Northeast Philadelphia Airport is a public airport just north of the intersection of Grant Avenue and Ashton Road in
Northeast Philadelphia
Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast and the Great Northeast, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending ...
. It is part of the Philadelphia Airport System along with
Philadelphia International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 19.6 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located from t ...
and is the
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 ...
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 ...
for Philadelphia International. Northeast Philadelphia Airport is the sixth busiest airport in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.
Two
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, ...
s provide fuel, major aircraft repair, hangar rental, aircraft rental and charter, flight instruction, and aircraft sales.
Location
This airport covers , bounded by Grant Avenue to the south, Academy Road to the east, Comly Road to the north, and the
Roosevelt Boulevard (
U.S. 1
U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, ...
) to the west. (The airport does not extend all the way to these boundaries.) Development includes a Pepsi-Cola
bottling plant
A bottling company is a commercial enterprise whose output is the bottling of beverages for distribution.
Many bottling companies are franchisees of corporations such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo who distribute the beverage in a specific geographi ...
, an
industrial park
An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...
with aviation-related businesses, the headquarters of the 1st and 8th Districts of the
Philadelphia Police Department
The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD or Philly PD) is the law enforcement agency, police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The PPD is one of the oldest municipal police a ...
, and the former site of the
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...
Philadelphia Service Center. A
TJ Maxx
TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...
distribution center and an ice skating rink opened in 2001 on land leased from the airport.
When this airport opened the surrounding area was largely open farmland. Residential neighborhoods and businesses have developed close to the airport, so pilots must observe
noise abatement
Noise control or noise mitigation is a set of strategies to reduce noise pollution or to reduce the impact of that noise, whether outdoors or indoors.
Overview
The main areas of noise mitigation or abatement are: transportation noise control, ...
procedures.
History
Northeast Philadelphia Airport started in the 1930s as the Northeast Airport, a grass field with no paved runways, one of three small airports in the area. Just across Roosevelt Boulevard to the west, next to Red Lion Road, was Boulevard Airport, the most important of the three. Further west was Budd Field (built for Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, later as a golf course and other parts for housing) and Somerton Airport (near Bustleton Avenue and Red Lion Road), no longer in existence, close enough that pilots had to take care not to infringe on adjacent traffic patterns. The site of the Boulevard Airport is now a shopping mall (Red Lion Plaza) and housing. The Northeast Airport became today's large airport.
The
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
began construction of a
airbase
An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...
in
Northeast Philadelphia
Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast and the Great Northeast, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending ...
during World War II, but the project was never completed and the property was turned over to the city in 1944.
After the city finished the work, Philadelphia Northeast Airport opened in June 1945. In 1948 the name was changed to
North Philadelphia
North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as everything north of either ...
Airport.
The airport expanded in 1960 when Runway 6/24 was extended to its present length. Runway 10/28 was abandoned at this time due to construction on the western end of the runway. The name was changed again in 1980, to the present Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
The airport was the headquarters and maintenance facility for
Ransome Airlines
Ransome Airlines was a regional airline from the United States, headquartered at Northeast Philadelphia Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1967, it operated feeder flights on behalf of different mainline carriers via specific air ...
, which operated scheduled passenger flights as
Allegheny Commuter
Allegheny, Alleghany or Allegany may refer to:
Places Geologic and geographic features
* Allegheny River, in Pennsylvania and New York
* Allegheny Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountain Range in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Vir ...
to Washington D.C. via
Reagan National Airport
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , sometimes referred to colloquially as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport, DCA, Reagan, or simply National, is an international airport in Arlington County, Virginia, across ...
(DCA) and to nearby
Philadelphia International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 19.6 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located from t ...
(PHL) as well as to other regional destinations beginning in September 1973 as a feeder for
Allegheny Airlines
Allegheny Airlines was a regional airline that operated out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1952 to 1979 with routes primarily located in the eastern U.S. It was the forerunner of USAir that was subsequently renamed US Airways, which itself me ...
.
Ransome's passenger operation from PNE was ended by the
PATCO strike
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization or PATCO was a United States trade union that operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981 following an illegal strike that was broken by the Reagan Administration.
Beginnings
PA ...
of 1981 which cut regional airline schedules by 25 percent; the airline operated independently for some time, fed
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 List of airlines by foundation date, world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atla ...
flights in the early 1980s, and was later sold to
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...
and then to
Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...
, ending its life as
Trans World Express
Trans World Express (TWE) was the fully owned and certificated, regional carrier for Trans World Airlines (TWA) and an airline trademark name for TWA's corporation.
* Trans World Express - The formerly independent regional airline known as Ranso ...
. PNE continued to be a maintenance base for TWE through the early 1990s.
The base shut down in 1995, with a loss of 300 local jobs.
Cargo
Facilities and aircraft
Northeast Philadelphia Airport covers at an elevation of 121 feet (37 m) above
mean sea level
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...
. It has two
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 a ...
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 ...
s: 6/24 is 7,000 by 150 feet (2,134 x 46 m) and 15/33 is 5,000 by 150 feet (1,524 x 46 m).
In the year ending September 6, 2018, the airport had 37,933 aircraft operations, average 104 per day: 92%
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 ...
, 8%
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 <1%
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 ...
. 132 aircraft were then based at the airport: 59% 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 ...
, 23% multi-engine, 13%
jet and 5%
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 ...
.
Tenants
*
AgustaWestland
AgustaWestland was an Anglo-Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica (now known as Leonardo). It was formed in July 2000 as an Anglo-Italian multinational company, when Finmeccanica ...
Philadelphia Corporation
Incidents and accidents
On April 4, 1991, a Sunbell Aviation Helicopters
Bell 412
The Bell 412 is a utility helicopter of the Huey family manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It is a development of the Bell 212, with the major difference being the composite four-blade main rotor.
Design and development
Development began in the ...
collided Mid-Air with a
Piper Aerostar
The Piper Aerostar (formerly Ted Smith Aerostar) is an American twin-engined propeller-driven executive or light transport aircraft, designed by Ted R. Smith. It was originally built by Ted Smith Aircraft Company, which after 1978 became part o ...
which was flying from Williamsport to Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The Piper was carrying United States Senator of Pennsylvania
H. John Heinz III
Henry John Heinz III (October 23, 1938 – April 4, 1991) was an American businessman and Republican politician from Pennsylvania. Heinz represented the Pittsburgh suburbs in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and ...
when it collided over
Merion Elementary School
Lower Merion School District, or LMSD, is a public school district located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The school district includes residents of both Lower Merion Township and the Borough of Narberth. Established in 183 ...
in
Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
Lower Merion Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Philadelphia Main Line. The township's name originates with the county of Merioneth in north Wales. Merioneth is an English-language transcription of the W ...
. All aboard both aircraft, as well as two children at the school, were killed. The helicopter had been dispatched to investigate a problem with the landing gear of Heinz's plane. While moving in for a closer look, the helicopter collided with the plane, causing both aircraft to lose control and crash. The subsequent
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 ...
investigation attributed the cause of the crash to poor judgment by the pilots of the two aircraft involved.
References
External links
Pennsylvania Bureau of Aviation: Northeast Philadelphia Airport*
*
{{Greater Philadelphia Airports
Airports in Pennsylvania
Transportation buildings and structures in Philadelphia
Northeast Philadelphia