Colonel James Jabara 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 ...

located northeast of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is named in honor of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

flying ace

James Jabara James "Jabby" Jabara (10 October 1923 – 17 November 1966) was the first American and United States Air Force flying ace, jet ace. Born in Oklahoma, he lived in Kansas where he enlisted as an aviation cadet at Fort Riley after graduating from ...

, an American of Lebanese descent who has the distinction of being the first American jet ace. Although 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 ...

, Colonel James Jabara Airport is assigned AAO by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA (which assigned AAO to

Anaco Airport Anaco Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Anaco) , is an airport serving Anaco, a city in the Anzoátegui state of Venezuela. The runway length includes a displaced threshold on Runway 10. See also *Transport in Venezuela *List of airports in Venezuela ...

Anaco Anaco is a city in Anzoátegui State, Venezuela, the shire town of Anaco Municipality. It is an industrial town, connected to the natural gas and petroleum industries. Estimated population (as of 2005): 106,275 inhabitants. Transport The city is s ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Facilities and aircraft

Colonel James Jabara Airport covers an area of which contains 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 ...

and one

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

: * Runway 18/36: , surface: concrete * Helipad H1: , surface: concrete For 12-month period ending August 13, 2019, the airport had 38,300 aircraft operations, an average of 104 per day: 97%

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 ...

and 3%

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 ...

. In November 2021, there were 113 aircraft based at this airport: 60 single-engine, 31 multi-engine, 20 jet aircraft, 1

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

and 1 military.

Incidents

On November 20, 2013, at approximately 9:30 pm CST, a Boeing 747-400 Dreamlifter with registration N780BA and operated by

Atlas Air Atlas Air, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, is a major American cargo airline, passenger charter airline, and aircraft lessor based in Purchase, New York. Atlas Air is the world's largest operator of the Boei ...

, mistakenly landed at the Colonel James Jabara Airport, which was on the same heading as its destination,

McConnell Air Force Base McConnell Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located four miles (6 km) southeast of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States., effective 2007-12-20 The airbase was named in ...

. After landing at McConnell, the plane was to taxi over to nearby

Spirit AeroSystems Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc., based in Wichita, Kansas, is the world's largest first-tier aerostructures manufacturer. The company builds several important pieces of Boeing aircraft, including the fuselage of the 737, portions of the 787 fus ...

, and pick up some fuselage parts for the assembly of

Boeing 787 Dreamliner The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...

s in

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

. The plane successfully took off at 1:15 pm CST on November 21 and landed at nearby McConnell AFB. The

NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

opened an investigation about the wrong landing.

Nearby airports

Other airports in Wichita *

Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport is a commercial airport west of downtown Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is the largest and busiest airport in the state of Kansas. Located south of US-54 in southwest Wichita, it covers 3,24 ...

Beech Factory Airport Beech Factory Airport is a public use airport located five nautical miles (9 km) east of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. It is privately owned by Beechcraft. Facilities and air ...

Cessna Aircraft Field Cessna Aircraft Field is a public use airport located four nautical miles (7 km) southeast of the central business district of Wichita, in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. It is privately owned by the Cessna Aircraft Company. Faciliti ...

* Westport Airport Other airports in metro *

Augusta Municipal Airport Augusta Municipal Airport is located approximately west of Augusta in Butler County, Kansas, United States, on the south side of US-54/ US-400 highway. The airport is in the Wichita Metropolitan Service Area and benefits from the many are ...

Lloyd Stearman Field Lloyd Stearman Field , also known as Benton Airpark, is a public airport located one mile (1.6 km) southwest of the central business district of Benton, in Butler County, Kansas, United States. The airport covers 30 acres and has one ru ...

( Benton) Other airports in region *

List of airports in Kansas This is a list of airports in Kansas (a U.S. state), grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public-use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports that we ...

List of airports in Oklahoma This is a list of airports in Oklahoma (a U.S. state), grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public-use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports that ...

References

External links

{{US-airport-ga, AAO Airports in Kansas Economy of Wichita, Kansas Transportation in Wichita, Kansas Buildings and structures in Wichita, Kansas