Definition
An airport used as a stopping point along a route between the departure airport and the final destination, typically for refueling, crew changes, passenger or cargo handling, or weather avoidance.
Plain English
An airport you land at partway through a trip, between where you started and where you're ultimately going.
Context Anchor
Seen in flight planning, route planning, fuel planning, and discussions of possible stopping points along a flight route.
Derivation
From the Latin 'intermedius,' meaning 'in the middle.' An intermediate airport sits in the middle of the route — not the start, not the end.
Why Pilots Care
Lets pilots break long trips into shorter, safer segments for fuel, weather, or aircraft limits.
Intuition Check
Intermediate does not mean the airport is medium-sized or halfway along the route. Here it means the airport is between the departure point and the final destination.
Example Sentence 1
On the flight from Denver to Seattle, the pilot planned Boise as an intermediate airport for fuel.
Example Sentence 2
Headwinds forced us to land at an intermediate airport and wait for better conditions.