Pensacola International Airport , formerly Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport and Pensacola Regional Airport (Hagler Field), and temporarily branded Pensacola Intergalactic Airport each February in recognition of the local Pensacon convention, is a public use airport northeast 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 ...

Pensacola Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only city in Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Pensacola metropolitan area, which ha ...

, in

Escambia County, Florida Escambia County is the westernmost and oldest County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 321,905. The county seat and largest city is Pensacola, Florida, Pe ...

, United States. It is owned by the City of Pensacola. Despite its name, the airport does not offer scheduled international flights, though chartered international flights are not uncommon. This airport is one of five major airports in North Florida, and among these is the second largest by passenger count, only behind Jacksonville. The other four airports in North Florida are: Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, Tallahassee International Airport, and Jacksonville International Airport. It is included in 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 ...

(FAA)

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 2021–2025, in which it is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility. As per

records, the airport had 771,917 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, 694,786 enplanements in 2009, and 729,748 in 2010. In 2018, the airport served 1.9 million passengers. In 2023, the airport set an all-time record with 2,731,604 passengers served.

History

In 1935, a passenger terminal opened, and airline service began two years later. Atlantic and Gulf Airlines went out of business a few months later after failing to get an airmail contract. In 1938 National Airlines began flights to Mobile and Jacksonville. From 1940 to 1945, the airport was a U.S. Navy training facility; the Navy built a control tower and added a fourth runway. In 1947

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

began service out of Pensacola, and in 1952 a modern terminal replaced the original one. The airport was then dedicated to L.C. Hagler, the former mayor of Pensacola. In 1968 Eastern began the first scheduled jet service from Pensacola. In 1978, after

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

of the airline industry, several airlines began serving Pensacola, including

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne * Continen ...

and

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

. In 1978 a National Airlines Boeing 727 crashed into Escambia Bay while on approach for landing, the first fatal airline accident in the area. In 1979

US Airways US Airways was a major airline in the United States. It was originally founded in History of aviation in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon became a commercial passenger airline. In 1953, it ...

, then called USAir, arrived at Pensacola. In 1990 the current terminal was built and

AirTran Airways AirTran Airways was a low-cost airline in the United States that operated from 1993 until it was acquired by Southwest Airlines May 2, 2011. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, AirTran Airways was established in 1993 as Conquest Sun Airlines b ...

began jet service in 2001. In 2005

United Express United Express is a regional airline network that supports United Airlines operations, primarily by serving smaller cities and connecting traffic to United's main hubs. Representing six percent of United's total capacity for 2024, United Express ...

began service out of Pensacola. After stopping service to Pensacola in the 1990s, American Airlines (operating as American Eagle) began service again in Pensacola in 2004. Southwest Airlines initiated service to Pensacola in 2013 after purchasing Airtran Airways. Frontier Airlines initiated service at Pensacola in 2018. Pensacola mayor Ashton Hayward announced on November 9, 2011, that the airport would change its name from Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport to Pensacola International Airport, effective immediately.

Facilities and aircraft

Pensacola Regional Airport covers an area of 1,211

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s (490 ha) 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 121 feet (37 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

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: 17/35 is 7,004 by 150 feet (2,135 x 46 m) with a concrete surface; 08/26 is 7,000 by 150 feet (2,134 x 46 m) with an asphalt surface. Runway 17 has an instrument landing system and approach lights, while the Runway 26 approach has a localizer approach. A 1,000 ft. extension to the east end of Runway 08/26 was completed in 2006. The airport hopes to extend Runway 17/35 to about 8,500 ft. The airport's two war-era diagonal runways were decommissioned in the 1960s. For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2024, the airport had 157,103 aircraft operations, an average of 430 per day: 58%

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 ...

, 19%

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 ...

, 16%

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

and 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 ...

. At the end of January 2024, there were 172 aircraft based at this airport: 141 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 ...

, 10 multi-engine, 18 jet, and 3 helicopter.

