Crater Lake–Klamath Regional Airport (Klamath Falls Airport) is a public use airport in

Klamath County, Oregon Klamath County ( ) is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 69,413. The county seat is Klamath Falls. The county was named for the Klamath, the tribe of Native Americans living in the ...

, United States, five miles southeast of

Klamath Falls Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city was ...

, which owns it. It is used by

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 ...

, military aviation and a few airline flights. In 2013, the name of the airport was changed to ''Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport''. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a ''primary commercial service'' airport since it has over 10,000 passenger boardings (enplanements) per year.

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 15,856 enplanements in 2011, a decrease from 21,353 in 2010. As

Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base is the home base of the Oregon Air National Guard's 173rd Fighter Wing (173 FW). History In 1928, the citizens of Klamath Falls approved the sale of $50,000 worth of bonds to construct an airport. The air ...

, the airport is the home of the Oregon Air National Guard's 173d Fighter Wing (173 FW) flying the F-15 Eagle. An

Air Education and Training Command Air Education and Training Command (AETC) is one of the nine List of major commands of the United States Air Force, Major Commands (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF), reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force. It was establis ...

(AETC)-gained unit, the 173 FW specializes as an advanced

air-to-air combat Air combat manoeuvring (also known as ACM or dogfighting) is the tactical art of moving, turning and/or situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. Air combat manoeuvres ...

training center for Regular Air Force and Air National Guard

F-15 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's ...

pilots, as well as hosting joint and combined air combat exercises for all US military services and those of Canada. Kingsley Field is home to a USAF flight surgeon training school. The 173d Fighter Wing is currently under the command of Colonel Jeff Smith.

History

In 1928, the citizens of Klamath Falls approved the sale of $50,000 worth of bonds to build Klamath Falls Municipal Airport. It had gravel runways and one Fixed-Base Operator; in 1942, it was selected for a Naval Air Station later named NAS Klamath Falls. In 1945, the airport was transferred back to civil use; the January 1952 C&GS diagram shows runway 7 (5258 ft long), 14 (7134 ft) and 18 (5164 ft). In 1954, the airport was selected as a site for U.S. Air Force installation under a joint civil-military arrangement supporting Air Defense Command, later

Aerospace Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly ina ...

(ADC) aircraft and squadrons. In 1957 the airport was dedicated as Kingsley Field in honor of 2nd Lieutenant David R. Kingsley, USAAF, an Oregonian killed in action on June 23, 1944, after a

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

bombing mission over the oil fields of Ploiesti, Roumania. In 1976, ADC was inactivated and control of the military installation passed to Tactical Air Command (TAC). In 1978, the Department of Defense closed Kingsley Field as a regular Air Force installation, transferring all military facilities to the Air National Guard.

Facilities

Crater Lake–Klamath Regional Airport covers 1,166 acres (472 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 § Ver ...

of 4,095 feet (1,248 m). It has two

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, concre ...

s: 14/32 is 10,301 by 150 feet (3,140 x 46 m)

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 ...

and

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 wid ...

; 7/25 is 5,258 by 100 feet (1,603 x 30 m) asphalt. In 2011, the airport had 39,004 aircraft operations, average 106 per day: 43%

, 41% military, 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) ...

, and 2% airline. 170 aircraft were then based at the airport: 62% single-engine, 19% jet, 15% military, 3% multi-engine, and 1%

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 ...

. The airport is home to the Klamath Falls Interagency Fire Center, the Klamath Falls Airtanker Base and the Tanker 61 Memorial, commemorating a TBM Inc. firebomber lost in 1992.

Airline history

Until 1959,

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

Douglas DC-3s and

Convair 340 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inr ...

s served Klamath Falls; later West Coast Airlines flew

Fairchild F-27 The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 were versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined turboprop passenger aircraft manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to the standa ...

s to cities in Oregon and California. West Coast merged with

Bonanza Air Lines Bonanza Air Lines was an airline (known at the time as a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) in the Western United States (and eventually Mexico) from 1945 until it merged with two other local service ai ...

and

Pacific Air Lines Pacific Air Lines was a regional airline (then called a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid 1940s under the name ...

to form Air West which subsequently changed its name to

Hughes Airwest Hughes Airwest was a regional airline in the western United States, backed by Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation. Its original name in 1968 was Air West and the air carrier was owned by Nick Bez. Hughes Airwest flew routes in the wes ...

and was then later merged into

Republic Airlines Republic Airlines was an American airline formed by the merger of North Central Airlines and Southern Airways on July 1, 1979. Their headquarters were at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in what is now Fort Snelling, Minnesota, Fort ...

