Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (IATA: OPF, ICAO: KOPF, FAA LID: OPF) (formerly Opa-locka Airport and Opa-locka Executive Airport until 2014) is in Miami-Dade County, Florida, 11 miles north of downtown Miami. Part of the airport is in the city limits of Opa-locka. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a general aviationreliever airport.
The FAA-contract control tower is manned from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM. The airport has four fixed-base operators. It is owned by Miami-Dade County and operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss retired from aircraft development and manufacturing in the 1920s and became a real estate developer in Florida, he moved the Florida Aviation Camp from Hialeah to a parcel west of Opa-locka. Curtiss had been lobbying for the establishment of the Naval Reserve Base in Miami since 1928, and this property became a Naval Reserve Aviation Training Base (NRATB), which later became an active installation renamed Naval Air Station Miami. The installation was extremely active during World War II and saw significant military construction on the main base as well as several additional auxiliary airfields in the general area. Much of this construction is still in existence today.
The sole remaining military activity at the airport is Coast Guard Air Station Miami, operating from federal property not deeded to the county. It hosts EADS HC-144 Ocean Sentry turboprops; and MH-65 Dolphin helicopters for coastal patrol, deployment aboard medium endurance and high endurance coast guard cutters, and air-sea rescue. Much of CGAS Miami's facilities were built during World War II as part of Naval Air Station Miami.
The airport is served by several cargo and charter airlines that use the U. S. customs facility. Maintenance and modification of airliners up to Boeing 747 size is carried out by several aviation firms.
FLICKR - GLOBAL PLANESPOTTING