Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport , previously named Sawyer International Airport, is a county-owned, public-use airport in Marquette County, Michigan, United States. It is located south of the central business district of the city of Marquette. It is included in 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 m ...

(FAA)

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 ...

for 2021–2025, in which it is

categorized Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...

as a non-hub primary commercial service facility. This commercial and

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 ...

airport is located near Gwinn, on a portion of the former

K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base is a decommissioned United States Air Force (USAF) installation in Marquette County, Michigan, south of the city of Marquette. Near the center of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the base operated for nearly forty years ...

, which closed in September 1995. The airport opened for passenger service in September 1999, serving Marquette and the surrounding area. It replaced the former

Marquette County Airport Marquette County Airport is a former airport in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, located in Negaunee Township in Marquette County, several miles west of the city of Marquette. With the 1995 closure of nearby K. I. Sawyer Air Force ...

, which closed the same year. Although many U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the

(FAA) and

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(IATA), this airport is assigned SAW by the FAA and MQT by the IATA (which assigned SAW to

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport Sabiha is an Arabic word () meaning "Morning" and a female given name. In Urdu it (خوبصورت، گوری چٹی) refers to beautiful, and blonde hair. People with the name include: People Given name *Sabiha Sultan ota, رقیه صبیحه س� ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey). The airport's

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sc ...

(ICAO) identifier is KSAW. The airport received $18 million from the

US Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

in 2020 as part of the CARES Act, which was intended to help mitigate the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

by providing funds earmarked for immediate spending to sustain operational expenses, generate loans, tax credits and paycheck protection to small businesses, along with additional protections and benefits to individuals. The airport instead opted to use those funds for airport rebranding, consulting services, art installations, hangar renovations and fire suppression system upgrades, terminal expansion, demolition of multiple buildings not currently part of airport operations and other initiatives not related to COVID-19 impacts, which will continue years after the end of the pandemic. In 2022, the airport distributed a survey asking for public input in a rebranding effort. Despite public effort to include local native and renowned aeronautical engineer Kelly Johnson's name in the rebranding, the Marquette County Board of Commissioners instead voted to rename the airport to Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport on March 21, 2023, as part of the $20 million renovation and re-imaging initiatives.

Facilities and aircraft

Aircraft statistics

Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport covers an area of . It has a single asphalt/concrete runway, numbered 1 and 19, , originally re-designed in 1959 to accommodate B-52 bombers and

KC-135 The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It is the predominant variant of the C-135 Stratolifter family of transpo ...

tankers. This airport is capable of handling aircraft as large as a Boeing 747-8 or a 777-200. For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2022, the airport had 17,889 aircraft operations, an average of 49 per day: 56% general aviation, 35% air taxi, 1% scheduled commercial service and 8% military. In November 2023, there were 41 aircraft based at this airport: 36 single-engine, 4 multi-engine and 1 jet.

Facilities

There is an industrial park, the Telkite Technology Park, adjacent to the airport, with of land and of space in a Michigan Renaissance Zone, which exempts the tenant or owner from the majority of state and local taxes. The airport is home to the Marquette County Aviation Wall of Honor, which features many influential pilots and engineers. In 2022, the airport received a $2.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to repair hangars.

Upgrade plans

The airport is undergoing significant renovation in 2023. $20 million in funds are being allocated toward the project which includes a new fire suppression system in an aircraft hangar, expansion of the terminal building, and new taxiway asphalt. The

air traffic 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 ...

will be upgraded in 2024, new aircraft parking spaces will be added, and there will be security upgrades to allow for larger commercial aircraft. Terminal upgrades will include an upgraded entrance and facility expansion as well as new art installations. The FAA will fund part of the project and will include money from the federal CARES Act from the Covid-19 pandemic. The airport is collecting final funds in order to begin the project. The airport has renovated a hangar to support airline operations. A number of unusable buildings will be torn down as part of the project.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Accidents and incidents

*On January 5, 2015, a

Cessna 172 Skyhawk The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.List of airports in Michigan This is a list of airports in Michigan (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

* * *
Photos of the closed Marquette County Airport

{{Upper Peninsula of Michigan Airports in Michigan Airports established in 1999 1999 establishments in Michigan Buildings and structures in Marquette County, Michigan Transportation in Marquette County, Michigan Airports in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan