Magic Valley Regional Airport , also known as Joslin Field, is a public use

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 surfa ...

located four nautical miles (7 km) south of the central business district of

Twin Falls, Idaho Twin Falls is the county seat and largest city of Twin Falls County, Idaho, United States. The city had a population of 51,807 as of the 2020 census. In the Magic Valley region, Twin Falls is the largest city in a radius, and is the regiona ...

. The airport is owned by the City and County of Twin Falls. It is mostly used for

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 ...

but is also served by two commercial airlines. As per 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 ...

, this airport had 29,606 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 26,991 in 2009, and 35,576 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a '' primary commercial service'' airport.

Facilities and aircraft

The facility 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 above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

, approximately above Twin Falls' city center. It has two

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 with

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

surfaces: 8/26 is and 12/30 is . For the 12-month period ending January 1, 2020, the airport had 34,611 aircraft operations, an average of 95 per day: 82%

, 14%

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) ...

, 3%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, and 1% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 111 aircraft based at this airport: 84 single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

, 18 multi-engine, 8

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 jet.

Historical airline service

Prop Service

West Coast Airlines and its successors Air West,

Hughes Airwest Hughes Airwest was a regional airline in the western United States, backed by Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation. Its original name in 1968 was Air West and the air carrier was owned by Nick Bez. Hughes Airwest flew routes in the wes ...

and

Republic Airlines (1979–1986) Republic Airlines was an American airline formed by the merger of North Central Airlines and Southern Airways on July 1, 1979. Their headquarters were at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in what is now Fort Snelling in unincorporate ...

served the airport for many years. In 1954, West Coast was serving Twin Falls with nonstop Douglas DC-3 flights to Boise and Burley/Rupert with direct service to Pocatello and Idaho Falls as well as connecting flights to Portland, OR and

Boeing Field Boeing Field, officially King County International Airport , is a public airport owned and operated by King County, five miles south of downtown Seattle, Washington. The airport is sometimes referred to as KCIA (King County International Airp ...

in Seattle WA. By 1960, West Coast had updated their aircraft to the

Fairchild F-27 The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 were versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined turboprop passenger aircraft manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to the standa ...

, which flew direct to Twin Falls from Boise, Salt Lake City, and Seattle Boeing Field. In 1968, West Coast merged with

Bonanza Air Lines Bonanza Air Lines was an airline (known at the time as a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) in the Western United States (and eventually Mexico) from 1945 until it merged with two other local service ai ...

and

Pacific Air Lines Pacific Air Lines was a regional airline (then called a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid 1940s under the name ...

to form Air West which continued to serve Twin Falls. During this time, Air West was still operating Fairchild F-27 in 1968, which had nonstop flights to Boise, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Spokane. According to the July 1, 1968 Air West system timetable, Twin Falls was receiving some form of international service at this time, which consisted of a flight on

, which flew flights to and from Calgary with an intermediate stops in Spokane, Boise and some other smaller cities in north eastern and western Idaho and Washington State. about this time, Air West changed their name to

which continued to serve Twin Falls.

The Jet Age

The jet age arrived in Twin Falls during the early 1970s. In 1972,

operated all flights into

with

Douglas DC-9-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 Aircraft, which operated nonstop service to Boise, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles (

LAX Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

), Las Vegas, Seattle, Spokane, Burbank and some other destinations. The July 1, 1972 Hughes Airwest system timetable stated that Twin Falls was the "jet gateway" for the Sun Valley, Idaho summer and ski resort area as the

Friedman Memorial Airport Friedman Memorial Airport is a city-owned public-use airport in the northwest United States, located one nautical mile (2 km) southeast of the central business district of Hailey, the county seat of Blaine County, Idaho. The airport is ope ...

(SUN) serving Sun Valley did not have airline jet flights at this time and was only served by commuter air carriers operating turboprop and prop aircraft during the 1970s. By 1975, Hughes Airwest was continuing to operate all flights into Twin Falls with DC-9-10 and DC-9-30 jets with nonstop service to Boise, Salt Lake City, Stockton, Pocatello, San Francisco ( SFO), Los Angeles (

), Orange County, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, OR, Spokane and Idaho Falls. During the ski season in early 1976, the airline had added nonstop DC-9 flights between Twin Falls and both Los Angeles (

) and San Francisco ( SFO) which were operated only on Saturdays. According to the February 1, 1976

Official Airline Guide OAG is a global travel data provider with headquarters in the UK. The company was founded in 1929 and operates in the USA, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China. It has a large network of flight information data including schedules, flight st ...

, Hughes Airwest was the only airline operating jet service into Twin Falls at this time with eight DC-9 jet flights a day operated to the airport on Saturdays with a lesser number of jet flights operated on other days of the week. This same OAG also lists direct, no change of plane DC-9 flights operated from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, OR, Santa Ana/Orange County, Santa Barbara, Spokane, Idaho Falls and Lewiston, ID in addition to daily nonstop DC-9 flights from Boise, Salt Lake City, Stockton, CA and Pocatello. In 1980, the airline was still operating DC-9 jet service nonstop to Boise and Salt Lake City with one stop direct flights to Burbank, Phoenix and Portland, OR as well as direct, no change of plane DC-9 flights to Seattle, Spokane and Tucson. Hughes Airwest was then acquired by and merged into

Republic Airlines (1979-1986) Republic Airlines was an American airline formed by the merger of North Central Airlines and Southern Airways on July 1, 1979. Their headquarters were at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in what is now Fort Snelling in unincorporate ...

which continued to serve Twin Falls. In 1982, Republic was operating DC-9 jet service from the airport nonstop to Boise, Salt Lake City and Pocatello with direct, no change of plane flights to Seattle, Spokane and Burbank. By 1984,

Western Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and ...

was serving Twin Falls on a seasonal basis with nonstop flights to Los Angeles (

) operated with

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

jetliners. However, by 1985, both Republic and Western had ceased serving Twin Falls and the airport no longer had jet service at this time. Jet service then briefly returned in early 1993 when

Morris Air Morris Air was a low-fare airline in the western United States, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It began scheduled operations in 1992, and was sold to Southwest Airlines in December 1993 for over $120 million in stock. The airline officially became ...

was operating nonstop

Boeing 737-300 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

flights to Salt Lake City.

