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Are there any 2 (or more) airports that are ground-connected so that e.g. aircraft can taxi between them? Would that be even possible from a definition point of view, having a common area with two airports?

I thought of airport being a facility with an ICAO identifier, but maybe a different definition suits better here?

I could imagine e.g. having an international one and a GA / regional airport being so close together that they were connected at some point. Does anything like that exist?

Update: I'm also curious about airports that are not directly connected in a physical way but e.g. in an operational way: an airside bus takes passengers from the gate in a terminal in airport A and brings them to their flight in airport B or other situations like that.

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    $\begingroup$ With some aircraft, all roads are taxiways. :) $\endgroup$
    – Sophie Swett
    Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 21:13
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    $\begingroup$ Does the Polderbaan and the rest of Amsterdam Schiphol count? 😉 $\endgroup$
    – David Richerby
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 11:03
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    $\begingroup$ wow, @TannerSwett, 2 things come to mind when I see that. 1) rear visibility (when driving) is just a concept, not a reality (not that most people look before changing lanes). 2) a minor fender bender, which is likely when people are gawking at you, is liable to be very expensive to repair and a major pain if you're on vacation at the beach and flying home is your plan. $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 12:07
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    $\begingroup$ Do you count "sharing a control tower" as "operationally connected"? $\endgroup$
    – Mark
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 20:34
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    $\begingroup$ @Florian, not fully shared, but Spokane International's tower also handles approach control for Fairchild Air Force Base, 5km to the west, presumably due to Spokane International's runway 25 departure routes intersecting Fairchild's runway 23 arrival routes. Fairchild ground control and departures are handled by Fairchild's tower. $\endgroup$
    – Mark
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 21:19

13 Answers 13

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There are numerous joint use (commercial/military) airports with separate terminals/ramp areas. There aren't many where there are two connected fields. The only one I'm aware of is Naval Air Station Whiting Field near Milton FL that has two operational fields with separate identifiers.

There is NAS Whiting Field - North. ICAO: KNSE and
NAS Whiting Field - South. ICAO: KNDZ

The two fields have a central support base area between the two fields. There is a single taxiway that connects the two fields around the east side of the support area.

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I think Chitose and New Chitose on Japan's Hokkaido island fit the criteria.

One is an air base (Chitose) with ICAO code RJCJ, while the other is the island's primary civilian airport (New Chitose) with ICAO code RJCC. They have separate runways, but they're jointly operated and linked by taxiways.

It's quite cool watching the air base's jets while you're waiting for your flight.

enter image description here

Image licence details

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  • $\begingroup$ Interesting airport! Do they have two separate ICAO identifiers, by chance? Nice find, and welcome to Av.SE! $\endgroup$
    – Ralph J ♦
    Commented Oct 24, 2018 at 5:10
  • $\begingroup$ @Ralph They do: RJCJ for Chitose and RJCC for New Chitose. Thanks. I probably won't post here often, but I saw this question and immediately went "hey, wasn't New Chitose like that?" $\endgroup$
    – ProgrammingLlama
    Commented Oct 24, 2018 at 5:14
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    $\begingroup$ Very cool - wish I could upvote this answer twice, since is exactly what the OP was asking about, as well as an interesting & unique combination. $\endgroup$
    – Ralph J ♦
    Commented Oct 24, 2018 at 5:20
  • $\begingroup$ Wow! Thank you for the bounty rep :-o :-) $\endgroup$
    – ProgrammingLlama
    Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 1:27
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The airports in Berlin share runways. Strictly speaking, one of them (BER) isn't really operational... But it will be. Soon. For sure... Hey, look over there: a monkey with two heads!!

ber and sxf

google maps

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    $\begingroup$ I'm not following your comment about a monkey with two heads... $\endgroup$
    – Michael
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 22:11
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    $\begingroup$ @Michael, Berlin Brandenburg has been missing construction deadlines for almost a decade now, and management has been trying to distract people from that fact. (Incidentally, they might have been more successful with a three-headed monkey.) $\endgroup$
    – Mark
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 23:23
  • $\begingroup$ IIRC, SXF will be closed the day BER goes operational, and will then be rebuilt into the BER freight terminal. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Commented Oct 26, 2018 at 10:15
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    $\begingroup$ @Michael reference to Monkey Island monkeyisland.wikia.com/wiki/Three_Headed_Monkey $\endgroup$
    – Portree Kid
    Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 15:08
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Oakland International Airport (IATA: OAK, ICAO: KOAK, FAA LID: OAK) is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States.

