Hagerstown Regional Airport (

Richard A. Henson Richard Adams Henson (December 12, 1910 – June 12, 2002) was an American test pilot, flight school operator, and founder of the modern "commuter airline" concept. Biography Henson was a test pilot for Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Aircraf ...

Field) is in Washington County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, five miles north of

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's List of municipalities in Maryland, sixth-most popu ...

and a half mile (800 m) from the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. The airport is off

Interstate 81 Interstate 81 (I-81) is a north–south (physically northeast–southwest) Interstate Highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 40, I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee, Dandridge, Tennessee; its nort ...

at exit 10 and

U.S. Route 11 U.S. Route 11 or U.S. Highway 11 (US 11) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway extending across the eastern U.S. The southern terminus of the route is at US 90 in Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refu ...

, not far from

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several County (United States), counties and independent city (United States), independent cities in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. ...

, South Central

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and the Eastern Pandhandle of West Virginia 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 ...

says this airport had 29,105 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2019, 14,373 in 2020, 23,227 in 2021 and 32,197 in 2022. 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 2023-2027 categorized it as a "non-hub primary commercial service airport" based on 2021 enplanements.

History

The airfield opened in 1928 on of farmland purchased by the Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company. It was purchased by the City of Hagerstown in 1933.Mitchell, Kent A. (Fall 2003).
The Hagerstown Airport
". ''American Aviation Historical Society Journal''. Vol. 48. Number 3. In 1934, after purchase by Fairchild, Kreider-Reisner was renamed the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation. In the following years, an aircraft manufacturing facility was built on the Hagerstown municipal airport site. In the 1940s, the Fairchild Aircraft factory at Hagerstown produced

PT-19 The Fairchild PT-19 (company designation Fairchild M62) is an American monoplane primary trainer aircraft that served with the United States Army Air Forces, RAF and RCAF during World War II. Designed by Fairchild Aircraft, it was a contemp ...

trainers and

C-82 Packet The C-82 Packet is a twin-engine, Twin-boom aircraft, twin-boom cargo aircraft designed and built by Fairchild Aircraft. It was used briefly by the United States Army Air Forces and the successor United States Air Force following World War II. ...

transport aircraft for the war at the facility, designated Air Force Plant 11. After World War II, Fairchild would go on to produce

C-119 The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (Navy and Marine Corps designation R4Q) is an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II-era Fairchild C-82 Packet, designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients, and mechani ...

and

C-123 The Fairchild C-123 Provider is an American military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and built by Fairchild Aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. In addition to its USAF service, which included later service with the Air Force Reserve an ...

military transports and license-produce

Fokker F27 The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...

airliners at Hagerstown. From 1973 to 1984, final assembly and checkout of the

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twinjet, twin-turbofan, straight wing, straight-wing, Subsonic aircraft, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Republic ...

was performed at Hagerstown. Following A-10 production, Fairchild shut down the Hagerstown plant. In 57 years of operation, the Fairchild Aircraft factory had built over 10,000 aircraft. The facility was named Washington County Regional Airport in 1981, when ownership was transferred from the City of Hagerstown to Washington County. In 1998, the county renamed it Hagerstown Regional Airport - Richard A. Henson Field. Subsidiaries of

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 ...

had served Hagerstown Regional Airport for some time. The airport lost eligibility for

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 ...

funding on October 1, 2007, because it was located less than from a larger airport. The last discontinued destination from Hagerstown by this air carrier group was

Pittsburgh International Airport Pittsburgh International Airport —originally Greater Pittsburgh Airport and later Greater Pittsburgh International Airport—is a civil-military international airport in Findlay Township and Moon Township, Pennsylvania, United States. Abou ...

. Due to low ridership and the expired federal subsidy,

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 ...

ended their flights from Hagerstown on September 30, 2007. Hagerstown Regional Airport was without an airline for just over a yearCommercial flights return to Hagerstown
. ''The Record Herald (Waynesboro, Pennsylvania)''. September 18, 2008. until the advent of

Allegiant Air Allegiant Air is an American ultra low-cost carrier, ultra-low cost airline headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. The airline focuses on serving leisure traffic from small and medium-sized cities which it considers to be underserved, using an ult ...

which flew from Hagerstown Regional Airport to

Orlando Sanford International Airport Orlando Sanford International Airport is a commercial, public use airport in Sanford, Florida, United States, near Orlando. It was built as Naval Air Station Sanford, a Master Jet Base for carrier-based attack and reconnaissance aircraft, ...

with two departures on Friday and two arrivals on Monday. The airline started commercial service on November 14, 2008. The airline used the

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...

MD-82 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gener ...

