Canyonlands Regional Airport, Moab is a regional commercial airport in Grand County,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States, northwest of Moab. The airport services two airlines, one subsidized by the

Essential Air Service Essential Air Service (EAS) is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which had been served by certificated airlines prior to deregulation in 1978, maintained commercial service. Its aim is t ...

program. The

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

reported 2,870 enplanements (passenger boardings) at the airport in calendar year 2008, 3,982 in 2009, 2,701 in 2010, 9,181 in 2011, 7,955 in 2012, 7,048 in 2013, and 9,843 (unofficial) in 2017. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a ''non-primary commercial service'' airport (between 2,500 and 10,000 enplanements per year).

History

Canyonlands Field opened about 1964–1965, with the runway 15/33, wide
1985 airport info
This runway was replaced in 1985 with the current northeast–southwest-oriented runway, 75 feet wide. In the latter 2010s, the terminal building was greatly expanded to handle upcoming 50-seat regional jets.

Historical airline service

From 1959 to 1965, the original Frontier Airlines served the previous airfield, Grand County Airport (), eight miles southeast of Moab, followed by service to Canyonlands from 1965 to 1975. In 1959, Frontier Douglas DC-3s flew direct to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

with stops in Grand Junction, Montrose, Gunnison, and

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

. From the new airport, Frontier

Convair 580 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...

s flew direct to

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, and

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

with stops. By late 1970, Frontier 580s flew to Denver via Grand Junction. Service was paused in 1973 for airport construction at which time Western Air Stages provided flights to Grand Junction using a much smaller

Beechcraft Queen Air The Beechcraft Queen Air is a twin-engined light aircraft produced by Beechcraft in several versions from 1960 to 1978. Based upon the Twin Bonanza, with which it shared key components such as wings, engines, and tail surfaces, but featuring ...

model 80. Frontier returned in late 1973 but then ended all service by late 1974. Several commuter airlines then served Moab mainly with flights to Salt Lake City, Denver, or Grand Junction. These carriers are funded through the federal government

Program, and their service comes up for bid every two years. These airlines included: * Sun Valley Key Commuter 1974–1976,

Piper Navajo The Piper PA-31 Navajo is a family of cabin-class, twin-engined aircraft designed and built by Piper Aircraft for the general aviation market, most using Lycoming engines. It was also license-built in a number of Latin America Latin Ameri ...

s to Salt Lake City and Grand Junction. Frontier Airlines timetables listed Sun Valley Key flights between Moab and Grand Junction to connect with Frontier to Denver until mid-1976. * SkyWest Airlines, summer 1975, Piper Navajos to Page, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. *

Transwestern Airlines Transwestern Airlines was a regional airline based in Logan, Utah Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 census recorded the population was 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city o ...

1977/1980, Piper Navajos to Salt Lake City and Blanding, Utah. *

Alpine Air Alpine Air Express is an American airline based in Provo, Utah, USA. It operates scheduled air cargo services on over 100 routes throughout Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah. Its main ...

1984 through the latter 1990s, Pipers to Salt Lake City. The OAG shows no air service to Moab for several years in the late 1990s. * Sunrise Airlines 2000 thru early 2001 with

Jetstream 31 The British Aerospace Jetstream is a small twin-turboprop airliner, with a pressurised fuselage, developed as the ''Jetstream 31'' from the earlier Handley Page Jetstream. A larger version of the Jetstream was also manufactured, the British ...

's to Salt Lake City. *

Great Lakes Airlines Great Lakes Airlines was an American regional airline operating domestic scheduled and charter services. Corporate headquarters were in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with a hub at Denver International Airport. As of November 2013, Great Lakes Airlines ...

dba

United Express United Express is the brand name for the regional branch of United Airlines, under which six individually owned regional airlines operate short- and medium-haul feeder flights. On October 1, 2010, UAL Corporation and Continental Airlines merged t ...

June 7, 2001, to early 2004,

Beech 1900D The Beechcraft 1900 is a 19-passenger, pressurized twin-engine turboprop regional airliner manufactured by Beechcraft. It is also used as a freight aircraft and corporate transport, and by several governmental and military organizations. With ...

s to Denver and Phoenix. The Phoenix flight stopped in Page, Arizona. The representation as United Express ended in early 2002 and Great Lakes continued serving Moab under their own identity. *

Salmon Air Salmon Air is a commuter airline based in Salmon, Idaho, United States which was established in 1968. History Salmon Air's main hub was located at the Boise Airport (BOI). In addition to scheduled passenger and charter flights, Salmon Air also ...