Terminal

Pensacola has one passenger terminal with 12 gates, built in the early 1990s. Gates 1 through 10 are located on the 2nd floor, while Gates 11 and 12 are located on the ground floor. Gate assignments: * American: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 * Delta: 2, 4 * Southwest: 10 * United: 1, 3 * Frontier: 6, 8, 10 * Spirit: 8 * Breeze: 9

Terminal expansion

The terminal was expanded in 2011 at a cost of $35 million. The expansion was designed by Gresham, Smith, and Partners and Stoa Architects. In 2022, it was announced that the city of Pensacola was looking into a $70 million concourse and parking expansion that would provide more space to handle the airport's rapid increase in passenger numbers and flights.

Management

The airport is operated as a self-funding department of the government of the City of Pensacola.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo operations

UPS Airlines UPS Airlines is a major American cargo airline based in Louisville, Kentucky, US. One of the largest cargo airlines worldwide World's largest airlines#Scheduled freight tonne-kilometers (millions), in terms of freight volume flown, UPS Airlines f ...

is the only major cargo carrier at the airport currently. UPS flies two flights into Pensacola, four days out of the week, Tuesday through Friday. On Saturday, UPS only flies one flight to Pensacola. Suburban Air Freight operates daily flights to Atlanta with a Beech 1900C. Ameriflight operated daily feeder flights for UPS to Mobile Downtown Airport and Gulfport–Biloxi International Airport with the Swearingen Fairchild SA227-AT Metro until July 16, 2016. As of July 18, 2016,

Martinaire Martinaire Aviation, L.L.C. is an American cargo airline based on the grounds of Addison Airport in Addison, Texas, United States, near Dallas.Pensacon, a multi-genre convention held in the city of Pensacola. In 2024, the airport changed its name and signage on February 9, ready for the convention scheduled for February 23–25.

Accidents and incidents

*On May 8, 1978 National Airlines Flight 193 landed in Escambia Bay while approaching the east–west runway. Three of the 58 passengers and crew on board were killed. *On January 2, 1982, a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Beechcraft Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketing, marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was droppe ...

crashed into a housing development on approach north of Pensacola Regional Airport. The plane struck several trees, fell on a car and collided with an oak tree. The pilot was killed, the other seven occupants survived. *On December 27, 1987,

Flight 573, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9-31 suffered a hard landing, causing the aircraft to bounce and break apart aft of the wings. All four crew and 103 passengers survived, four passengers sustained minor injuries during evacuation. *On April 10, 1989, a ''Southern Company Services''

crashed into an apartment complex 4.1 miles from PNS en route to Atlanta DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. An in-flight cabin fire and smoke disabled the flight crew. All three occupants (2 crew, 1 passenger) died. *On July 6, 1996, Delta Air Lines Flight 1288, an MD-88, experienced an

uncontained engine failure A turbine engine failure occurs when a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine unexpectedly stops producing Power (physics), power due to a malfunction other than fuel exhaustion. It often applies for aircraft, but other turbine engines can also fail, ...

during takeoff on runway 17. Fragments from the number one (left)

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...

JT8D-219

turbofan A turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a combination of references to the preceding generation engine technology of the turbojet and the add ...

engine penetrated the fuselage, killing two and seriously injuring one of the 148 people on board. *On July 11, 1996, a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

F-16C Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

crashed into two houses just north of Pensacola Regional Airport while attempting an emergency landing. The plane was en route from Shaw AFB in South Carolina to Eglin AFB in Okaloosa County to escape Hurricane Bertha when it experienced an engine flameout. The pilot ejected safely; however, a 4-year-old child was killed, and the mother was severely burned.

Public safety

Pensacola International is protected by several local and federal law enforcement and public safety agencies. Specifically, they are served by: * Pensacola Police Department *

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

Aircraft rescue and firefighting Aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) is a type of firefighting that involves the emergency response, mitigation, evacuation, and rescue of passengers and crew of aircraft involved in aviation accidents and incidents. Airports with schedul ...

(ARFF) is provided by the Pensacola Fire Department, who operate out of one fire station on the premises.

References

External links

Pensacola International Airport
official site
Aerial image as of November 1999
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 ...

'' * * {{Pensacola Airports in Florida Pensacola, Florida Pensacola metropolitan area Transportation buildings and structures in Escambia County, Florida Airports established in 1935 1935 establishments in Florida