Oakland International Airport covers 2,600 acres (1,100 ha) and has four runways.

OAK has in essence, two independent operations running as one complex. Commercial flights and cargo operations operate primarily out of the South field complex and general aviation, charters, flying clubs, and FBOs operating out of the North Field.

South Field (Commercial and cargo operations) (one runway):

  • Runway 12/30: 10,520 ft × 150 ft (3,206 m × 46 m) asphalt

North Field (general aviation operations) (three runways):

  • Runway 10R/28L: 6,213 ft × 150 ft (1,894 m × 46 m) asphalt

  • Runway 10L/28R: 5,458 ft × 150 ft (1,664 m × 46 m) asphalt

  • Runway 15/33: 3,376 ft × 75 ft (1,029 m × 23 m) asphalt

Oakland International Airport

There is a connecting taxiway that will take you from the middle of 12/30 to 28L, over the Ron Cowan Parkway, but my experience is that no commercial flights use the North Field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_International_Airport

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    $\begingroup$ "my experience is that no commercial flights use the North Field." Given the maximum 6,200 ft. runway, yeah, I would imagine that they don't. I wouldn't be surprised if some GA (say, private jets) use 12/30 sometimes, though. $\endgroup$
    – reirab
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 21:19
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    $\begingroup$ I recall they used North Field to land jets when they had to close runway 12-30 for rehabilitation. They took off on taxiway W. The additional noise made them give out tickets to residents for a vacation. $\endgroup$
    – user71659
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 22:20
  • $\begingroup$ Someone built a housing development directly north of all three runways at OAK. The houses are well insulated and have little noise as a plane flies overhead. Unless you leave a door open. Trivia fact: directly north of the airport is the HQ of the Oakland Raiders football team. It's thankfully out of the flight path. $\endgroup$
    – gwally
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 22:28
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This is a historical example, and doesn't quite fit your definition of "airports," but it may be of interest that during World War II, the US and Canada built makeshift runways on opposite sides of their shared border, or perhaps a single runway across the border, only half of which was used at a time. The purpose was so that US-built airplanes could be delivered to Canada while remaining compliant with US neutrality laws. Planes piloted by American pilots would land on the US side, be towed to the Canadian side by civilians, and then take off again under the command of Canadian pilots. See the Canadian Aviation Historical Society for details.

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One strange case of airports connected in an operational but non-physical way: Allentown (Lehigh Valley International)—ABE, Pennsylvania, USA and Newark—EWR, New Jersey.

United Airlines connects these two airports by bus (they're about 80 miles apart). Passengers booked on these "flights" can go to the Allentown airport, check in, board a bus, and be taken to Newark for their connection (they'll go through TSA security at Newark, but their checked bags will be transferred, so there's no need to go to the bag drop/ticket counter). From Newark, they board the bus from inside the secure area of the airport terminal, just as if it's a plane, with luggage transferred for you (they don't drop you inside the secure area at Allentown though, it's not a true airside-to-airside service).

Passengers even earn frequent flyer miles for the bus ride.

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  • $\begingroup$ The "legacy" Continental Airlines (now part of United Air Lines) also had connecting FLIGHTS from Ellington Field (EFD) to IAH/KIAH (George Bush Intercontinental) back in the 1990s. About 30 statute miles distance. They used ATR-42s or similar, IIRC. But, you had to have a ticket from IAH to somewhere else in order to fly EFD-IAH. $\endgroup$
    – pr1268
    Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 6:32
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Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport (RCTP) is connected by a taxiway to Taoyuan Air Base (RCGM) just southeast of it.

