Campbeltown Airport (IATA: CAL, ICAO: EGEC) is located 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) west of Campbeltown, near the tip of the Kintyre peninsula on the west coast of Scotland. It is still owned by the Ministry of Defence, under a 'care and maintenance' programme, but a part of the airfield is now run as a commercial enterprise by the Highlands and Islands Airports Limited, a company under the control of the Scottish Executive. The airport was formerly known as RAF Machrihanish, (after the village of Machrihanish) and hosted squadrons of the Royal Air Force and other NATO airforces as well as the United States Marine Corps. It is now called MoD Machrihanish. The airport is at a strategic point over the Irish sea, and was used to guard the entrance to the Firth of Clyde where US nuclear submarines were based at Holy Loch and where Royal NavyTrident missile submarines are still based at HMNB Clyde (Faslane Naval Base). Permanent full time military operations ceased in 1997. At 3,049 metres, Runway 11/29 at Campbeltown Airport is the longest of any public airport in Scotland. It was built in World War II to permit heavily-fuelled aircraft to take off on transatlantic flights and is certificated to accept the Space Shuttle should it need to make landfall in Europe, and provides for the Boeing 747Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to get airborne again. Campbeltown Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P808) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Highlands & Islands Airports Limited)[1].
