Grant County International Airport (IATA: MWH, ICAO: KMWH, FAA LID: MWH) is a public use airport located 6 mi (9.7 km) northwest of the central business district of Moses Lake, a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The airport is owned by the Port of Moses Lake. Its 13,500-foot (4,100 m) runway is one of the longest in the world.
As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 1,369 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 2,920 enplanements in 2009, and 1,442 in 2010. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011-2015, which categorized it as a general aviation airport.
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History
Opened as a training airfield during World War II, the facility was operated by the U.S. Air Force as Larson Air Force Base until 1966. Passenger air service to and from Moses Lake ended on June 8, 2010.
Overview
With 4,650 acres (1,880 ha) and a main runway 13,500 feet (4,100 m) in length, it is one of the largest airports in the United States. Moses Lake is famous for good flying weather, as it is located on the east side of the Cascade Range, in the semi-arid desert of central Washington state.
Grant County International Airport was an alternate landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle.
Scheduled passenger flights on Big Sky Airlines to Boise and Portland were discontinued on September 1, 2006. The service was subsidized by the Essential Air Service program. United Express, operated by SkyWest Airlines offered nonstop flights to Seattle from June 2009 until June 2010. The airport currently has no commercial air service.
The airport was used for heavy jet training by Japan Airlines for over 40 years, until the closing of their training offices in March 2009.
In November 1974, the airport hosted a new Supersonic Transport (SST) Concorde for a month during FAA certification testing.
It is also utilized by the U.S. Air Force and Boeing as a testing facility. Most of the traffic at the airport is general and military aviation.
In 2011, the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild AFB in Spokane temporarily moved its KC-135 R/T fleet and operations to Moses Lake while Fairchild's runway underwent reconstruction and other infrastructure improvements, to include an upgrade to the base's aviation fuel distribution system.
The main campus for Big Bend Community College is also located on the grounds of the airport.
Facilities and aircraft
Grant Co. International Airport covers an area of 4,650 acres (1,880 ha) at an elevation of 1,189 feet (362 m) above sea level. It has five runways:
- Runway 14L/32R is 13,503 by 200 feet (4,116 by 61 m), with an asphalt/concrete surface
- Runway 4/22 is 10,000 by 100 feet (3,048 by 30 m), with an asphalt/concrete surface
- Runway 9/27 is 3,500 by 90 feet (1,067 by 27 m), with a concrete surface
- Runway 18/36 is 3,327 by 75 feet (1,014 by 23 m), with an asphalt surface
- Runway 14R/32L is 2,936 by 75 feet (895 by 23 m), with a concrete surface
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2010, the airport had 54,470 aircraft operations, an average of 149 per day: 28% general aviation, 56% military, 11% scheduled commercial and 4% air taxi. At that time there were 37 aircraft based at this airport: 74% single-engine, 19% multi-engine and 7% jet.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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