Wikipedia

Airport

location where aircraft take off and land with extended support facilities, mostly for commercial air transport
(Redirected from Air base)

An airport is a place where airplanes can land or take off. Most airports in the world have only a long strip of level ground called a runway. Many airports have buildings which are used to hold airplanes and passengers. A building that holds passengers waiting for their planes or luggage is called a terminal. The sections between planes and the terminal are called "gates". Airports also have buildings called hangars to hold planes when they are not used. Some airports have buildings to control the airport, like a control tower which tells planes where to go.

Terminal 5 of the London Heathrow Airport, the biggest airport in London.

An international airport is a large airport that airplanes can use to fly to and from other countries. A domestic airport is an airport which is usually smaller and only has airplanes coming from different places in the same country. Most international airports have shops and restaurants for airplane passengers to use.

An airport used by the military is often called an air force base or airbase. An aircraft carrier is a floating airbase.

Safety

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Airports are made and operated for safety. Today, people must walk through a metal detector, a machine that can tell if metal goes through it. If it makes a noise, the officers will make that person take off all things on them that are metal. They also have X-ray machines that can look into luggage. If officers find items such as weapons, or anything that can be used to kill people, that item (and the person who has it) are taken away and possibly arrested. As well as this, passengers are not allowed to bring bottles or containers with over 100 ml of liquid onto the plane because they could be turned into bombs. Therefore, all water bottles must be emptied before entering the secured area.

At some airports, because of better machinery, some metals do not need to be taken out of bags and liquids can now be up to 1 liter.

Process

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Processes can be different depending on what airport someone goes to.

Check-in

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When someone first enters an airport, they will need to check in. This is so they can check in their luggage and get their boarding pass (this is needed to enter the plane). Some airlines need you to pay to check in large luggage.

Security

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Once somebody has checked in, they will need to go through security. Queues can be long depending on airport. In the European Union, they have a new system called the Entry Exit System, and many people have missed their flights[1] because of very long queues.

After security

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After security, some large airports have a large store called a duty free. They sell many items, such as beauty and skincare products.

After duty-free, someone can make their way to a certain gate, where their flight takes off from.

Boarding

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Boarding takes place in stages. Many airlines board first class passengers first, they have paid more money to board first and sit on more comfortable seats. Some airlines have something called a first come first serve policy, if someone turns up earlier they can sit wherever they want in the plane. This is because the plane has less people in it.

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Other websites

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  1. ↑ Smialek, Jeanna; Ryckewaert, Koba (2026-08-04). "Airport chaos, delays as E.U. debuts biometric border system". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-08-04.
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