Approaching the runway for landing over Ash Point Road

Knox County Regional Airport is a county-owned, 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 ...

in the town of Owls Head,

Knox County, Maine Knox County is a county located in the state of Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,607. Its county seat is Rockland. The county is named for Revolutionary War general and Secretary of War Henry Knox, who li ...

, United States. It is located three

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 (6 km) south 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 ...

Rockland, Maine Rockland is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Maine, United States. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the town population was 6,936. The city is a popular tourist destination. It is a departure point for the Maine S ...

. The airport serves the residents of midcoast Maine with commercial and charter aviation services. Scheduled airline service is 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. It is also a major hub of freight and mail service to Maine's island communities including Matinicus, North Haven and Vinalhaven. 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 13,866 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, 14,461 enplanements in 2009, and 17,657 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 ''primary commercial service'' airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year). During the summer months, the airport is one of Maine's busiest, with significant private jet operations bringing visitors to the numerous

summer colonies The term summer colony is often used, particularly in the United States, to describe well-known resorts and upper-class enclaves, typically located near the ocean, lakes, or mountains of New England, the Northeast United States, or the Great La ...

in the

Penobscot Bay Penobscot Bay () is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean in south central Maine, a stretch known as Midcoast Maine, in a broader Atlantic region known as Down East. The bay originates from the mouth of Maine's Penobscot River, ...

region. The influx in traffic in recent years prompted the implementation of a voluntary night curfew on arrivals and departures between 10:30 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Owls Head Transportation Museum is also situated at the airport on the remains of runway 17/35, a third runway that is now abandoned. It has a museum of antique autos, aircraft, and engines. During the summer special event gatherings are held for enthusiasts.

History

The airport was built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and became locally known as the "Ash Point Naval Air Station" while officially operating as Rockland Naval Auxiliary Air Facility (NAAF) from April 15, 1943, until February 1, 1946. With the familiar triangle of runways (the third runway was discontinued in the 1970s) it was one of a string of military airports along the Maine coast supporting operations of

Naval Air Station Brunswick Naval Air Station Brunswick , also known as NAS Brunswick or the Brunswick Naval Air Station, was a military airport located southeast of Brunswick, Maine, with a number of Navy-operated maritime patrol aircraft. As of November 28, 2009, the la ...

. After the war, it was operated by the City of Rockland until 1968. It was then turned over to Knox County and renamed ''Knox County Regional Airport''. Since that time, the airport has been developed, the runways expanded, and an Instrument Landing System (ILS) was installed.

Facilities and aircraft

Knox County Regional Airport covers an area of 538

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 (218 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 56 feet (17 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: 13/31 is 5,412 by 100 feet (1,650 × 30 m) and 3/21 is 4,000 by 100 feet (1,219 × 30 m). For the year ending December 31, 2020, the airport had 38,889 aircraft operations, an average of 106 per day: 67%

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 ...

, 25%

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 ...

, 7% scheduled commercial, 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 67 aircraft based at this airport: 62 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 ...

, 1 multi-engine, 3 jet, and 1 glider.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Accidents and incidents

*On May 30, 1979, Downeast Flight 46 crashed on approach to the airport when the pilots descended below the minimum allowable altitude in difficult weather and failed to correct their error. 16 passengers and crew out of the 17 on board were killed, 1 passenger survived the crash.

Citations

Other sources

* Essential Air Service documents
Docket OST-1997-2784
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 2004-10-16 (October 25, 2004)
reselecting Colgan Air, Inc., to provide subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) at Presque Isle/Houlton, Augusta/Waterville, Bar Harbor and Rockland, Maine, for a two-year period at a combined annual subsidy rate of $4,312,849. *
Order 2006-8-24 (August 25, 2006)
reselecting Colgan Air, Inc., operating as

US Airways Express US Airways Express was the brand name for the regional affiliate of US Airways, under which a number of individually owned commuter air carriers and regional airlines operate short and medium haul routes. This code sharing service was previously ...

, to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Presque Isle/Houlton, Augusta/Waterville, Bar Harbor, and Rockland, Maine, at a total annual subsidy rate of $4,774,068 ($3,572,592 for Augusta/Waterville, Bar Harbor, and Rockland; $1,201,476 for Presque Isle/Houlton), for the two-year period of November 1, 2006, through October 31, 2008. **
Order 2008-7-35 (July 31, 2008)
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc. d/b/a Cape Air (Cape Air) to provide subsidized EAS at Rockland, Maine, at an annual subsidy of $1,522,770, for a two-year period beginning when Cape Air inaugurates full EAS, through the end of the 24th month thereafter. *
Order 2010-9-28 (September 28, 2010)
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc., operating as Cape Air, to provide essential air service (EAS) at Augusta/Waterville and Rockland, Maine, for the four-year period from November 1, 2010, to October 31, 2014, for a combined annual subsidy of $2,783,161, and Colgan Air Inc., operating as US Airways Express, to provide EAS at Bar Harbor, Maine, for the two-year period from November 1, 2010, to October 31, 2012, for an annual subsidy of $2,298,533.

External links

Knox County Regional Airport
at Knox County website
Aerial image as of May 1996
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 ...

'' * {{authority control Airports in Maine Essential Air Service Transportation buildings and structures in Knox County, Maine Owls Head, Maine