Northeast Philadelphia Airport is a public airport just north of the intersection of Grant Avenue and Ashton Road in

Northeast Philadelphia Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast and the Great Northeast, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending ...

. It is part of the Philadelphia Airport System along with Philadelphia International Airport and is the

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 ...

for Philadelphia International. Northeast Philadelphia Airport is the sixth busiest airport in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Two

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 provide fuel, major aircraft repair, hangar rental, aircraft rental and charter, flight instruction, and aircraft sales.

Location

This airport covers , bounded by Grant Avenue to the south, Academy Road to the east, Comly Road to the north, and the Roosevelt Boulevard ( U.S. 1) to the west. (The airport does not extend all the way to these boundaries.) Development includes a Pepsi-Cola

bottling plant A bottling company is a commercial enterprise whose output is the bottling of beverages for distribution. Many bottling companies are franchisees of corporations such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo who distribute the beverage in a specific geographic ...

, an

industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park ...

with aviation-related businesses, the headquarters of the 1st and 8th Districts of the

Philadelphia Police Department The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD or Philly PD) is the police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The PPD is one of the oldest municipal police agencies, fourth largest ...

, and the former site of the Internal Revenue Service Philadelphia Service Center. A

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...

distribution center and an ice skating rink opened in 2001 on land leased from the airport. When this airport opened the surrounding area was largely open farmland. Residential neighborhoods and businesses have developed close to the airport, so pilots must observe

noise abatement Noise control or noise mitigation is a set of strategies to reduce noise pollution or to reduce the impact of that noise, whether outdoors or indoors. Overview The main areas of noise mitigation or abatement are: transportation noise control, ...

procedures.

History

Northeast Philadelphia Airport started in the 1930s as the Northeast Airport, a grass field with no paved runways, one of three small airports in the area. Just across Roosevelt Boulevard to the west, next to Red Lion Road, was Boulevard Airport, the most important of the three. Further west was Budd Field (built for Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, later as a golf course and other parts for housing) and Somerton Airport (near Bustleton Avenue and Red Lion Road), no longer in existence, close enough that pilots had to take care not to infringe on adjacent traffic patterns. The site of the Boulevard Airport is now a shopping mall (Red Lion Plaza) and housing. The Northeast Airport became today's large airport. The

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

began construction of a airbase in

during World War II, but the project was never completed and the property was turned over to the city in 1944. After the city finished the work, Philadelphia Northeast Airport opened in June 1945. In 1948 the name was changed to

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as everything north of either ...

Airport. The airport expanded in 1960 when Runway 6/24 was extended to its present length. Runway 10/28 was abandoned at this time due to construction on the western end of the runway. The name was changed again in 1980, to the present Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The airport was the headquarters and maintenance facility for

Ransome Airlines Ransome Airlines was a regional airline from the United States, headquartered at Northeast Philadelphia Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1967, it operated feeder flights on behalf of different mainline carriers via specific a ...

, which operated scheduled passenger flights as

Allegheny Commuter Allegheny, Alleghany or Allegany may refer to: Places Geologic and geographic features * Allegheny River, in Pennsylvania and New York * Allegheny Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountain Range in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Vir ...

to Washington D.C. via

Reagan National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , sometimes referred to colloquially as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport, DCA, Reagan, or simply National, is an international airport in Arlington County, Virginia, across ...

(DCA) and to nearby Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) as well as to other regional destinations beginning in September 1973 as a feeder for Allegheny Airlines. Ransome's passenger operation from PNE was ended by the PATCO strike of 1981 which cut regional airline schedules by 25 percent; the airline operated independently for some time, fed

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along w ...

flights in the early 1980s, and was later sold to

Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

and then to Trans World Airlines, ending its life as

Trans World Express Trans World Express (TWE) was the fully owned and certificated, regional carrier for Trans World Airlines ( TWA) and an airline trademark name for TWA's corporation. * Trans World Express - The formerly independent regional airline known as Ran ...

. PNE continued to be a maintenance base for TWE through the early 1990s. The base shut down in 1995, with a loss of 300 local jobs.

Cargo

Facilities and aircraft

Northeast Philadelphia Airport covers at an elevation of 121 feet (37 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 '' ari ...

. 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, concre ...

s: 6/24 is 7,000 by 150 feet (2,134 x 46 m) and 15/33 is 5,000 by 150 feet (1,524 x 46 m). In the year ending September 6, 2018, the airport had 37,933 aircraft operations, average 104 per day: 92%

, 8%

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 <1%

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 ...

. 132 aircraft were then based at the airport: 59% 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 ...

, 23% 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 attributes ...

Tenants

AgustaWestland AgustaWestland was an Anglo-Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica (now known as Leonardo). It was formed in July 2000 as an Anglo-Italian multinational company, when Finmeccani ...

Philadelphia Corporation

Incidents and accidents

On April 4, 1991, a Sunbell Aviation Helicopters Bell 412 collided Mid-Air with a

Piper Aerostar The Piper Aerostar (formerly Ted Smith Aerostar) is an American twin-engined propeller-driven executive or light transport aircraft, designed by Ted R. Smith. It was originally built by Ted Smith Aircraft Company, which after 1978 became part o ...

which was flying from Williamsport to Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The Piper was carrying United States Senator of Pennsylvania H. John Heinz III when it collided over Merion Elementary School in

Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania Lower Merion Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Philadelphia Main Line. The township's name originates with the county of Merioneth in north Wales. Merioneth is an English-language transcription of the ...

. All aboard both aircraft, as well as two children at the school, were killed. The helicopter had been dispatched to investigate a problem with the landing gear of Heinz's plane. While moving in for a closer look, the helicopter collided with the plane, causing both aircraft to lose control and crash. The subsequent

NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

investigation attributed the cause of the crash to poor judgment by the pilots of the two aircraft involved.

References

External links

Pennsylvania Bureau of Aviation: Northeast Philadelphia Airport
* * {{Greater Philadelphia Airports Airports in Pennsylvania Transportation buildings and structures in Philadelphia Northeast Philadelphia