Do airports actually close?
 

I thought some airports shut down for several hours every night. I'm sitting here in a hotel next to BUF ready to head over there at 4:30 when they officially open so I can stand by for a 6:30 flight. But between 3 and 4 AM I heard at least three planes land and one take off. Could they all be cargo planes (fedex and the like)? Or do airlines move empty planes occasionally? I would just assume they're not unloading pax at this hour.

There are plenty airports that close, particularly those in urban areas. My regular airport, LCY, is even closed on Saturday afternoons (it's primarily a business airport and has not traffic at that time).

For some, it may be a simple question of demand, so you could have late night cargo flights. For others, it could be due to noise restrictions for the benefit residents in the flight path. Conversely, there are plenty 24-hour airports out there, too. LGW is an example, with the bleary-eyed charter pax checking in at some ungodly hour...

Yup.
Amsterdam kicks people right out around midnight. There are airports in the U.S. that 'close' to prevent the homeless from making camp - especially those that are connected to a rapid transit line.

Buffalo airport is open at all times, as described here.

However just because the operating side is open does not mean the terminal building has to be. If you turn up early for the first flight of the day you may find the building locked, although there are usually security guards around to keep an eye on things. Airports with first flights at 06.00 often open up the building around 04.00. There are other aspects that may have restricted hours; customs for example may only be available for limited hours during an airport's operations, which restrict its ability to handle international flights. There are reports of some surprisingly significant airports in the US where overnight international flights arriving early have to sit with all the passengers on board until the customs officers turn up for work.

I am sure my good friend stut is aware that this was a planning condition imposed at the time of building the airport, it has to be closed from 12.30 Saturday to 12.30 Sunday. As it would have little business at those times anyway, it's no great loss. Likewise it also cannot open until 09.00 on public holidays, so early flights have to be rescheduled on those days. Other airports have other conditions imposed on them by their local communities.

[QUOTE=WHBM]... customs for example may only be available for limited hours during an airport's operations, which restrict its ability to handle international flights. There are reports of some surprisingly significant airports in the US where overnight international flights arriving early have to sit with all the passengers on board until the customs officers turn up for worrk. /QUOTE]

Heck, try LAX. Got stuck on a plane for almost 45 minutes because we picked up a stronger-than-expected tailwind coming from NRT. The captain announced the "good news-bad news." We got in early but would have to sit out on the ramp as there was nobody there to do Customs and Immigration. We had some pretty irate folks on that old, hot, dirty 747 before they finally let us deplane.

As for the original question, I worked at FAT many years ago - in the 80s. One of my duties on swing shift was to walk through the terminal, sweeping everyone out ahead of me and then lock the terminal - around midnight as I recall. It stayed locked until 4:30 am, when the first PSA flight started prepping for a 6:00 am departure. PSA - those were the days! Remember the Grinning Bird?

Guess what .... it's back ! Only this week.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1027027/M/

Even the smile is there. Well done US Airways for this.

Many (if not most) airports are open 24 hours, although the terminal may not be.

Just think about if you were on a flight that was scheduled to arrive at 11 PM, and the airport shut down at midnight, but because of WX or ATC you are running 3 hours late, and you have to be in the office the next morning. Would you want to A) land at your airport at 2 AM (and get to your home or hotel for a few hours rest), or B) land at some other airport and have a 250-300 mile bus ride? :confused:

Many late flights you hear are late commercial flights arriving or express/freight flights (FedEx, UPS, etc...). Most of these fly overnight. (Overnight packages! :rolleyes: )

SNA (John Wayne, Santa Ana, Orange County - take your pick) airport closes at 11PM nightly for take-offs and re-opens at 7AM Monday through Saturday and 8AM on Sundays. Apparently landings are allowed some time after 11PM and in the good old days when we still had the propeller commuter A/C they could take off before 7AM (but not by much).

Wow! How nostalgic is that? Of course, I've never seen it on an Airbus, but ... :D ^

Let me guess -- Northwest?

That was a reason HNL closed nightly--prior to 9/11, the homeless made a camp out in the gates. Nice, air conditioned, safe and lovely Hawaiian music to lull one to sleep. Not the case anymore in the States, though, since a BP is required to get to the secured areas.

Nope. UA. It had been the flight from h***, with 40 or 50 elementary and middle school-aged kids on a field trip absolutely out of control. The lavs were all ankle deep in wet, filthy trash and unuseable, pax and FAs were sleep deprived and nerve-jangled and ready to commit homicide and the air was non-functional while we sat on the ramp for almost a hour with seatbelts fastened and no drinks, lavs, etc. waiting for the feds to come to work.

I've experienced this at JFK arriving from EZE at AA's terminal anyway. Flights get in from S. America early but all pax have to remain onboard until 6am when immigration/customs start work.

At least two airports that do close to air traffic movement are LHR (they boot you out too) and SYD as there are overnight flight curfews. The stack of flights from Asia that circle over the North Sea waiting to land has been referred to as the "1,000 bomber raid"

FAT was still doing that although the schedule was a little different. But now with recent changes, I haven't found out what the concourse schedule is like now.

The new Mexicana flight leaves at 1:30AM. The next departures are about 5:15AM when flights leave for SFO and LAX. I wonder if they are locking the concourse for an hour or 2.

HNL closes at night? Oh no! I was planning to stay there because I have a six hour overnight "connection". :(