General overview
Norfolk International public airport is located within the 7 miles (11 km) north-east of downtown Norfolk, which an independent city in Virginia. The ORF serves the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, south-east Virginia, and the north-east North Carolina. The airport is owned and run by the Norfolk Airport Authority and its bureau under the municipal government.
The airport codes are IATA: ORF, FAA LID: ORF, ICAO: KORF.
In 1938, the Norfolk International Airport was built. It handled a 3,500-foot (1,100 m) runway. The first terminal of ORF was founded in the 1940s. In 1976, the airport's name was changed from Norfolk Municipal Airport to Norfolk International Airport. Some facilities were added to the newly revised airport. The facilities included: federal customs, buildings to hold the fire station, and ATC tower.
One of the problems the ORF airport faced as it developed was dealt with by the nearby located Botanical Garden. It created a buffer area between the city around and the airport. Hence, Norfolk Airport was surrounded by Green Area and soon became a national role model for dealing with growing an ecological sanctuary and air facilities at the same time.
The Capacity and Airlines of ORF
For 2019-23 the Norfolk airport was categorized as a primary, small-hub, commercial service facility by The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems. FAA statistics show that the ORF had over 3,663,996 passengers in 2018; Later in 2017, it showed an increase of 9% with 3,380,902 passengers in total.
In 2017, ORF was ranked as the 70th-busiest airport in the United States. However, in terms of carried passengers, ORF became 4th-busiest in the city of Virginia. The predominant users of the ORF airport are the following airlines: Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines. However, other airlines also operate at ORF: Allegiant Air, America Eagle, Delta Connection, Frontier Airlines, United Airlines, and United Express. Around 70 million pounds of air cargo are shipped each year in/out of ORF airport. Cargo operating airlines are FedEx Express and UPS Airlines.