Drake Field is a public airport three miles south of Fayetteville, in Washington County,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. It is also known as Fayetteville Executive Airport and was formerly Fayetteville Municipal Airport.

Historical airline service

Drake Field was the commercial airport for northwest Arkansas until the opening of the

Northwest Arkansas National Airport Northwest Arkansas National Airport in Northwest Arkansas is a public-use airport located in Benton County, Arkansas, serving the rapidly growing Northwest Arkansas region, northwest of Fayetteville and northwest of Springdale. Since its op ...

(XNA) in Highfill, Arkansas in 1998. It was served by Central Airlines with

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...

prop aircraft and later with Convair 600 turboprops from 1955 until Central was acquired by the original

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines, Inc. is a major American ultra low-cost airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 120 destinations in the United States, Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, and employs more than 5,000 staff. ...

in 1967. Frontier continued serving Fayetteville through the 1970's with Convair 580 turboprops nonstop and direct to Dallas/Ft. Worth, nonstop to Harrison, AR, Hot Springs, AR and Joplin, MO, and direct to Kansas City, Little Rock, Memphis, St. Louis, Tulsa and Fort Leonard Wood, MO according to the March 2, 1977 Frontier Airlines system timetable. Frontier then ceased serving Fayetteville in 1982 at which time

Metro Airlines Metro Airlines, originally Houston Metro Airlines, was a commuter airline that was originally headquartered in Houston, Texas, United States. Metro subsequently moved its headquarters to north Texas. The airline had an operational base located o ...

began service to DFW with one stop at Fort Smith using former Frontier Convair 580's. Metro became an American Eagle affiliate for

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

in 1984. Scheduled Skyways (which was also known as Skyways) was a commuter air carrier based in Fayetteville which was subsequently acquired and merged with

Air Midwest Air Midwest, Inc., was a Federal Aviation Administration Part 121 certificated air carrier that operated under air carrier certificate number AMWA510A issued on May 15, 1965. It was headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, Wichita, Kansas, United Sta ...

in 1985. In 1974, the airline was operating nonstop flights from the airport to Little Rock and Tulsa. By early 1985 before the merger with Air Midwest, Skyways was operating nonstop service to the airport from Dallas/Fort Worth, St. Louis, Memphis, Little Rock, Tulsa, Springfield, MO, Joplin, MO, Fort Leonard Wood, MO, Hot Springs, AR, Jonesboro, AR, Fort Smith, AR, Harrison, AR and Springdale, AR with direct flights from Kansas City and Wichita flown 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 ...

and Nord 262 turboprops. According to the

Official Airline Guide OAG is a global travel data provider with headquarters in the UK. The company was founded in 1929 and operates in the United States, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China. It has a large network of flight information data including schedules, ...

( OAG), in 1995 five airlines were operating scheduled passenger service into the airport with all flights being operated with regional and commuter turboprop airliners via respective

code sharing A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

agreements with various major air carriers including American Eagle with service on behalf of

with nonstop

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 differen ...

service from Dallas/Fort Worth and Nashville,

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 ...

operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) on behalf 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 ...

with nonstop Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia flights from Dallas/Fort Worth,

Northwest Airlink Northwest Airlink was the brand name of Northwest Airlines' regional airline service, which flew turboprop and regional jet aircraft from Northwest's domestic hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis. Service was primarily to small-to-medium- ...

operated by Express Airlines I on behalf of

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines (often abbreviated as NWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 until it Delta Air Lines–Northwest Airlines merger, merged with Delta Air Lines in 2010. The merger made Delta the largest airline ...

with

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...

BAe Jetstream 31 and

nonstop service from Memphis and Fort Smith,

Trans World Express Trans World Express (TWE) was the fully owned and certified 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 Ransom ...

operated by

Trans States Airlines Trans States Airlines was a regional airline in the United States that operated from 1982 until 2020, when it shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was owned by Trans States Holdings and headquartered in Bridgeton, Missouri. At the time o ...

on behalf of

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles ...

( TWA) with nonstop

ATR 42 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR (aircraft manufacturer), ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aér ...

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR. The number "72" in its name is derived from the aircraft's typical standard seating capacity of 72 pa ...

and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia flights from St. Louis and Springfield, MO, and USAir Express operating flights on behalf of

USAir 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 ...

with nonstop

Beechcraft 1900 The Beechcraft 1900 is a U.S made twin-engine turboprop regional airliner manufactured by Beechcraft. It is also used as a freight aircraft and corporate transport, and by several governmental and military organizations. With customers favoring ...

service from Kansas City and Little Rock. The OAG listed a combined total of 44 airline flights being operated into the airport every weekday at this time in 1995.

Facilities

The airport covers at an elevation of . Its one runway, 16/34, is 6,005 by 100 feet (1,830 x 30 m). A historic fire station was located on site. The Arkansas Air & Military Museum is at the airport, with part of its collection housed in a heritage-listed hangar built in the 1940s and several aircraft on display outdoors. In the year ending December 31, 2020 the airport had 24,907 aircraft operations, average 68 per day: 86%

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 ...

, 8%

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 ...

, 6% military, and <1% airline. 96 aircraft were then based at the airport: 73 single-engine, 7 multi-engine, 14 jets and 2 helicopter.

References

External links

Aerial image as of 28 February 2001
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

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 ...

'' * * {{AR-Airports, state=expanded Airports in Arkansas Transportation in Washington County, Arkansas Buildings and structures in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Historical airline service

Facilities

See also

References

External links