Concord-Padgett Regional Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located seven nautical miles (13 km) west 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 ...
Cabarrus County
Cabarrus County ( ) , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the According to the FAA's
National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...
Charlotte Douglas International Airport
Charlotte Douglas International Airport ( IATA: CLT, ICAO: KCLT, FAA LID: CLT), typically referred to as Charlotte Douglas, Douglas Airport, or simply CLT, is an international airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, located roughly six miles we ...
.
Although many U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA 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 ...
, this airport is assigned JQF by the FAA but had no designation from the IATA until August 22, 2013 when it was assigned the IATA code USA.
Because of the multiple race teams that base aircraft fleets at JQF and its proximity to Charlotte Motor Speedway, the airport is sometimes referred to as "NASCAR's Airport."
In April 2018, the airport was renamed to honor longtime Mayor of Concord Scott Padgett. An official ceremony was held on November 18, 2019, for the airport's 25th anniversary.
Facilities and aircraft
Concord-Padgett Regional Airport covers an area of at an elevation of 705 feet (215 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 2/20 with an asphalt surface measuring 7,400 by 100 feet (2,256 x 30 m).
For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2019, the airport had 77,871 aircraft operations, an average of 213 per day: 87% general aviation, 8% air taxi, 1% military and 4% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 166 aircraft based at this airport: 69% single- engine, 9% multi-engine, 19%
jet
Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to:
Aerospace
* Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines
** Jet airliner
** Jet engine
** Jet fuel
* Jet Airways, an Indian airline
* Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline
* Journey to Enceladus a ...
Since the airport's expansion of its runway to accommodate mid-size commercial aircraft in the early 2000s, the airport has been quite popular among local NASCAR teams. Teams charter flights out of Concord-Padgett instead of Charlotte Douglas because of its affordability and proximity to their headquarters.
Commercial passenger service
On August 20, 2013, Allegiant Air announced it would begin nonstop jet service between Concord and Orlando Sanford International Airport in December 2013. Since then the airline has expanded its nonstop service to several other vacation destinations in Florida as well as announcing new nonstop service to New Orleans. An existing hangar to the left of the main terminal was converted to a separate temporary terminal for this new commercial service. A larger permanent commercial service terminal opened in October 2016. According to
FlightAware
FlightAware is an American multi-national technology company that provides real-time, historical, and predictive flight tracking data and products. , it is the world's largest flight tracking platform, with a network of over 32,000 ADS-B gro ...
, Allegiant serves the airport with Airbus A320 jetliners. On March 4, 2020, Allegiant announced Concord would be the airline's 21st operating base, housing two Airbus planes beginning October 7, 2020.