Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport

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Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport
IATA: BKL - ICAO: KBKL
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		City of Cleveland
Serves		Cleveland, Ohio
Elevation AMSL		583 ft (177.7 m)
Coordinates		41°31′03″N, 81°41′00″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
6L/24R	6,198	1,889	Asphalt
6R/24L	5,197	1,584	Asphalt

Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport (IATA: BKL, ICAO: KBKL) is located on the shore of Lake Erie, just north of downtown Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Although it has been mostly a general aviation airport since 1990, commercial service is scheduled to resume in 2006.

Burke Lakefront is a critical part of the Cleveland Airport System. It serves a growing number of corporate jets and air taxi services, and also serves as a reliever airport to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), which is Greater Cleveland's primary airport.

The airport has two runways: Runway 6L/24R (6198 x 150 ft.) and Runway 6R/24L (5197 x 100 ft.) and could easily support B737 service to the entire eastern half of the United States. The airport has two fixed-base operators on the grounds.

Until August 2006 there had been no commercial air service at the airport since 1990. Wright Airlines was based at BKL in the 1970's and 1980's, before declaring bankruptcy. Midwest Express Airlines operated service from BKL, before moving their current operations to Hopkins. However, the airport's proximity to downtown Cleveland--a five minute taxi ride--and long parallel runways make it an excellent airport for an airline to operate service, particularly to business markets, such as New York City's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Chicago's Midway (MDW) or O'Hare (ORD).

Such a plan is being implemented by the airline Destination One, which announced scheduled charter flights from BKL to airports near the downtowns of Detroit and Cincinnati, and Hilton Head, SC, among other destinations.

The airport is owned and operated by the city of Cleveland, which also operates Hopkins. Burke Lakefront handles approximately 80,000 operations per year (83,975 in 2004).

The airport is the site of the annual Grand Prix of Cleveland, a Champ Car race which requires the airport to be briefly shut down. Burke Lakefront Airport is the only airport in the country to host such a major car race, which requires careful maintenance of the runways in order to keep them safe for cars at high speeds. The airport is also the site of the annual Cleveland National Airshow.

Critics of Burke Lakefront Airport contend that the land on which the facility sits is far too valuable for the purpose of general aviation and serving as a reliever airport for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The land, located directly on Cleveland's underutilized lakefront, could, critics state, be developed into a new business and housing district. However, such critics equate the lack of commercial service at BKL with an airport that is not essential to the region. If the airport were closed, many of the 80,000 annual operations at BKL would shift to CLE, causing congestion and delays at the region's primary airport and thus impacting all service to the area. Furthermore, as air traffic is expanding each year in the US, BKL is prime airport for new commercial service serving Downtown Cleveland.

Major changes to the lakefront and BKL, however, are not on the immediate horizon, as the city would first have to repay millions of dollars to the Federal Aviation Administration for the airport to be decommissioned, if indeed that's what the City decided to do.