Current service at the Airport

Several commuter air carriers also served Twin Falls over the years. In the early 1970s, Trans Magic Airlines (TMA), which was based in Twin Falls, was operating a hub at the airport with flights to

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...

, Burley, Coeur d'Alene,

Idaho Falls Idaho Falls ( Shoshoni: Dembimbosaage) is a city in and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, United States. It is the state's largest city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of Idaho Falls was 6 ...

Jackpot Jackpot or Jackpot! may refer to: * A prize, such as a progressive jackpot * Gardena jackpots, a poker variant * Jackpot, Nevada, a community on the Nevada–Idaho state border Comics * Jackpot (comics), several comic book characters * ''Jack ...

, Lewiston, McCall, Mountain Home Air Force Base,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

Pocatello Pocatello () is the county seat of and largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the P ...

, Pullman,

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 Sun Valley with this commuter airline flying

de Havilland Heron The de Havilland DH.114 Heron is a small propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugged ...

four engine prop aircraft and

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 ...

twin engine prop aircraft. By 1974, Air Idaho was operating a small hub at the airport with nonstop service to Boise, Burley, Elko, Salt Lake City and Sun Valley flown with de Havilland Heron aircraft. In 1976, another commuter air carrier, Sun Valley

Key Airlines Key Airlines was founded as Thunderbird Airlines in 1964 and then changed its name in 1969. The airline took over Sun Valley Airlines in 1972 and became known as Sun Valley Key Airlines for several years until reverting to the Key Airlines name. Th ...

, was serving Twin Falls with flights from Salt Lake City and Pocatello operated with

prop aircraft while Air Idaho was continuing to operate flights from Salt Lake City and Sun Valley with the de Havilland Heron.

Cascade Airways Cascade Airways was an airline in the northwest United States which flew primarily regional air routes out of Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1969, it operated for 17 years and shut down in 1986. Its IATA code (CZ) was lat ...

briefly served Twin Falls in 1980 with nonstop flights to Boise and Salt Lake City operated with

Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante The Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante (English: ''pioneer'') is a Brazilian general purpose 15–21 passenger twin-turboprop light transport aircraft designed by Embraer for military and civil use. The EMB 110 was designed by the French engineer Max ...

commuter turboprops. In 1981, Mountain West Airlines-Idaho was operating nonstop flights to Boise with Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante turboprops. Skywest Airlines began serving Twin Falls as an independent commuter airline during the early 1980s and by 1983 was operating nonstop flights to Salt Lake City and Pocatello with

Swearingen Metro The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild Aircraft at a plant in San ...

III commuter propjets. Also in 1983,

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 ...

was operating nonstop flights to Boise and Salt Lake City with Swearingen Metro III commuter propjets. Later in 1983, Transwestern was then acquired by and merged into

Horizon Air Horizon Air Industries, Inc., operating as Horizon Air, is an American regional airline based in SeaTac, Washington, United States. Horizon Air and its sister carrier Alaska Airlines are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, and all Horizon-opera ...

which in turn continued to operate nonstop flights to Boise and Salt Lake City with Swearingen Metro III propjets. Horizon continued service to Twin Falls for fourteen years, until April 1997. In 1987, SkyWest Airlines was operating as Western Express on behalf of

via a code sharing agreement with nonstop flights to Salt Lake City and Pocatello operated Swearingen Metro III propjets. Western was then acquired by and merged into

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 ...

later in 1987 with SkyWest then becoming a

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 ...

air carrier via a code sharing agreement with Delta and this business relationship between the two airlines has been in effect since that time. In 1994, there were two airlines serving Twin Falls: Horizon Air operating

code share In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

service on behalf of

Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the sixth largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the num ...

with nonstop Swearingen Metro III service to Boise and SkyWest operating Delta Connection service nonstop to Salt Lake City with

Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia 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 ...

propjets. By 1999, SkyWest flying as the Delta Connection was the only airline serving Twin Falls and was continuing to operate nonstop Embraer EMB-120 Brasila flights to Salt Lake City. SkyWest is currently the only airline operating scheduled passenger flights from the airport and has served Twin Falls for over 35 years.

Airlines and destinations

SkyWest Airlines, operating as

on behalf of

via a code sharing agreement, operates

Canadair CRJ200 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 ...

regional jet flights nonstop to Salt Lake City (SLC).

Statistics

References

External links

Airport page
at City of Twin Falls website
Reeder Flying Service
the

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, ...

Aerial image as of July 1992
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 ...

'' * * * {{US-airport, TWF Airports in Idaho Twin Falls, Idaho Transportation in Twin Falls County, Idaho Buildings and structures in Twin Falls County, Idaho