Mobile International Airport 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 surface ...

located three nautical miles (6 km) south 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 ...

Mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...

, a city in

Mobile County Mobile County ( ) is located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is the second most-populous county in the state after Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its po ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

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 ...

. The airport is a principal component of the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, a industrial complex. It is owned and operated by the Mobile Airport Authority. Prior to 1969, the airport was part of an active military installation known as

Brookley Air Force Base : ''For the civil use of Brookley AFB after 1969, see: Mobile Downtown Airport'' Brookley Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Mobile, Alabama. After it closed in 1969, it became what is now known as the Mobile Aerop ...

. 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 ...

for 2009–2013, it is categorized as a ''

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 ...

'' facility. This was a change from the 2007–2011 NPIAS Report, when it was categorized as a ''

reliever airport A relief airport or reliever airport is an airport that is built or designated to provide relief or additional capacity to an area when the primary commercial airport(s) requires additional capacity, on a long-term or temporary basis. Reliever a ...

''.

Facilities

The airport has 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 ...

and has both a runway and a runway. Various instrument approaches to all runways are available, including an on-site

VORTAC Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...

and

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

(ILS). The complex is served by a 24-hour

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, ...

, Signature Flight Services. Starting in late 2018, the Mobile Airport Authority began renovating an underutilized building partially occupied by

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...

into a low cost carrier passenger airport facility called Terminal 1. Since its opening on May 1, 2019, Terminal 1 has housed two boarding gates and five ticket counters.

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 100 destinations throughout the United States and 31 international destinations, and employs more than 3,000 staff. The ca ...

Flight 410 from Chicago's

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...

was the first scheduled revenue flight, arriving at the facility on May 1. In the summer of 2019, the authority plans to take over the remaining space in the building to completely build out Terminal 1. After this build-out, Terminal 1 will have four gates and additional holding and concession space. The total square footage will be around 50,000 square feet. Terminal 1 is located at the southern terminus of Michigan Avenue in the Brookley complex, less than a mile south of Interstate 10.

Operations

For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2010, the airport had 82,820 aircraft operations, an average of 226 per day: 49%

, 43%

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 ...

, 5%

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 3% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 34 aircraft based at this airport: 65% 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 gen ...

, 18% multi-engine, 15% jet and 3%

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 ...

Airlines and destinations

In 2018, the Mobile Airport Authority commissioned a study on whether to move passenger service to Mobile Downtown Airport from

Mobile Regional Airport Mobile Regional Airport is a public/military airport west of Mobile, in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The airport is owned and operated by the Mobile Airport Authority, a self-funded entity that receives no local tax dollars. The Nat ...

and announced

ViaAir Via Airlines was a US domestic regional airline offering scheduled service across the United States. The airline originally focused on scheduled Essential Air Service from Raleigh County Memorial Airport in Beckley, West Virginia, Parkersburg/M ...

would start a route to Orlando in the spring. In January 2019, Frontier Airlines announced new service to Denver and Chicago beginning in May 2019. ViaAir announced they were ending most scheduled services network-wide, including at BFM, on May 23, 2019. On January 7, 2020, Frontier announced it would suspend all service to BFM, leaving the airport with no commercial passenger service. However, on April 13, 2020, Frontier announced it would stay at the Downtown Airport and commence service to Orlando. On June 4, 2020, it was announced that Frontier had ceased all operations at BFM. In August 2020 it was announced that Mobile airport authority will shift commercial airline flights to the more convenient downtown airport. Following two years of study, the Mobile Airport Authority has unveiled a master plan that calls for all commercial air service to move to the centrally-located Mobile Downtown (BFM) from Mobile Regional (MOB) airport in the next few years. A new airline terminal at the Downtown facility would feature eight gates and be located adjacent to Interstate 10 that runs through the city. The move would make the airport more convenient to flyers, encouraging more airlines to add service thus lowering airfares, the airport authority says. Cargo

Destinations map

References

External links

Aviation photos: Mobile - Downtown (Brookley Field / CGAS)
from

Airliners.net Airliners.net is an aviation website that includes an extensive photo database of aircraft and airports, as well as a forum catering to aviation enthusiasts. Created by Johan Lundgren, Jr., the site originated in 1996 as ''Pictures of Modern Airl ...

Aerial image as of 4 March 2002
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 prov ...