Adirondack Regional Airport is a public use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

located four

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...

s (5 mi, 7 km) northwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

of Saranac Lake, in

Franklin County, New York Franklin County is a County (United States), county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. To the north across the Canada–United States border are the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, from east to ...

, United States. The airport is owned by the Town of Harrietstown and is situated in the north-central

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains ( ) are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York (state), New York which form a circular dome approximately wide and covering about . The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy, which is the hi ...

two miles (3 km) from Lake Clear. It is served by one commercial airline, 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, maintain commercial service. Its aim is ...

program. As per

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

records, the airport had 4,252 passenger boardings (enplanements) in

calendar year A calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. The Gregorian calendar year, which is in use as civil calendar in ...

2008, 4,809 enplanements in 2009, and 5,762 in 2010. It is included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. With the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of September 3, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was required to develop a ...

for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a ''non-primary commercial service'' airport (between 2,500 and 10,000 enplanements per year).

History

In the autumn of 1940, a group of local men from the Saranac Lake Planning board got together to discuss the possibility of an airport in the

Adirondack Mountains The Adirondack Mountains ( ) are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York which form a circular dome approximately wide and covering about . The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy, which is the highest point in Ne ...

, near Saranac Lake. Their thinking was that such a development would play an important part in the future development of the Adirondacks. Due to the mountainous nature of the region many thought such a development would not be likely. However, after countless reviews of area maps, a plateau large enough for airport purposes was identified within a few miles of Saranac Lake Village. The Planning Board's search for an airport site had been prompted by an announcement from

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, that Congress had appropriated funds for the building of a system of airports throughout the country. There was, among other problems, however, one restriction. The land for an airport site, to be acceptable to the federal government, had to be publicly owned. The ideal site which these men had spotted on the map was part of the holdings of the

Paul Smith's Electric Company Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo P ...

. Since no other tract of suitable terrain was to be found within a radius of some , the whole effort might have bogged down but for the public-spirited cooperation of the Paul Smith's Electric Company which, in the interests of regional development, immediately deeded the tract to the Town of Harrietstown without cost. With the requirement of public ownership thus complied with, events moved swiftly toward the realization of an airport for the Adirondacks. Through persistent effort on the part of various citizens, who maintained close contact with Washington, D.C., the site was inspected and federal expenditures for construction of a Class III airport were approved. Step by step, the Town of Harrietstown Town Board and the Saranac Lake Airport Commission worked closely with state and federal agencies in the building process. Construction of the airfield was completed in 1942. The Town of Harrietstown issued bonds to augment the available funds and erected a terminal building in 1948 and a 100 by hangar in 1950. At the time, the airport was rated as one of the best built Class III airports in the country. Two commercial airlines,

Colonial Airlines Colonial Airlines was a United States trunk carrier, a scheduled airline that operated from 1928 to 1956 with bases at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York City and at Montréal/Saint-Hubert Airport in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, before merging i ...

and

Resort Airlines Resort Airlines was an unusual United States scheduled international airline certificated in 1949 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all commercial air transport in the ...

, served the region at that time. Airmail service was provided by Colonial Airlines. The volume of air express business handled by

Railway Express Agency Railway Express Agency (aka REA Express) (REA), founded as the American Railway Express Agency and later renamed the American Railway Express Inc., was a national package delivery service that operated in the United States from 1918 to 1975. REA ...

increased steadily, as did the number of privately owned aircraft using the field. Resort traffic response was immediate and increased steadily. The airport was officially dedicated to the service of the people of the Adirondacks on July 10, 1949. Since 1960, the Town of Harrietstown has operated the airport. The Saranac Lake Airport was renamed in 1989 to the Adirondack Regional Airport.

Commutair CommuteAir is a regional airline of the United States founded in 1989. Today, CommuteAir operates more than 1,600 weekly flights, exclusively on behalf of United Express, serving over 75 U.S. destinations and 3 in Mexico. CommuteAir's fleet of E ...

, a marketing affiliate of

US Air US Airways was a major airline in the United States. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon became a commercial passenger airline. In 1953, it was renamed Allegheny Airlines an ...

, began serving Adirondack Regional Airport in 1991. In 2000, the

cited Adirondack Regional Airport for several violations, including failure to conduct monthly fire-and-rescue training and triennial full-scale emergency exercises, faded markings on the

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with Airport apron, aprons, hangars, Airport terminal, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, although sma ...