MD-83 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast narrow-body aircraft, single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 ...

aircraft on this route. Scheduled service at Hagerstown ended on July 19, 2010, but service later resumed. On August 13, 2013, Allegiant began another hiatus from operations at Hagerstown Regional Airport. They resumed service on November 15, 2013, with afternoon flights. Beginning on March 24, 2009,

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. ...

served Hagerstown Regional with four flights daily on

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 ...

aircraft to

Baltimore-Washington International Airport Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport – also known as Thurgood Marshall Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Airport, and simply as BWI Airport – is an international airport in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. These flights were subsidized by the

federal program. This service ended in 2012 and was replaced on November 5, 2012 with EAS-subsidized service when Sun Air International began offering daily flights to

Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport ( ) – commonly known by its former name of Dulles International Airport, by its airport code of IAD, or simply as Dulles Airport – is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located w ...

in suburban

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 ...

On June 23, 2011 Hagerstown Regional Airport began service from

Direct Air Southern Sky Air Tours, d/b/a Direct Air was an airline business based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States. Direct Air started in 2007 and leased aircraft with charter airlines. Its main base was Myrtle Beach International Airport. Direc ...

, operated by

Dynamic Airways Eastern Airlines, LLC is an American airline headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The airline operates a mixed fleet of Boeing 767 and Boeing 777 aircraft. Originally founded in 2010 as Dynamic Airways, the company rebranded as Eastern Airli ...

, to

Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. Located along Interstate 4, I-4 east of Tampa and southwest of Orlando, Florida, Orlando, it is the List of municipalities in Florida, most populous city in Polk County. As of the 2020 ...

, and

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the East Coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as the "Grand Strand” in the northeastern part of the state. Its ...

. In August 2011, Direct Air decided to temporarily suspend service from Hagerstown, saying that demand for service during the winter was expected to decrease.Waters, Jr., Ed.
Direct Air halts winter flights
. ''The Frederick News-Post''. August 10, 2011. Direct Air stated they would consider returning to the Hagerstown market in the spring of 2012. Direct Air was subject to

Chapter 7 Chapter Seven refers to a seventh Chapter (books), chapter in a book. Chapter Seven, Chapter 7, or Chapter VII may also refer to: Albums * Chapter Seven (album), ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. * Chapter VII (album), ''Ch ...

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...

on April 12, 2012. Hagerstown Regional Airport's eligibility for

was planned to be cut because the airport had fewer than ten s per service day in 2013, in accordance with the FAA Modernization Act of 2012.Cardin, Mikulski, Delaney Laud EAS Waiver for Hagerstown Regional Airport
" ''The Office of Sen. Benjamin Cardin''. Targeted News Service. Press release. September 30, 2014.

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

Ben Cardin Benjamin Louis Cardin (born October 5, 1943) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Maryland from 2007 until 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ...

and Barbara A. Mikulski and

U.S. Congressman The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

John Delaney advocated for 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 ...

to approve a waiver, pointing to a significant increase in enplanements in early 2014. The Department of Transportation approved the waiver, and Hagerstown Regional Airport retained its eligibility for Essential Air Service. In February 2015

began nonstop jet service twice weekly to St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport, which was followed by twice weekly service to

. By 2015, Hagerstown Aircraft Services, a maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility at the airport, had closed. A portion of the former Fairchild plant was put up for auction in 2017. In October 2019, the Department of Transportation again announced the end of Essential Air Service to Hagerstown, pending any successful appeals.

Southern Airways Express Southern Airways Express is a commuter airline operating across the United States with headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida. Southern Airways Express, commonly referred to as 'Southern', acts as a local service airline for dozens of cities across ...

subsequently announced the suspension of ticket sales for their routes from the airport in October 2019. Given the location near

Camp David Camp David is a country retreat for the president of the United States. It lies in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the towns of Thurmont, Maryland, Thurmont and Emmitsburg, Maryland, Emmitsburg, a ...

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control-designated Aviation call signs, call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. The term is commonly used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modifie ...

has landed at Hagerstown Regional Airport on several occasions, but usually the

Boeing C-32 The Boeing C-32 is the United States Air Force designation for variants of the Boeing 757 in military service. Two variants exist, filling different parts of the military passenger transport role. The C-32A serves the Special Air Mission, prov ...

aircraft rather than the

Boeing VC-25 The Boeing VC-25 is a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner, modified for presidential transport and commonly operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) as ''Air Force One'', the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the pr ...

aircraft.

Facilities

Hagerstown Regional Airport covers 693

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 (280 ha) at an elevation of 703 feet (214 m). 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 ...

runways: 9/27 is 7,000 by 150 feet (2,134 x 46 m) and 2/20 is 3,165 by 100 feet (965 x 30 m). In October 2010, a new hangar opened.Airport receives boost with new hangar
. ''Public Opinion (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania)''. October 20, 2010. p. A10. Construction of the hangar was financed with $6.5 million of Recovery Zone Facility Bonds, a tax-exempt bond from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development for projects that stimulate business development projects in distressed areas. In the year ending March 31, 2023, the airport had 39,303 aircraft operations, average 108 per day: 82%

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 ...

