sand Island in Midway Atoll, an unincorporated territory of the United States. The airport is used as an emergency diversion point for ETOPS operations. It is one of three airfields named after Major Lofton R. Henderson (killed in the Battle of Midway during WWII), together with Henderson Field on Midway's Eastern Island, and Henderson Field in the Solomon Islands. The airfield now provides access to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

The airfield operated until 1993 as Naval Air Facility Midway. Its construction was begun by Seabees of the 1st Naval Construction Battalion in July 1942 as a bomber strip.^[2] After transition from the U.S. Navy to the Department of the Interior, the airport was subsidized by Boeing until 2004. Since 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has owned the airport, but subcontracted airport operations and maintenance, with financial assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Henderson Field has no control tower. From November to June, when albatross are typically present, flight arrivals and departures are limited to night-time.^[3] (Midway Atoll NWR is one of the world's largest colonies of nesting albatross.)