Springfield–Branson National Airport

Coordinates: 37°14′44″N 093°23′19″W / 37.24556°N 93.38861°W / 37.24556; -93.38861

Springfield–Branson National Airport
IATA: SGF – ICAO: KSGF – FAA LID: SGF
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	City of Springfield
Operator	Springfield Airport Board
Serves	Springfield / Branson, Missouri
Elevation AMSL	1,268 ft / 386 m
Website	Springfield–Branson National Airport
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 14/32 8,000 2,438 Concrete 2/20 7,003 2,135 Concrete
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations 78,468 Based aircraft 190
Sources: FAA,[1] airport website[2]

FAA Diagram

Springfield–Branson National Airport (IATA: SGF, ICAO: KSGF, FAA LID: SGF) (formerly Springfield–Greene County Airport, Springfield Municipal Airport, and Springfield–Branson Regional Airport) is a public airport located about five miles (8 km) northwest of Springfield, Missouri, in Greene County. The airport has non-stop service to twelve U.S. cities.

History

The airport opened as the Springfield–Greene County Airport on July 2, 1945, following bond issues of $350,000 in 1942 and $150,000 in 1945 to build the airport. It replaced the Springfield Park and Airport on East Division Street (which now operates as Downtown Airport (Missouri)). Springfield Park was the former McCluer Flying Field, which opened in 1925 and was purchased by the city in 1928 and which had commercial service by American Airlines and Transcontinental and Western. The airlines discontinued service during the Great Depression.^[3]

The airport was shortly renamed the Springfield Municipal Airport after the city and the county disagreed on funding.

In 1946, American Airlines began first commercial service to the new airport.

In October 1964, a new terminal opened and was paid for by a 1960 $600,000 bond issue.

In 1992, the airport was renamed the Springfield–Branson Regional Airport, capitalizing on the sudden rise of the Branson, Missouri, tourist industry; the airport is northwest of Springfield, and Branson is more than 50 miles (80 km) southeast of the airport. In that same year, the community of Lakeview, Missouri, renamed itself Branson West. "^[4] Branson has not said anything formal about the airport's running.

In May 2006, ground was broken for a brand new terminal and it was announced the airport would be renamed the Springfield–Branson National Airport. The new Midfield Terminal opened on May 6, 2009, and was designed by Reynolds, Smith & Hills.^[5]

Competing Branson Airports

The Branson Airport, which is located in Branson, opened in the spring of 2009 to compete with the municipally owned Springfield airport. Branson Airport, LLC, is reportedly the first privately owned airport in the US having regularly scheduled commercial airline service. The $155 million project was funded by $117 of municipal bonds^[6] and private investors. It is a few miles southeast of Hollister, Missouri.

Meanwhile, Branson West hopes to open a $15 million airport with a 5,000-foot (1,500 m) runway on the west side of the community to open in the fall of 2008^[7] on 930 acres (3.8 km²) donated by Conco Companies of Springfield (200 acres), Kay Renfro (450 acres) and Martin Eastwood (200 acres). The City had initially proposed building the airport on the east side near Silver Dollar City, but the plan was dropped due to protests.^[8] The new airport currently has no plans for commercial traffic.

Incidents

• At 10:36pm March 20, 1955, American Airlines Flight 711 crashed more than a mile north of the airport. Eleven of 32 passengers died, along with the stewardess and copilot. The federal investigation blamed pilot error misjudging the altitude. It is the only commercial crash at the airport.
• At around 5:00pm December 14, 2010, a twin engine plane made an emergency landing at the airport after the pilot could not get the landing gear to go down. The plane landed safely and both passengers rushed out of the plane, where fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were waiting.

Facilities and aircraft

Springfield–Branson National Airport covers 2,750 acres (1,110 ha) and has two runways: 14/32, asphalt/concrete, 8,000 x 150 ft (2,438 x 46 m) and 2/20, concrete, 7,000 x 150 ft (2,134 x 46 m) .^[1]

In 2006 the airport had 78,468 aircraft operations, average 214 per day: 50% general aviation, 35% air taxi, 8% military and 6% scheduled commercial. 190 aircraft are based at this airport: 71% single-engine, 20% multi-engine, 7% jet, 1% helicopter and 1% military.^[1]

There is an Army National Guard unit based at Springfield–Branson, the 35th combat aviation brigade, detachment 3 company 1 of the 185th aviation regiment. "The 35th Combat Aviation Brigade deploys to an area of responsibility to provide command, control, staff planning and supervision of combat aviation brigade operations. The brigade's units fly a combination of AH-64A Apache attack helicopters, OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopters and UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopters. It also has a detachment of two C-23 Sherpa cargo airplanes and a C-12 transport airplane."^[9]

Financial Data

The strongest area of income for SGF is from non-aeronautical revenue activities including parking and rental cars. This is followed by fuel sales, terminal fees and landing fees. Parking income has been the strongest for the past year and has followed enplanement trends with a drop in revenues in FY 2008, and increasing again in FY 2010, with the highest level to date at more than $2.5 million. ^[10] Personnel is the largest expenditure for the airport, this major operating expense is increasing per year and remains the highest by a very large margin. Additionally, an expense that sticks out is a sharp increase in contractual series between FY 2011 and FY 2012. An assumption can be made that the Airport is beginning preparations regarding the airport issue and alternative discussed in this paper.

Source: ^[11]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Top Destinations

References

External links

• Springfield–Branson National Airport – Official site
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KSGF
  • ASN accident history for SGF
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KSGF
  • FAA current SGF delay information