Tallahassee Regional Airport

Tallahassee International Airport is a city-owned airport five miles southwest of downtown Tallahassee, in Leon County, Florida, United States. It serves the state capital of Florida, and its surrounding areas; it is one of the major airports in north Florida, the others being Pensacola, Destin–Fort Walton Beach, Northwest Florida Beaches, and Jacksonville. Despite its name, it does not service any international destinations.

History

The airport began as Tallahassee Municipal Airport with a ceremony on April 23, 1961. The flag of the United States was presented to the City of Tallahassee by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. An aerial demonstration was performed by U.S. Army aircraft from Fort Rucker, Alabama. Tallahassee Municipal replaced the city's first airport, Dale Mabry Field, which closed that year.

Eastern Airlines opened the airport by ferrying city, state and chamber of commerce officials. Aboard the flight were Tallahassee Mayor Joe Cordell, State Comptroller Ray Green, Tallahassee City Commissioners Davis Atkinson, George Taff, Hugh Williams, Tallahassee City Manager Arvah Hopkins, Tallahassee City Clerk-Auditor George White, Airport Manager Flagg Chittenden, and Ernest Menendez, Frank Deller, James Calhoun, John Ward and Jeff Lewis, all of the Tallahassee-Leon County Chamber of Commerce.

In June 1961, less than two months after it opened, the airport was the site of Freedom Rider protests. The airport restaurant, Savarin, was designated "Whites Only", and closed rather than serve a racially-mixed group of clergy and activists. The protestors were arrested and removed, and later served prison sentences after the Supreme Court rejected their case in ''Dresner vs City of Tallahassee'' on a technicality.

From the airport's opening until the early 1980s, the airport's primary runway was Runway 18/36, a 6,076-foot runway with an ILS approach, enabling all-weather approaches, and a USAF certified High TACAN approach for practice by Air Force aircraft based at Tyndall AFB, near Panama City. Runway 09/27 was 4,000 feet long and supported general aviation operations. By the 1970s, the airport had scheduled flights on Eastern Airlines, Delta Air Lines, National Airlines and Southern Airways, mainly on Boeing 727s, Boeing 737s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9s.

By the 1980s the terminal was becoming obsolete, and the 6,100 foot runway was too short for the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 coming into service. Runway 09/27 was converted to a taxiway and a new Runway 09/27, 8,003 feet long with ILS, was built just to the south. A new passenger terminal was built just north of the new runway. Ground was broke on November 2, 1987 and the new terminal prompted officials to rename the airport from Tallahassee Municipal Airport to Tallahassee Regional Airport. On December 3, 1989, the city opened the $33 million terminal, and on February 20, 2000, the terminal was renamed the Ivan Munroe Terminal in honor of Tallahassee aviation pioneer Ivan Munroe. Munroe was the first man in Tallahassee to own a plane.

On July 20, 2002, FedEx Express Flight 1478 crashed a half mile short of the Runway 9 while attempting to land. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the crash was due to a combination of pilot fatigue and pilot error. All three crewmembers survived.Fatigued pilots' errors blamed in FedEx crash
St Pete Times, June 9, 2004.

On June 26, 2015, Tallahassee Regional Airport was renamed Tallahassee International Airport. On June 29, 2015 the City of Tallahassee and the FAA announced the name change. International passengers are allowed to exit the airport via Tallahassee International Airport due to the facility's full-service "service port" for U.S. Customs. The change allows international cargo and general aviation flights to directly come to Tallahassee, which is the leading cargo handler in the Panhandle area of Florida. Tallahassee handles 9.5 million pounds of cargo a year, more than the next city, Pensacola, which handles around 6.8 million pounds.

On January 27, 2021, the airport was struck by an EF1 tornado, causing minor damage and temporary closure to assess the damage. A small plane was flipped and minor damage was done to a hangar. No injuries were reported.

Facilities

The airport covers at an elevation of 81 feet (25 m). It has two runways: 09/27 is 8,000 by 150 feet (2,438 by 46 m) and 18/36 is 7,000 by 150 ft. (2,134 by 46 m). Helicopter operations are generally confined to the Runway 18/36 area, or direct approaches to the Million Air FBO ramp area.

The Million Air FBO at the airport provides contracted fuel services to U.S. Military and Department of Defense aircraft. TLH is regularly visited by U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft, Lockheed Martin C-130 family aircraft, as well as Dornier C-146 and T-6 Texan II aircraft on training missions and practice approaches.

The terminal building is divided into two concourses, A & B. All gates except for Gates A4 & A7 are located on the main level of the terminal, and are equipped with jet bridges, while Gates A2 & A4 are located on the lower level.

Gate assignments:
* American: A1, A3, A5, A6
* Delta: B1, B3

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Destinations map

Cargo

Statistics

In the year ending April 30, 2023, the airport had 74,363 aircraft operations, average 204 per day: 57% general aviation, 10% air taxi, 21% military and 13% airline. 207 aircraft were then based at this airport: 178 single-engine, 7 multi-engine, 8 jet and 14 helicopter.

Top destinations

Airline market share

Incidents

* On October 20, 1956, a Lockheed 18-50 Lodestar (N33368) of National Airlines landed too far down the runway while it was wet, ground-looped, and went through a ditch into some trees. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
* On July 26, 2002, a Boeing 727-232F (N497FE) operating as FedEx Express Flight 1478 from Memphis was landing when the plane struck trees 3,650 feet short of the runway and hit the ground 1,000 feet later, slid an additional 1,100 feet through an open field, and came to rest 1,000 feet from the runway after hitting construction vehicles and burned out. The crash was found to be caused by crew fatigue; none of the three on board were killed.

See also

* Florida World War II Army Airfields
* List of airports in Florida

References

External links

Tallahassee International Airport
official site
* http://www.flytallahassee.com/ Flight Instruction in TLH

Eagle Aircraft
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{{Florida airports

Transportation in Tallahassee, Florida
Airports in Florida
Transportation buildings and structures in Leon County, Florida
1961 establishments in Florida
Airports established in 1961