Lakeland Linder Regional Airport

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Coordinates: 27°59′20″N 082°01′07″W / 27.98889, -82.01861

Lakeland Linder Regional Airport
IATA: LAL – ICAO: KLAL – FAA: LAL
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		City of Lakeland
Serves		Lakeland, Florida
Elevation AMSL		142 ft / 43 m
Website		lakelandgov.net/airport
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
9/27	8,500	2,591	Asphalt
5/23	5,005	1,526	Asphalt
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations			101,365
Based aircraft			177
Source: Federal Aviation Administration^[1]

Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (IATA: LAL, ICAO: KLAL, FAA LID: LAL) is a public airport located four miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Lakeland, a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. It is owned by the City of Lakeland.^[1]

The airport possesses a Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 139 operating certificate entitling it to conduct commercial passenger aircraft operations, but there is currently no scheduled commercial airline service at the airport. During the 1970's, prior to airline deregulation, commercial airline service was provided by Allegheny Commuter. However, limited air service under FAR Part 135 (AirTaxi) is currently provided by DayJet utilizing Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ) aircraft. DayJet also maintains a "DayPort" facility in the airport's main terminal building.

Every year in April the airport is host to Sun 'n Fun, a Fly-in and airshow of the Experimental Aircraft Association and the second largest such event in the United States after EAA's "AirVenture" event at Oskosh, Wisconsin.

The airport was initially constructed in the 1940s and served as Drane Field, an auxiliary military airfield to MacDill Field, now MacDill Air Force Base in nearby Tampa. The original airfield facility was comprised of three 5,000 foot runways and served as a training base for medium bombardment groups such as the 320th Bomb Group (now the 320th Air Expeditionary Wing) and the 344th Bomb Group (now the 126th Air Refueling Wing) flying the Martin B-26 Marauder. Fighter and air commando groups were also stationed at Drane Field flying a mix of fighter and transport aircraft. At the end of World War II, the airfield was closed as a military facility and was turned over to the City of Lakeland for redevelopment as a civilian airport.

During the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the airfield operated as a joint civil-military facility when it hosted Army Aviation Support Facility #2 of the Florida Army National Guard, operating since-retired UH-1 Huey helicopters, followed by locally-based UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and C-23 Sherpa cargo aircraft. In 2000, the Florida Army National Guard aviation units relocated to a new facility at Hernando County Airport in Brooksville.

Over the years, the airport has seen a number of layout modifications. An original northwest/southeast 5,000 foot runway was converted to a taxiway while Runway 9/27 was incrementally increased in length to 6,000 feet and then 8,500 feet. Runway 9/27, its associated taxiway system and the current airport terminal ramp area is built to a design standard to accommodate Boeing 737-700/800 series aircraft. Construction of the current 2 1/2 story airside/landside terminal was begun in early 2000 and completed in late 2001. It contains the airport administrative offices, a conference facility, a fixed-base operator and an aviation-themed second floor restaurant that overlooks the airfield. A Hilton Hotel is also located on the airport property, approxinmately 1/4 mile northwest of the terminal.

1 Facilities and aircraft
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Facilities and aircraft

Lakeland Linder Regional Airport covers an area of 1,528 acres (618 ha), which contains two asphalt paved runways: 9/27 measuring 8,500 x 150 ft. (2,591 x 46 m) and 5/23 measuring 5,005 x 150 ft. (1,526 x 46 m). The Lakeland VORTAC is phyically located on the airfield. Runway 5 is equipped with a Category I Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) and a published precision approach, while all other runways have published non-precision approaches. The airport has been a tower-controlled airport since the 1970s and the airport's air traffic control division operates an FAA Level I air traffic control tower under the FAA Contract Tower Program. The Lakeland Fire Department also maintains a 24-hour manned station on the airport with a specialized crash truck, provising aircraft rescue and fire fighting (ARFF) services. ^[1]

For the 12-month period ending November 30, 2006, the airport had 101,365 aircraft operations, an average of 277 per day: 97% general aviation, 2% military and 1% air taxi. There are 177 aircraft based at this airport: 73% single-engine, 14% multi-engine, 8% jet and 5% helicopter.^[1]

Passenger Service: