Borrego Valley Airport is a county-owned public

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 ...

three miles east of

Borrego Springs Borrego Springs (''borrego'' is Spanish for "sheep") is a census-designated place (CDP) in northeastern San Diego County, California. It is located within the Low Desert area of Southern California. The population was 3,073 at the 2020 census. ...

, in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county (United States), county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its Mexico-United States border, border with Mexico. As of the 2020 United States Cen ...

, United States.

Facilities

The airport covers at an elevation of 520 feet (158 m). Its one runway (8/26) is 5,011 x 75 ft (1,527 x 23 m) asphalt. In 2004 the airport had 22,000 aircraft operations, average 60 per day: 99.9%

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 ...

and 0.1%

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 ...

. 28 aircraft were then based at the airport: 64% 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 ...

, 7% multi-engine, 7%

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 ...

and 21%

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

Attractions

The

International Aerobatic Club The International Aerobatic Club (IAC) is a division of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and the National Aeronautics Association (NAA). It promotes aerobatics and governs the sport of competition aerobatics in the United States under ...

has a practice and competition area just north of the airport. The area was designated in 1976 and has a waiver from the

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 ...

. Aerobatic pilots from California and the southwest US regularly use it for practice and major competitive events; users have included three past national champions. Visitors are welcome to come to the airport and watch the flight activity, which does not interfere with other operations. Two annual competitions are sponsored by the San Diego Aerobatic Club, in April and October.

Past airline passenger service

Borrego Springs Airlines, a locally based commuter air carrier, was serving the airport from the late 1960s with scheduled nonstop flights to San Diego (SAN) and Palm Springs (PSP) operated with

Cessna 402 The Cessna 401 and 402 are a series of 6 to 10 seat, light twin-piston engine aircraft.Montgomery, MR & Gerald Foster: ''A Field Guide to Airplanes, Second Edition'', page 108. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. All seats are easily removable so ...

twin prop aircraft. By 1975, the airline had changed its name to

Sun Aire Lines Sun Aire Lines was a United States commuter airline that operated from 1968 to 1985. Sun Aire served a number of cities in Southern California and Arizona. History Sun Aire Lines was founded as Borrego Springs Airlines in 1968. Its operations in ...

and upgraded its fleet with 19-passenger seat Swearingen Metro II turboprops and was continuing to operate nonstop service to San Diego and Palm Springs. In the early 1980s the carrier was operating nonstop service to Los Angeles (

LAX A lax is a salmon. LAX as an acronym most commonly refers to Los Angeles International Airport in Southern California, United States. LAX or Lax may also refer to: Places Within Los Angeles * Union Station (Los Angeles), Los Angeles' main tr ...

) as well as direct service to Phoenix (PHX) via intermediate stops in Imperial (IPL) and Yuma (YUM) with Metro II propjets. In 1984, Sun Aire was acquired by

SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah. SkyWest operates and maintains aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by four partner Mainline (air travel), mainline airlines. The comp ...

which in turn continued to serve Borrego Springs with

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, Cabin pressurization, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation, Swearingen ...

(Metro III) propjets with flights to several destinations in southern California and Arizona. SkyWest became affiliated with

Western Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline in the United States based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mex ...

in 1986 and all flights then code-shared with Western, operating as Western Express. One year later in 1987, Western Airlines was merged into

Delta Airlines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its largest in terms of total passengers and number of depart ...

and all SkyWest flights began operating as

Delta Connection Delta Connection is a brand name under which Delta Air Lines has air service agreements with domestic regional air carriers that feed traffic to their network by serving passengers primarily in small and medium-sized cities in the domestic mark ...

. SkyWest/Delta Connection ceased all flights to the Borrego Springs airport on September 30, 1989.http://www.departedflights.com, Nov. 15, 1985; April 3, 1988; June 1, 1989 SkyWest Airlines route maps The airport currently does not have scheduled passenger air service.

References

External links

Borrego Valley Airport
at County of San Diego website * Airports in San Diego County, California {{California-airport-stub