Lakefront Airport is a public airport five miles northeast of downtown

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a

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 ...

''. Originally the airline airport for the New Orleans area, Lakefront Airport relinquished that role in the summer of 1946 when airline service began from Moisant International Airport (now

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (French: ''Aéroport international Louis Armstrong de La Nouvelle-Orléans'') is an international airport under Class B airspace in Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is o ...

), a larger facility in the nearby suburb of

Kenner Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history, the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures like the original series of ' ...

. Lakefront Airport continues as a

airport with charter, private, and occasional military operations. Airline service is also available to destinations in the Gulf South Region. The terminal building's interior retains much of its original lavish 1930s decoration, and the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

exterior, obscured for decades by a "bomb-proof" facade installed after World War II, has been returned to its original appearance. The terminal building houses a restaurant frequented by nearby residents, the Walnut Room. The sculpture in front of the terminal, ''Fountain of the Four Winds'' by Enrique Alferez, is a local landmark. Lakefront Airport was damaged by hurricane-force winds and the storm surge of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and a number of the hangars and outlying buildings were destroyed. While the airport soon resumed functioning, restoration of the terminal building and other facilities proceeded slowly. With the exterior of the main terminal fully restored, however, the classic Art Deco building was used as the headquarters of the fictional company Ferris Aircraft in the 2011 action hero film ''

Green Lantern Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, ...

'' starring

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

and

Blake Lively Blake Ellender Lively ( Brown; born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, Lively is the daughter of actor Ernie Lively, and made her professional debut in his directorial project ''Sandman'' (1998). She starred as Brid ...

. Since 2014, Lakefront Airport has hosted the WWII Air, Sea & Land Festival. The three-day airshow hosted by the National WWII Museum, Commemorative Air Force, and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation honor the men and women of WWII through aviation displays, vehicle displays, and re-enactments.

History

Shushan Airport New Orleans from the air Postcard

Airport construction began in 1929 by orders of

Huey Long Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...

, on a man-made peninsula dredged by the

Orleans Levee Board From 1890 through 2006, the Orleans Levee Board was the body of commissioners that oversaw the Orleans Levee District (OLD) which supervised the levee and floodwall system in Orleans Parish, Louisiana (which is coextensive with the city of New Orl ...

, jutting into

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...

on the

Eastern New Orleans New Orleans East is the eastern section of New Orleans, the newest section of the city. It is bounded by the Industrial Canal, the Intracoastal Waterway and Lake Pontchartrain. Developed extensively from the 1950s onward, its numerous residenti ...

side of the

Industrial Canal The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile (9 km) waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal ( IHNC). ...

. It was designed by New Orleans architect Leon C. Weiss and his firm Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth, which also designed the

Louisiana State Capitol The Louisiana State Capitol (french: Capitole de l'État de Louisiane) is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Louisiana and is located in downtown Baton Rouge. The capitol houses the chambers for the Louisiana State Legislature, made ...

. It was originally named Shushan Airport after Levee Board president and Long ally

Abraham Shushan Abraham Lazard Shushan Sr. (January 12, 1894 – November 3, 1966) was an American politician in the middle of the 20th century. A friend and political associate of U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, Shushan was an important political figure in Louisiana ...

. The airport opened on 10 February 1934. Visitors noticed that every doorknob, windowsill, countertop, and plumbing fixture bore the name or the initials of Abe Shushan. After Shushan's name was tarnished from involvement in the Louisiana Scandals of the late 1930s, the airport was renamed New Orleans Airport in 1939. The assigned airport code "NEW" is retained despite its current "Lakefront Airport" name. LakefrontMainTerminalTrailers

During World War II 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 ...

and housed the Tropical Weather School in 1945. At the start of the 1960s, thick concrete panels were added to the main terminal building to turn it into a Cold War-era bomb shelter. Ammunition manufacturer Joyce Hornady was killed in a

Piper Aztec The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Origin ...

on January 15, 1981. The aircraft, with Hornady at the controls flying in heavy fog, crashed into

while on final approach to Lakefront Airport. Lakefront Airport was badly damaged by storm surge during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and again during Hurricane Isaac in 2012. The airport was quickly brought back to service, but many facilities remained in temporary trailers for years after Katrina. On January 23, 2010, a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Beechcraft T-34 Mentor The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor is an American propeller-driven, single-engined, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. The earlier versions of the T-34, dating from around the late 1940s to the 1950s, were piston ...

trainer crashed into Lake Pontchartrain just over a mile from the approach end of the airport. The aircraft was intending to land at

Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans is a base of the United States military located in Belle Chasse, unincorporated Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States. NAS JRB New Orleans is home to a Navy Reserve strike fighter squadron ...

but diverted to Lakefront Airport due to weather. The student pilot on board survived, but the instructor drowned. According to official reports, the aircrew lost track of their altitude which resulted in their ditching in the lake. Post-Katrina reconstruction at the airport has included the restoration of the main terminal building's original Art Deco facade. The Art Deco interior and restoration of the Shushan terminal were filmed for a television documentary titled ''Return Flight''. Filming began in 2012 and was scheduled to conclude in 2013 when the restoration drew to a close.

Facilities

Lakefront Airport covers 473 acres (191 ha) at an elevation of 7 feet (2 m). It has three

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 ...

runways: * 18R/36L is 6,879 by 150 feet (2,097 x 46 m). * 18L/36R is 3,697 by 75 feet (1,127 x 23 m). * 9/27 is 3,114 by 75 feet (949 x 23 m). In the year ending July 19, 2016 the airport had 60,778 aircraft operations, average 166 per day: 91%

, 3% military, and 6%

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) ...

. 125 aircraft were then based at this airport: 62% single-engine, 18% multi-engine, 15% jet and 6% helicopter.

In popular culture

* Used as a location in the 1973

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film ''Live and Let Die'' * Filming location of the ''Green Lantern'', starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively * Filming location for the film ''Reminiscence'', starring Hugh Jackman * Filming location for the Netflix film ''

Project Power ''Project Power'' is a 2020 American science fiction action film directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, produced by Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless, and written by Mattson Tomlin. It stars Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominique Fis ...

'', starring Jamie Foxx * Filming location for the Netflix film '' Tall Girl'' * Filming location for '' Capone'', starring Tom Hardy * Filming location for '' Ray''

References

External links

New Orleans Lakefront Airport
official site *

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 (FBOs)
Flightline FirstHawthorneLandmark Aviation

Aerial image as of December 2002
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 ...

'' * * {{US-airport-ga, NEW Art Deco architecture in Louisiana Art Deco airports Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Louisiana Airfields of the United States Army Air Corps 1935 establishments in Louisiana Airports established in 1935 Airports in New Orleans Airports in the New Orleans metropolitan area

History

Facilities

In popular culture

See also

References

External links