The Las Venturas Airport (LVA) is an international airport located in Las Venturas, right in the city centre, west of the Strip, featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Description[]
It is based on the real-life Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. The player can purchase Juank Air flights to and from Los Santos International Airport and Easter Bay Airport, but no flights actually take off or land without the player purchasing a plane ticket from the ticket machine. There are two Shamals, a Leviathan and several Dodos parked at the airport, along with an AT-400 in the hangar to the south. In the south-east corner, there is a closed freight gate and the "Las Venturas Flight School", which is not the same Flying School that the player attends. The sign above the entrance says "Welcome to Las Venturas / Bone County Airport". Also in here is the marker for the Las Venturas Checkpoint Races in where the player can access six different aircraft checkpoint races, provided they have completed Driving School and the mission Verdant Meadows (Deconstruction from mobile version onwards). The airport is located south of Redsands West, north of the LVA Freight Depot, east of Blackfield and west of The High Roller.
Statistics[]
The Las Venturas Airport has two runways but no taxiways. The main terminal lies to the east of the airport grounds with multiple gates in sight. The east runway is just slightly longer than the west runway; therefore the east runway is used in the cutscene where the user purchases a flight to either Los Santos International Airport or Easter Bay Airport in San Fierro. The Las Venturas Airport also holds the only flyable AT-400 in the game.
The security gate to enter the runway area can be tricky to find, especially at night, for those unfamiliar with the area, due to it being marked as a parking entrance. It is located immediately to the north of the terminal building off the east-side access road that runs past the main entrance to the terminal.
Prominent Appearances in Missions[]
The LVA is featured in the following missions:
- Dam and Blast - CJ steals a Nevada parked on the runway and flies it to the Sherman Dam.
- Freefall - CJ, on Salvatore Leone's order, must steal a Dodo in one of the hangars, use it to hijack a Shamal in mid-flight and safely land it on the runway.
- Saint Mark's Bistro - CJ takes Leone's Shamal from the airport, flies to Liberty City with it, and then safely lands it on the runway. During the mission, there is unique dialogue between CJ and the airport air-traffic control tower.
Vehicles[]
- AT-400 - Inside the large hangar. Due to its high door, it could only be entered from the platform. Does not always spawn however.
- Dodo (5) - Two are parked together at the north end of the runways. Two more are facing opposite directions south of the Shamals. The fifth is at the very end of the runway, near the hospital.
- Leviathan - Parked near the two Shamals, replacing one of the Dodos, it will spawn by continuously destroying the Dodo to the west.
- Shamal (2) - Parked together at the west of the runway.
- Tug - Many found driving in the traffic in the nearby area, and in a freight depot inside the airport.
Weapons[]
- Rocket Launcher
- Tear Gas - Between two ramps where the Shamals are located
- Sawn-Off Shotgun - Atop a building just south of the airport terminal and east of the hangar with the AT-400
Other[]
- Two Body Armor pickups.
- Three Horseshoes.
Trivia[]
- The real numbering of the two runways are 18L/36R and 18R/36L.
- In the mission Saint Mark's Bistro, the air-traffic controller clears Flight CJ101 to land at Runway 3. There are only two runways at the airport, so there couldn't possibly be a third runway. In addition to this, both runways are marked 69.
- If the player flies a Hydra towards the giant hangar containing the AT-400 and fires missiles at its door, the missile will go straight through it like it wasn't there.
- Near the entrance, there is a shipping area where Tugs and Baggages are seen indefinitely driving around a hangar.
- In the beta version of GTA San Andreas, there were four Airtrains parked around the airport. These weren't ordinary usable planes, but indestructible props similar to the ones seen in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and GTA III airports. The beta airport map can be seen in one of the race maps.
- The AT-400 hangar door texture appears static when being opened in the Definitive Edition of GTA San Andreas. This only applies to the texture and not collision detection, however, as the player can still enter the hangar as usual.
Gallery[]
