Learmonth Airport
Learmonth Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Civil aviation | ||||||||||
| Owner | Department of Defence | ||||||||||
| Operator | Shire of Exmouth | ||||||||||
| Serves | Exmouth, Western Australia | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 19 ft / 6 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 22°14′09″S 114°05′19″E / 22.23583°S 114.08861°E | ||||||||||
| Website | Learmonth Airport | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2012/13) | |||||||||||
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Sources: Australian AIP and aerodrome chart Passenger and aircraft movements from the Bureau of Infrastructure & Transport Research Economics | |||||||||||
Learmonth Airport (IATA: LEA, ICAO: YPLM) is an airport, co-located on the site of RAAF Base Learmonth, a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base. The airport is located near the town of Exmouth on the north-west coast of Western Australia.
Established in the 1940s as an airfield, the current airport is operated by the Shire of Exmouth under a lease from the Department of Defence and occupies an area of 23.9 hectares (59 acres) on the RAAF Base Learmonth site. The terminal opened on 3 December 1999.
On 7 October 2008, Qantas Flight 72 made an emergency landing at RAAF Learmonth. On 1 June 2012, an AirAsia X flight to Perth made an emergency landing at Learmonth Airport for refuelling. Learmonth is designated an emergency alternative airport in the case of fog or bad weather affecting Perth Airport.
In October 2023, CPB Contractors was awarded a contract to upgrade the airport.