Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport , also known as Adams Field, is a joint civil-military

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 surfa ...

on the east side of

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

.. Federal Aviation Administration. effective December 30, 2021. It is operated by the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission. The largest commercial airport in Arkansas, it served more than 2.1 million passengers in the year spanning from March 2009 through to February 2010. While Clinton National Airport does not have direct international passenger flights, more than 50 flights arrive or depart at Little Rock each day, with nonstop service to 14 cities. The airport 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 ...

(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 2019–2023, in which it is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility.

History

The airport was originally named Adams Field after Captain George Geyer Adams,

154th Observation Squadron The 154th Training Squadron (154th TRS) is a unit of the Arkansas Air National Guard 189th Airlift Wing. It is assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas and is equipped with the C-130H Hercules aircraft. The squadron is a descendant or ...

, Arkansas National Guard, who was killed in the line of duty on September 4, 1937. He was a strong advocate for the airport, and also a Little Rock city councilor.

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 ...

was the first airline to serve Little Rock when it first landed at Adams Field on June 19, 1931. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the airfield was used by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Third Air Force The Third Air Force (Air Forces Europe) (3 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA). Its headquarters is Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It is responsible for all U.S. air forces in ...

for antisubmarine patrols and training. In 1972 the airport opened its current 12-gate terminal. In August 2008, the airport approved a plan to renovate the terminal over a 15-year period. This would expand the terminal from 12 to 16 gates. On March 20, 2012, the municipal airport commission voted to rename the airport the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, named after Arkansas native, former Governor and United States President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

and his wife, United States Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

. The name Adams Field will continue to be used when referring to the airport's runways and air traffic, and will be the airport's official designator. In October 2013, ''

Travel + Leisure ''Travel + Leisure'' is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC, with trademark rig ...

'' released a survey of travelers that ranked Clinton National Airport as the worst of the 67 domestic airports considered in the survey. The survey report cited long lines and few food and shopping choices, among other criticisms. A survey commissioned by the airport contradicted ''Travel + Leisure''s claim, finding that more than 90% of passengers were satisfied with their experience.

Facilities and aircraft

Clinton National Airport covers 2,000

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 (809 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 266 feet (81 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ...

. It has three concrete

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: 4L/22R is 8,273 by 150 feet (2,522 x 46 m); 4R/22L is 8,251 by 150 feet (2,515 x 46 m); 18/36 is 6,224 by 150 feet (1,897 x 46 m). It has one concrete

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard ...

50 by 50 feet (15 x 15 m). In the year ending February 28, 2019, the airport had 95,959 aircraft operations, an average of 263 per day: 38%

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% scheduled commercial, 23%

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 ...

, and 14%

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) ...

. The military operations are mostly

C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally desi ...

transports from nearby

Little Rock Air Force Base Little Rock Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock AFB is the primary C-130 Hercules training base for the Department of Defense, training C-130 pilots, naviga ...

practicing touch-and-go landings. At the time, 145 aircraft were based at this airport: 54 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 ...

, 35 multi-engine, 51 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 ...

. Dassault Aircraft Services (DAS), a subsidiary of Dassault Aviation, operates a large facility at the airport. It is the site of two Falcon aircraft operations: the main Completion Center for all Falcon jets worldwide, and the company-owned Service Center. Current production model Falcons are manufactured in France, then flown in "green" condition to the Completion Center where optional avionics and custom interiors are installed, and exteriors are painted. Dassault Aircraft Services (DAS) – Little Rock provides inspection, maintenance, modification, completion and repair needs for the Falcon product line. The Dassault Aircraft Services (DAS) – Little Rock Service Center and Completion Center combined occupy a total of nearly , making Little Rock the largest Dassault facility in the world.

Terminal

The single terminal has 12 gates. Six gates are along the length of the terminal (three on either side) and a rotunda at the end has six more.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Top destinations

Accidents and incidents

* On January 19, 1990, an

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

Grumman Gulfstream II crashed during final approach to Little Rock National Airport; all seven on board were killed. Unfavorable weather conditions and pilot error contributed to the accident. * On June 1, 1999, American Airlines Flight 1420, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 with 145 passengers and crew, attempting to land in a severe thunderstorm, overran the end of runway 4R, crashed through a fence and down a rock embankment into a flood plain; one crewmember and ten passengers were killed.

Notes

References

External links

; Government * ; General information
Aerial image as of March 2001
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 ...

'' * * * * {{Authority control 1931 establishments in Arkansas Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command in North America Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Arkansas Airports established in 1931 Airports in Arkansas Bill Clinton Government buildings in Little Rock, Arkansas Hillary Clinton Transportation in Little Rock, Arkansas