, May 2004 to June 2006, Piper Navajos to Salt Lake City. * Air Midwest dba

America West Express America West Express was the brand name for America West Airlines commuter and regional flights operated by Mesa Air Group's Mesa Airlines under a code share agreement. Today Mesa Airlines operates for American Eagle. Mesa Airlines operated Am ...

, July 2, 2006, to November 3, 2007, Beechcraft 1900Ds to Salt Lake City and Phoenix. The Phoenix flight stopped in Farmington, New Mexico. * Air Midwest dba

US Airways Express US Airways Express was the brand name for the regional affiliate of US Airways, under which a number of individually owned commuter air carriers and regional airlines operate short and medium haul routes. This code sharing service was previously ...

, November 4, 2007, to January 5, 2008, same as above. *

returned on January 6, 2008, operating under their own identity with two daily Beechcraft 1900Ds to Denver International Airport. Daily nonstop flights were later added to

Vernal Vernal, the county seat and largest city in Uintah County is in northeastern Utah, approximately east of Salt Lake City and west of the Colorado border. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,089. The population has since grown to ...

, Utah, Ely, Nevada, and Prescott, Arizona, as an extension of its Denver service. Great Lakes ended service to Moab in January 2014. * SkyWest Airlines dba

Delta Connection Delta Connection is a regional airline brand name for Delta Air Lines, under which a number of individually owned regional airlines primarily operate short- and medium-haul routes. Mainline major air carriers often use regional airlines to ope ...

, March 2, 2014, to April 2015,

Embraer 120 The Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia is a twin-turboprop 30-passenger commuter airliner designed and manufactured by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. The EMB 120 began development during 1974. While initially conceived as a modular series of ...

s to Salt Lake City. SkyWest prematurely discontinued service due to the retirement of the Embraer Brasilia prop aircraft and there was then no air service at Moab for the next year. *

Boutique Air Boutique Air, Inc. is a commuter airline based in San Francisco, California. The airline offers charter services as well as scheduled passenger services subsidized under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. Boutique operates the second lar ...

, March 30, 2016, to February 28, 2018, Pilatus PC-12s to Denver and Salt Lake City. * SkyWest Airlines returned on May 1, 2018 (now as

) with

Canadair CRJ-200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) is a regional jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pro ...

s to Denver after the Moab airport runway was improved to handle regional jets. *

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along w ...

returned on May 5, 2021, with daily summer seasonal service to

Salt Lake City International Airport Salt Lake City International Airport is a civil-military airport located about west of Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. The airport is the closest commercial airport for more than 2.5 million people and is within a 30-min ...

flown by

partner SkyWest using

CRJ-200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) is a regional jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pro ...

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

service is operated by regional airline partner SkyWest using

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

. The United Express service is operated by SkyWest Airlines via a code sharing agreement with

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

and is flown with

Facilities

Canyonlands Field covers at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of . Its

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

s, 3/21, is asphalt, with displaced thresholds, and a gravel runway which is . In the year ending December 31, 2018 the airport had 15,750 aircraft operations, average 43 per day: 71%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

, 28%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

, and 2% military. 46 aircraft were then based at this airport: 40 single-engine, 1 multi-engine, 3 helicopters and 2

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

. The airport will be closed for facility upgrades until May 2018, but the helipad will remain open. With the addition of regional jets in 2018, the terminal building underwent a major expansion.

Accidents and incidents

On August 22, 2008, a Beechcraft King Air, operating for Southwest Skin and Cancer LLC, leased from Leavitt Group Wings, LLC, impacted hilly terrain about 1.2 miles south of CNY shortly after takeoff in visual meteorological conditions bound for

Cedar City Regional Airport Cedar City Regional Airport is two miles northwest of Cedar City, in Iron County, Utah. It is owned by the Cedar City Corporation. Airline flights are subsidized by the Essential Air Service program. Federal Aviation Administration records say t ...

. All ten occupants (nine passengers, one pilot) were killed.

References

External links

*
Aerial image as of July 1997
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to pro ...

'' * {{authority control Airports in Utah Transportation in Grand County, Utah Buildings and structures in Grand County, Utah Essential Air Service