Waukegan National Airport is a public airport in

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, in Lake County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The airport is north of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It was originally Waukegan Memorial Airport. It has been operated by the Waukegan Port District since 1956 and is the second busiest airport in Illinois for international arrivals. In January 2014 under a FAA reclassification of many small airports, the airport was renamed Waukegan National Airport The

FAA 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 ...

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, categorized it 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 ...

'' for

Chicago 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 Loop business ...

. Runway upgrades began in 2022. During the 2020 Kenosha unrest,

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

flew into Waukegan on his way to assess the damage in

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenos ...

Facilities

Waukegan National Airport covers at an elevation of . Its two runways are

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 ...

surfaces over

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

pavements: runway 5/23 is 6,000 feet long and 150 feet wide (1,829 x 46 m) and runway 14/32 is 3,751 feet long and 75 feet wide (1,143 x 23 m). In 2021, the airport announced a proposal to purchase 52 acres of land from the Lake County Forest Preserves to build a longer, extended runway parallel to runway 5/23. Though nothing would have been built on the land, the airport would have needed to remove some trees and swamp from the area for its required safety buffers. An environmental assessment and public hearings must be completed before the plan can move forward. As of July 2018, there are 123 flights per day at UGN: 47% transient general aviation, 43% local general aviation, 8% air taxi, 2% military, and <1% commercial. There are 114 aircraft based at the field, including 74 single engine airplanes, 29 jets, 10 multiengine airplanes, and 1 helicopter.

Incidents and accidents

*The

2000 Zion mid-air collision On February 8, 2000, a Zlin 242L light aircraft piloted by Chicago radio personality Bob Collins was involved in a mid-air collision with a Cessna 172P over Zion, Illinois, while both aircraft were on approach to land at the nearby Waukegan ...

, which occurred on February 8, 2000, involved the crash of two private aircraft that were trying to land at the airport. The crash killed three and injured five, including broadcaster Bob Collins.

References

External links

* * {{US-airport-ga, UGN ** OpenNa
airport charts for KUGN
Airports in Lake County, Illinois Waukegan, Illinois