Northwest Alabama Regional Airport is a public-use airport located one mile east of Muscle Shoals, in

Colbert County, Alabama Colbert County () is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census the county's population was 57,227. The county seat is Tuscumbia. The largest city is Muscle Shoals. The county is named ...

. It is owned by the counties of Colbert and

Lauderdale Lauderdale is the valley of the Leader Water (a tributary of the Tweed) in the Scottish Borders. It contains the town of Lauder, as well as Earlston. The valley is traversed from end to end by the A68 trunk road, which runs from Darlington to ...

. The airport is serviced by Contour Airlines, subsidized by the

Essential Air Service Essential Air Service (EAS) is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which had been served by certificated airlines prior to deregulation in 1978, maintained commercial service. Its aim is t ...

program. Formerly, the airport operated as Muscle Shoals Auxiliary Field.

History

Military

The airport opened as

Muscle Shoals Auxiliary Field Northwest Alabama Regional Airport is a public-use airport located one mile east of Muscle Shoals, in Colbert County, Alabama. It is owned by the counties of Colbert and Lauderdale. The airport is serviced by Contour Airlines, subsidized by the ...

in February 1940, but in 1942 it was taken over 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 ...

as a

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 ...

pilot training military airfield. It was assigned to the AAF Flying Training Command, Southeast Training Center (later Eastern Flying Training Command) as a basic (stage 2) pilot training airfield. Pilot training at the airfield apparently ended on May 30, 1944, with the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program. The airfield was returned to civil control at the end of the war.

Recent

Until summer 2009 Muscle Shoals was served from Northwest Airlines' hub in Memphis by Northwest Airlink (Mesaba Airlines turboprops). After Northwest was acquired by Delta Air Lines, service was transferred to Delta's hub in Atlanta. This has seen increased passenger numbers and less market leakage to nearby Huntsville Airport. Despite the increase in enplanements, on November 23, 2010, Delta announced that it would not re-apply for the Essential Air Service subsidy to provide service between Muscle Shoals and Memphis. The cited reason was the retirement of partner Mesaba's

Saab 340 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 o ...

fleet. Under federal law, Delta Connection must continue service to Muscle Shoals until a replacement carrier is found. In 2011,

Air Choice One Multi-Aero, Inc., doing business as Air Choice One, a division of Southern Airways Corporation, was an American commuter airline with its headquarters in Concord, Missouri, within the Greater St. Louis area. It operated as a regional airline off ...

, a Missouri-based carrier, submitted a proposal to the US DOT to serve Muscle Shoals with flights to either Atlanta, Nashville or Memphis. Pending acceptance of the proposal, the airline was planning to begin flights in as little as 30 days. This airline never commenced service to Muscle Shoals. Eastern Airlines stopped at Muscle Shoals from 1947 to 1964. Southern Airways Douglas DC-9s flew nonstop to Atlanta and via Huntsville, and Southern Martin 4-0-4s flew to Memphis. Southern merged with North Central to form Republic, which continued at Muscle Shoals with DC-9-50s to Atlanta and with Convair 580s and Metroliners to Memphis. Republic was acquired by Northwest Airlines which ended jet flights to Atlanta but started Northwest Airlink service to Memphis with Jetstream 31s. Northwest Airlink replaced the Jetstreams with larger Saab 340s before all service ended. Beginning in October 2012, Muscle Shoals was served by

Silver Airways Silver Airways LLC. is a United States regional airline with its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. It was founded in 2011 with assets from the former Gulfstream ...

with two daily flights to Atlanta. Due to constant delays and cancellations, ridership declined to about 3 passengers per day under Silver, below EAS guidelines. Silver ended service to Muscle Shoals in October 2014.

SeaPort Airlines SeaPort Airlines was a US-based regional airline with its headquarters at Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon. It operated scheduled service from its bases at Portland International Airport (PDX) (Pacific Northwest region) and Me ...

announced it would take Silver's place in the Fall of 2014, and began daily flights to

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

and

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

on January 12, 2015. SeaPort service lasted less than one year and ended on October 20, 2015. The US Department of Transportation awarded the EAS contract to

Boutique Air Boutique Air, Inc. is a commuter airline based in San Francisco, California. The airline offers charter services as well as scheduled passenger services subsidized under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. Boutique operates the second lar ...

in 2016. Watkins, Carter
Boutique Air begins service to the Shoals
''WHNT-TV'', February 24, 2016, Retrieved 2016-02-24 Currently, Boutique Air provides four round trips to Atlanta every day utilizing an 8-seat

Pilatus PC-12 The Pilatus PC-12 is a pressurized, single-engined, turboprop aircraft, manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland, since 1991. It was designed as a high-performance utility aircraft that incorporates a large aft cargo door in ...

Facilities

The airport covers 640

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 (259 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 551 feet (168 m). 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 ...

runways: 12/30 is 6,694 by 150 feet (2,040 x 46 m) and 18/36 is 4,000 by 100 feet (1,219 x 30 m). In the year ending May 31, 2021, the airport had 36,805 aircraft operations, averaging 101 per day: 88%

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 ...

, 7% airline, 1%

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 4% military. In November 2021, there were 60 aircraft based at this airport: 40 single-engine, 10 multi-engine, 1 jet and 9

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 ...

Airline and destinations

Scheduled passenger service:

Top destinations

References

External links

*
Aerial image as of February 1999
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 Airports in Alabama Essential Air Service Transportation buildings and structures in Colbert County, Alabama Florence–Muscle Shoals metropolitan area 1940 establishments in Alabama Airports established in 1940