Chester County G. O. Carlson Airport is a public

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

two miles (3 km) west of Coatesville, in

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee, United States * Cheshire or the County Palatine of Chester, a ceremonial county in the North Wes ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. It is owned by the Chester County Area Airport Authority. Chester County's airport identifier was 40N but it has recently changed to MQS. The airport is next to Keystone Heliport (closed) . Signature Flight Support, a

fixed-base operator A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, ...

, and flight training offered by Chester County Aviation, are also located on field. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for the

FAA 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 m ...

and

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

, but Chester County Airport is MQS to the FAA and CTH to the IATA (which assigned MQS to

Mustique Airport Mustique Airport is a private airfield owned by the Mustique Company for public use and is located on Mustique island, part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean Sea. It is used by civil aviation and national airlines using turbopr ...

Mustique Mustique is a small private island in the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which is part of the Grenadines, a chain of islands in the West Indies. The island is located within Grenadines Parish, and the closest island is the uninhabit ...

island in

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...

History

The airport opened May 1, 1928 as Coatesville Airport and was owned and operated by the City of Coatesville. In 1959

purchased the airport and took over operations. At this time, the

Chester County Area Airport Authority Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Local ...

was formed and the airport was renamed to Chester County Airport. In 1962 the airport was renamed in honor of the first Authority chairman, G. O. Carlson.

Facilities

The airport covers ; its one

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 concrete, as ...

, 11/29, is 5,400 x 100 ft (1,646 x 30 m) asphalt. In the year ending November 17, 2006 the airport had 52,000 aircraft operations, average 142 per day: 94%

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 ...

, 6%

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) an ...

and <1% military. 96 aircraft are based at the airport: 62% single-engine, 17% multi-engine, 20% jet, and 1% helicopter.

Expansion

As part of the 12-year-plan for the airport, many projects are planned. A new

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

is planned south of the current runway. New hangars will be built for corporate jets. The biggest project is a new long runway, more aligned with the usual winds at the airport. The current runway will remain. A

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

is being discussed, if traffic increases.

References

External links

Chester County Area Airport AuthorityJetDirect AviationThe Flying Machine CafeChester County AviationKeystone HelicopterJetDirect Employee Site
{{Greater Philadelphia Airports Airports in Pennsylvania County airports in Pennsylvania Transportation buildings and structures in Chester County, Pennsylvania