Ernest A. Love Field


Prescott Regional Airport, Ernest A. Love Field is north of Prescott, in Yavapai County, Arizona. Love Field is used for general aviation and facilitates scheduled passenger airline service to Denver and Los Angeles.
Most traffic at PRC is training flights from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University but includes training flights from operations including Guidance Aviation and North-Aire.
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems categorized it as a primary commercial service airport. Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 10,337 passenger boardings in calendar year 2018.
The City of Prescott announced that passenger totals for 2009 were 11,690. Reaching over 10,000 boardings will allow the airport to get a million-dollar grant each year for the next five years for improvement projects. This also prompted Great Lakes Airlines to add a second daily weekday flight to Denver.
The first airline flights at Prescott were TWA DC-3s in late 1947.

Namesake

The airport is named for Ernest A. Love, First Lieutenant, United States Army Air Service. Love was born in New Mexico and raised in Prescott. He was a graduate of Prescott High School, and studied mechanical engineering at Stanford. He served in World War I and was shot down near Verdun, France on 16 September 1918, and died of his wounds as a prisoner of war a few days later. Lieutenant Love is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The hamlet of Love, Arizona is also named for him.

Facilities

Ernest A. Love Field covers at an elevation of. It has three asphalt runways:
Plans to extend Runway 3R/21L and Runway 3L/21R were mentioned in the latest master plan update in 2009. The extension onto Runway 3R/21L would be more than 3,300 feet and the extension onto Runway 3L/21R would be more than 1,300 feet.
In the year ending March 31, 2011 the airport had 244,080 aircraft operations, average 668 per day: 98.2% general aviation, 1.6% air taxi, <1% military, and <1% airline. 232 aircraft were then based at this airport: 89% single-engine, 8% multi-engine, 1% helicopter, 1% jet, and <1% glider.

Terminal

In 2019, the City of Prescott received a $10 million Federal Aviation Administration grant for construction of a new terminal building. The building will also be funded with $1 million from the state of Arizona and $3.5 million of local funds. The new building will have more space for passengers, security, and airline operations. The existing building is considered "antiquated and undersized". Construction is expected to begin before the end of 2019.

Airline and destinations

Passenger

Destinations map

Statistics

Enplanement Totals

RankCityAirport name & IATA codePassengersCarriers
1DenverDenver International Airport 6,667United Express
2Los AngelesLos Angeles International Airport 5,855United Express

Service

2008-2018

Great Lakes Airlines served the airport since 2008, when Mesa Airlines terminated their agreement. Although Great Lakes Airlines over the last few years ran into staffing issues due to the nationwide pilot shortage, Prescott has always been one of their top destinations. In 2016, the company turned itself around and was able to pull out of its staffing problems by signing a contract with Frontier Airlines to agree to employ their pilots after they have completed a required employment period with Great Lakes first. The company currently flies to Los Angeles and Phoenix. The company cut back on the destinations it served so it could dramatically increase reliability and staffing abilities towards its profitable airports. Prescott in November received the first of several planned upgrades by the company. Great Lakes increased its total round trip daily flights to/from Los Angeles from 2 flights a day to 4. On December 17, 2016 part 2 of the upgrade plan took place, which included bringing in a larger aircraft, an Embraer EMB-120 which includes 30 seats, restroom facilities and flight attendant service. The company has also leased a corporate maintenance hangar on the airfield and plans to employ a full-time aircraft mechanic to turn Prescott into a west coast maintenance hub. Finally, the airline resumed flying to Denver, CO twice per week with one-stop in Farmington, NM. In 2017 Great Lakes reverted to 2 flights per day to Los Angeles and 2 flights per week to Denver using Beech 1900D aircraft. On March 26, 2018, Great Lakes Airlines ceased operations, terminating all scheduled flights from Ernest A. Love Field.

2018-present

On July 17, 2018, United Airlines announced service from Ernest A. Love Field to Denver and Los Angeles with each running a daily flight, which began on August 29, 2018. United Airlines service is operated by SkyWest Airlines dba United Express operating 50 seat Bombardier CRJ-200 jet aircraft.

Historical

The following is a list of all known air carriers that have served Prescott. Most of these airlines provided flights to Phoenix and Las Vegas.