, cracked pavement on runways and the taxi-way, and broken lights.DiMeo, Sam. "Regional Airport surrenders certificate: 26 violations must be remedied before larger planes can land]". ''Press-Republican'' (Plattsburgh, New York). August 9, 2001. During an inspection in 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration found the violations had not been corrected and, as a result, Adirondack Regional Airport surrendered its certificate allowing larger planes to land at the airport. Repairs began in September 2001. Commutair ended service at Adirondack Regional Airport in October 2007.Dedam, Kim Smith. "CommutAir pulling out of Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake: CommutAir cites shift in fleet plan". ''Press-Republican'' (Plattsburgh, New York). May 18, 2007. Commutair had been flying into Adirondack Regional Airport on 19-seat planes, and Commutair decided to replace all of those planes with larger planes that it decided were too large for the airport.

Big Sky Airlines Big Sky Airlines was a commuter air carrier in the United States that operated from 1978 to 2008. Headquartered in Billings, Montana, United States. Big Sky was wholly owned by Big Sky Transportation Company, which in turn was a wholly owned s ...

, a partner of

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

, began service at the airport when Commutair ended its service. Big Sky Airlines ended its service to the airport in December 2007, and the airline went out of business several months later."Big Sky crews land airline's last flights". ''Billings Gazette'' (Billings, Montana). March 9, 2008. The

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

invited airlines to bid to serve the airport, and

Cape Air Hyannis Air Service Inc., operating as Cape Air, is an airline headquartered at Cape Cod Gateway Airport in Hyannis, Massachusetts, United States. It operates scheduled passenger services in the Northeast, the Caribbean and Eastern Montana. ...

was the only airline to bid.LoTemplio, Joe. "Cape Air chosen as new regional airline". ''Press-Republican'' (Plattsburgh, New York). January 16, 2008. Cape Air was a partner of

JetBlue JetBlue Airways Corporation, stylized as jetBlue, is an American major airline headquartered in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City. Primarily a point-to-point carrier, JetBlue's network features six focus cities including its main hub ...

and

Continental Airlines Continental Airlines (simply known as Continental) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1934 until it merged with United Airlines in 2012. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continen ...

. Cape Air's service at Adirondack Regional Airport began in 2008.

Facilities and aircraft

Adirondack Regional Airport covers an area of at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

of 1,663 feet (507 m) above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has two

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

paved

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s: 5/23 is 6,573 by 150 feet (2,003 x 46 m) and 9/27 is 3,997 by 100 feet (1,218 x 30 m). Originally and through the 1960s, the Adirondack Airport had three runways, all of which were 4000 feet long. Beginning in 1956, the main runway (5/23) was extended to 5000 feet long. Runway 16/34 was long and wide, but was abandoned sometime between the mid-1970s and early 1980s. The main runway was then lengthened from to near its present length and widened to 150 feet in 1972 and an instrument landing system and approach lighting system was installed on the southwest-facing runway 23. Also, a parallel taxiway was added to almost the full length of runway 9-27 and a partial parallel taxiway was added between the abandoned northwest–southeast runway - part of which was converted into a taxiway and the approach end of runway 23. Around the mid-2010s, runway 27 had its landing threshold displaced by 400 feet. For the 12-month period ending May 31, 2018, the airport had 6,940 aircraft operations, an average of 18 per day: 72%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

, 27%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

, and <1%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

. At that time there were 16 aircraft based at this airport: 13 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 ge ...

, 2 multi-engine and 1

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

Airline and destinations

The following

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

offers scheduled passenger service:

Climate

References

Other sources

* Essential Air Service documents
Docket DOT-OST-2000-8025
from the

U.S. Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

: *
Order 2006-7-12
reselecting Champlain Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a CommutAir, operating as Continental Connection, to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake/Lake Placid, New York, at an annual subsidy rate of $1,706,755 for the two-year period of September 1, 2006, through August 31, 2008. *
Order 2007-9-13
selecting Big Sky Transportation Co., d/b/a Big Sky Airlines, operating as Delta Connection, to provide subsidized EAS at Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake/Lake Placid, New York, utilizing 19-seat Beech 1900-D aircraft, at an annual subsidy rate of $2,408,294. *
Order 2008-1-12
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc., d/b/a Cape Air, to provide essential air service (EAS) at Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake/Lake Placid, New York, for the two-year period beginning when the carrier starts full EAS at both communities. *
Order 2010-3-27
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc., d/b/a Cape Air, to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Saranac Lake/Lake Placid, New York, for a four-year term beginning March 1, 2010, with 9-seat Cessna 402s, at an annual subsidy rate of $1,366,538. *
Order 2014-2-19
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc., d/b/a Cape Air, to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Saranac Lake/Lake Placid, New York, for a four-year term beginning March 1, 2014, with 9-seat Cessna 402s, at an annual subsidy rate of $1,832,064.

External links

*
Adirondack Regional Airport
* at New York State DOT Airport Directory
Aerial image as of May 1994
from USGS ''

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a Collaboration, 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 eff ...

'' * {{authority control Airports in New York (state) Essential Air Service Buildings and structures in Franklin County, New York Transportation in Franklin County, New York Adirondacks Saranac Lake, New York