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    $\begingroup$ Please don't just use IATA codes. They're easy to typo, easy to misunderstand and easy to not understand at all. Without clicking on the link, I have no idea even what continent you're talking about $\endgroup$
    – David Richerby
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 10:45
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    $\begingroup$ @DavidRicherby "easy to not understand at all" - given that IATA code is what most people use when booking tickets I'd say it's more recognizable than the ICAO code. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Kuo
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 15:17
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    $\begingroup$ IATA codes are recognizable as being IATA codes. But if you see an IATA code that you're not familiar with, you can't understand anything at all about it, other than "This means some airport somewhere in the world." And note that I said don't just use IATA codes, not don't use them at all. $\endgroup$
    – David Richerby
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 16:35
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    $\begingroup$ @Steve Kuo: But this is the AVIATION site, not the travel site. Most of us fly planes far more often than we book tickets. (And on the few occasions where I have booked commercial flights, I just said "London" or "Helsinki" without ever thinking about airport codes.) $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 18:50
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    $\begingroup$ @SteveKuo, quick - what airport is "JRN"? How about "SWJU"? $\endgroup$
    – Mark
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 20:58
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Regarding "airports that are not directly connected in a physical way but e.g. in an operational way": the two main Paris airports (Charles de Gaulle Airport/CDG/LFPG and Orly Airport/ORY/LFPO) have a bus shuttle to transfer people between both airports. This is done because domestic flights are served via Orly while international flights are served via CDG.

So if you were to fly from Berlin via Paris to Martinique (french overseas territory), you would arrive in CDG, take the bus to Orly, and take the plane to Martinique.

The airports are several kilometers apart, though. Also, the buses depart outside of the airport, rather than at the gate.

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    $\begingroup$ That's a good example. It's also got to be a major pain for the traveler and a logistical nightmare for the operations groups! $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 13:57
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    $\begingroup$ and welcome to Aviation! $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 13:57
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    $\begingroup$ Would be interesting to know if there are two airports that have shuttles airside, so before immigration / customs / hand luggage security etc, so basically while being in transfer still. And even maybe checked in luggage transfer. $\endgroup$
    – Florian
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 14:59
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    $\begingroup$ The CDG/Orly bus is landside, though, right? Not airside? CDG isn't even connected to itself airside, let alone to Orly. Even within terminal 2E, there are multiple separate airsides (which is not a particularly passenger-friendly design.) $\endgroup$
    – reirab
    Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 21:25
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    $\begingroup$ @reirab Expecting passenger-friendly design from CDG sounds like a venture doomed to fail miserably. $\endgroup$
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Oct 27, 2018 at 21:37
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A former example is Rhein-Main Air Base (ex-FRF) and Frankfurt Airport (FRA). The main runways are roughly east-west, with the airport to the north and the former air base to the south.

The base closed in 2005 and the site is now the FRA cargo terminal, with a third passenger terminal being built there, too.

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Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International PANC ANC is connected by a taxiway to Lake Hood Seaplane Base PALH LHD. Lake Hood also has a gravel landing strip which is not part of ANC.

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Yes, in fact, there are many: just take a look at this map

On this extract you can see one of many distinct airports connected by taxiways (here La Grande 4/Lac de la falaise and Lac Polaris)

...

If you are willing to include sailplane and rivers as taxiway.

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In Germany, in Schwäbisch Hall there are two airports: "Schwäbisch Hall-Weckrieden" and "Adolf Würth Airport Schwäbisch Hall" (EDTX and EDTY) that are directly connected with one taxiway that even crosses a public road that has to be closed if someone actually wanted to taxi from one to the other airport.

I've landed there and walked from one airport to the other to get a cup of coffee, watched the sky divers depart on the northern airport and then walked back to the southern airport. So yes, that exists!

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Scott AFB/Mid-America Airport (BLV/KBLV) fits this criteria. The west half is a US Air Force base and the east runway and ramp are a civilian/commercial airport. Notice how long that lone taxiway is that connects the two.

enter image description here

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