Tri-Cities Airport (also known as Tri-Cities Airport, TN/VA), is in

Blountville, Tennessee Blountville is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Sullivan County, Tennessee, Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,074 at the United States Census, 2010, 2010 census. It is the only Tennessee cou ...

, United States. It serves the Tri-Cities area (

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

, Kingsport, Johnson City) of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. The airport is governed by the Tri-Cities Airport Authority (TCAA) whose members are appointed by the cities of Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol (TN), Bristol (VA) and both Washington County (TN) and Sullivan County (TN).

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 ...

records say the airport had 202,730 passenger boardings (enplanements) in

calendar year Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. A year can also be measured by starting on any ...

2008, 217,783 in 2009 and 202,114 in 2010. The

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 2017–2021 categorized it as a ''primary commercial service'' airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).

History

In the mid-1930s Johnson City's airfield and Kingsport's airstrip were deemed not practical for expansion. Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport cooperated with Sullivan County to build an airport on 323 acres in Sullivan County, between the three cities. In September 1937, two small runways, a terminal building, and aircraft hangar had been built and the airport saw its first airliner, an

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

DC-2. On November 5, 1937, McKellar Field, now known as Tri-Cities Airport TN/VA, was dedicated by Senator Kenneth McKellar.

pulled out in 1952.

Piedmont Airlines Piedmont Airlines, Inc. is an American regional airline headquartered at the Salisbury Regional Airport in unincorporated Wicomico County, Maryland, near the city of Salisbury. The airline is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Airline ...

flew to TRI from 1948 until it merged into

USAir US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon ...

; Capital Airlines and successor

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

stopped at TRI from the 1940s until 1977 when

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 ...

replaced them.

Southern Airways Southern Airways was a regional airline (known at the time as a "local-service air carrier" as designated by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) in the United States, from its founding by Frank Hulse in 1949 until 1979, when it merged with ...

appeared in 1960. The first jets were Piedmont

Boeing 727-100 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter f ...

s and Southern Douglas DC-9-10s in 1967; in 1977 a Piedmont

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 ...

was flying nonstop to New York

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia ...

. In January 2008 a quick service restaurant, Tailwind Express, was added in the post-security area of the airport along with the Tailwind Restaurant and Lounge in the pre-security area. In April 2012 the airport broke ground on a $10 million project that would lengthen a taxiway and move a road farther away from the airport, opening 140 acres for future development.

Facilities

Tri-Cities Airport covers 1,250

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

s (506 ha) 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 § ...

of 1,519 feet (463 m). 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 ...

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 ...

s: 5/23 is 8,000 by 150 feet (2,438 x 46 m) and 9/27 is 4,442 by 150 feet (1,354 x 46 m). For the year ending March 31, 2014 the airport had 46,484 aircraft operations, an average of 127 per day: 72%

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 ...

, 25%

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) ...

, 2% airline and 1% military. In March 2017, there were 60 aircraft based at this airport: 20 single-engine, 22 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 attribu ...

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Top destinations

Accidents and incidents

*On April 1, 1993,

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

driver

Alan Kulwicki Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and the "Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional ...

and three others were killed when a

Fairchild Merlin The Swearingen Merlin or the Fairchild Aerospace Merlin is a pressurized, twin turboprop business aircraft first produced by Swearingen Aircraft, and later by Fairchild at a plant in San Antonio, Texas. Design and development The Merlin w ...

crashed on approach to the airport. The cause of the

Alan Kulwicki plane crash Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

was pilot error in operating the aircraft's engine anti-ice system.

References

External links

Tri-Cities Regional Airport
official website

at

Tennessee DOT The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is a multimodal agency with statewide responsibilities in roadways, aviation, public transit, waterways, and railroads. The mission of TDOT is to provide a safe and reliable transportation syste ...

Airport Directory
Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association

Aerial image as of March 1997
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, ...

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 ...

'' * * * {{Airports in Tennessee Airports in Tennessee Buildings and structures in Sullivan County, Tennessee Transportation in Sullivan County, Tennessee Blountville, Tennessee Airports established in 1937 1937 establishments in Tennessee