, 12% military, 5%

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% airline. 153 aircraft were then based at this airport: 126 single-engine, 18 multi-engine, 7 jet, 1 helicopter and 1

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 ...

Cape Air Cessna 402 Hagerstown Regional Airport

In 2014 the

awarded a $1,000,000 grant to Hagerstown Regional Airport to plan and design major rehabilitation on two taxiways, including ensuring the structural integrity of the taxiway and adding LED safety lighting. Rider Jet Center is the airport

fixed-base operator A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down, and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction ...

.Rider Jet Center
. Dining is available at “the Grille at Runways” within the FBO and at Nick's Airport Inn Restaurant, however both are located on the north-side of the airport and not directly accessible from the south-side passenger terminal.

Airline and destinations

Passenger: Cargo: Hagerstown Regional Airport terminal MD1

Statistics

Top destinations

Annual Traffic

Transportation

Hagerstown Regional Airport is 15 minutes by car from downtown

Hagerstown Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's sixth-most populous incorporated city and is the most populous city in the ...

, and it is located directly off

and

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

is south of the airport and the airport is accessible via Interstate 81. Parking at the airport is $5 per day with the first hour free. Car rental service are available at the airport. Taxi service is available to and from the airport upon request. Washington County Transit buses make regular stops at the airport, and there are also buses to nearby hotels.

Incidents

On February 19, 2005, a

landed without the right wheel of the main landing gear. The pilot managed to burn most of the fuel off to prevent a fire. The pilot was able to land on

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, ...

27 and all five people on board deplaned within minutes. Nobody was hurt. Several fire departments around the Tri-State area responded to the incident. On July 23, 2009, a Robinson R-44 helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from Hagerstown Regional Airport. The helicopter crashed onto

near South Mountain at 10:30 p.m. Four people on board were killed and nobody on the ground was hurt.

References

Other sources

* Essential Air Service documents
Docket OST-2006-25228
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 2006-10-12 (October 25, 2006)
selecting Mesa Air Group, Inc., d/b/a Air Midwest, Inc., to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Hagerstown, Maryland, consisting of two nonstop round trips a day to Pittsburgh International Airport, at the annual subsidy rate of $854,452, beginning 45 days after the date of service of this order, or when the carrier inaugurates two-round-trip service, whichever occurs first, through September 30, 2007. *
Order 2008-12-33 (December 31, 2008)
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc. d/b/a Cape Air, to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Hagerstown, Maryland, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, beginning when the carrier inaugurates service, through September 30, 2009, at the annual subsidy rates of $1,203,167 for Hagerstown and $1,372,474 for Lancaster. *
Order 2010-10-1 (October 1, 2010)
extending the current subsidy contract of Cape Air to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Hagerstown, Maryland, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through September 30, 2011. *
Order 2012-2-13 (February 17, 2012)
extending the contract of Hyannis Air Service, Inc. d/b/a Cape Air to provide subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) at Hagerstown, Maryland, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, until further notice; and requesting proposals from carriers interested in providing EAS at Hagerstown and/or Lancaster, through September 30, 2015, with or without subsidy. *
Order 2012-8-9 (August 3, 2012)
selecting Sun Air Express, LLC d/b/a Sun Air International, to provide subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) with nine-passenger twin-engine Piper Chieftain aircraft at Hagerstown, Maryland, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through September 30, 2015. The annual subsidy rate for Hagerstown will be set at $1,785,638, and $2,504,174 for Lancaster, or a combined total of $4,289,812. *
Order 2014-4-26 (April 24, 2014)
directing interested persons to show cause as to why the Department should not terminate the eligibility ... under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program based on criteria passed by Congress in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (Public Law No. 112-95). We find that Hagerstown is within 175 miles of a large or medium hub,

(IAD), a large hub, and, thus, is subject to the 10-enplanement statutory criterion. We also find that during fiscal year 2013, Hagerstown generated a total of 2,419 passengers (inbound plus outbound). Consistent with the methodology described above, that results in an average of 3.9 enplanements per day, below the 10-enplanement statutory criterion necessary to remain eligible in the EAS program.

External links

Hagerstown Regional Airport
official website
Aerial image as of March 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 ...

'' * * * {{authority control Airports in Maryland Airports established in 1928 Former Essential Air Service airports Hagerstown, Maryland Transportation buildings and structures in Washington County, Maryland 1928 establishments in Maryland Plants of the United States Air Force