Cyril E. King Airport is a public airport located two miles (3 km) west of the central business district of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. It is currently the busiest airport in the United States Virgin Islands, and one of the busiest in the eastern Caribbean, servicing 1,403,000 passengers from July 2015 through June 2016. The airport also serves the island of St. John and is additionally often used by those travelling to the nearby British Virgin Islands. Although passports are not required for U.S. citizens who are visiting the U.S. Virgin Islands from other U.S. jurisdictions, all passengers bound for the continental United States and Puerto Rico must pass through U.S. Customs and Border Protection screening before boarding their flight. Private planes can either use CBP Preclearance or arrive in the continental United States or Puerto Rico as an international arrival. The airport operates one main runway, long. The terminal operates 11 gates. History Originally known as Mosquito Bay in 1927, the airstrip was the only facility which served the island of St. Thomas. The facility was named after a nearby grassy swamp, which was renamed to Lindbergh Bay after Charles Lindbergh used it to land the Spirit of St. Louis. The first passengers landed in 1928, and the airstrip would remain for civilian use until it was purchased by the US government on 1 September 1935. The airstrip was renamed Bourne Field, after the first person to fly non-stop from the United States to Nicaragua. The field was composed of two 1,600 feet (490 m) long unpaved runways which was used to train aviators of the US Marine Corps. In 1940, the US Navy ordered a major expansion of the base, which saw the extension and pavement of runways along with construction work to accommodate the VMS-3 observation squadron. Once World War II began, VMS-3 patrolled the surrounding areas for enemy submarines, operating the J2F-A Duck, Vought SU-2 Corsair, OS2N-1 Kingfisher, and Douglas SBD Dauntless. By 1944, enemy submarine activity decreased. This left the base redundant, and was handed over to civilian authorities to operate in 1946. Following the closure of the Marine base, the airport was leased to the US Department of the Interior for civilian use. However, the Navy reserved the power to reactivate the airport for military purposes. After the transfer, the former hanger was converted