. Air West and Hughes Airwest continued to serve the airport with F-27s. Hughes Airwest introduced the first jets,

Douglas DC-9-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s, and was operating nonstop flights to

Redding, CA Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern borde ...

and

Redmond, OR Redmond is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. Incorporated on July 6, 1910, the city is on the eastern side of Oregon's Cascade Range, in the High Desert in Central Oregon. From Redmond there is access to recreational opportuni ...

as well as direct service to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and

Eugene, OR Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, E ...

in 1980; successor Republic DC-9s continued to serve the airport with nonstop flights to Redding and Redmond as well as flying direct jet service to San Francisco, Seattle and

Portland, OR Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous coun ...

in 1982 before ceasing serving Klamath Falls in 1983.

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

returned with

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

jets direct to San Francisco in March, 1986 but the service ended in November, 1987. From the late 1970s to early 1980s,

Air Oregon Air Oregon was founded as Executive Flight Services in 1961 in Portland, Oregon; was renamed to Air Oregon in 1977. In June 1982, Air Oregon was acquired and merged into Horizon Air which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Alaska Air Group ...

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild Aircraft at a plant in San ...

s flew direct to Portland, Seattle and other cities. In the mid-1980s, Pacific Express BAC One-Eleven jets flew to San Francisco via Redding and to Portland via Redmond.

Horizon Air Horizon Air Industries, Inc., operating as Horizon Air, is an American regional airline based in SeaTac, Washington, United States. Horizon Air and its sister carrier Alaska Airlines are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, and all Horizon-opera ...

, a subsidiary of

Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the sixth largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the num ...

, flew

de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier Aerospace, Bombard ...

s and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners to Portland and Seattle. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s

American Eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners flew direct to San Francisco and

San Jose, CA San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

via

Chico, CA Chico ( ; Spanish for "little") is the most populous city in Butte County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 census, reflecting an increase from 86,187 ...

or Redding on behalf of

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

. WestAir operating as

United Express United Express is the brand name for the regional branch of United Airlines, under which six individually owned regional airlines operate short- and medium-haul feeder flights. On October 1, 2010, UAL Corporation and Continental Airlines merged t ...

) flew BAe Jetstream 31s to San Francisco while Reno Air Express operated by

Mid Pacific Air Mid Pacific Air was a low-cost regional airline which began operations with passenger services in Hawaii. Founded in 1981, initial routes connected the islands of Kauai, O'ahu, Maui and Hawaii (the Big Island). Its primary competitors were e ...

on behalf of

Reno Air Reno Air was a scheduled passenger airline headquartered in Reno, Nevada, United States. Reno Air provided service from its hubs at Reno/Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada, San Jose International Airport in San Jose, California and La ...

) flew BAe Jetstream 31s to San Jose, CA.

operated by SkyWest Airlines pulled out of Klamath Falls in the late 1990s but then resumed flights when

ceased serving the airport. SkyWest

Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia The Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia is a twin-turboprop 30-passenger commuter airliner designed and manufactured by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. The EMB 120 began development during 1974. While initially conceived as a modular series of ...

s operated the last

service into Klamath Falls. In late 2010, SkyWest dropped one flight to Portland. Passenger count dropped in 2011, but passengers per flight increased.City of Klamath Falls Annual Report 2011, page 6. United Express, operated by SkyWest on behalf of

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

, terminated service to Portland and San Francisco on June 5, 2014. PenAir started

Saab 340B The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30-36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 different op ...

flights from Klamath Falls to Portland on October 6, 2016. Initially, the proposed service by PenAir was on hold from 2015 due to federal

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

(TSA) refusal to station security personnel at the terminal. As of August 2017, this service has ended, following PenAir filing for bankruptcy.

Airlines and destinations

The airport currently does not have scheduled passenger air service.

Cargo

Funding

The Airport City Fund operates the airport's civilian and military interest. Revenue mainly is from city property taxes, transient room taxes and the rental activities in the airport itself. Because of the commercial flights at the airport, the

contributes funds to keep the runways and taxiways in good conditions.

References

External links

Klamath Falls Airport
official website
Aerial image as of July 2000
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 pro ...

'' * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport Airports in Klamath County, Oregon Buildings and structures in Klamath Falls, Oregon 1928 establishments in Oregon Closed installations of the United States Navy

History

Facilities

Airline history

Airlines and destinations

Cargo

Funding

See also

References

External links