Modesto City–County Airport was the nation's first municipally-owned airport, opening in 1918. At first the airport southeast of downtown Modesto was only ; it moved in 1929 to the current location. On Feb. 20, 1941, the city council voted to lease more land in order to obtain $185,000 in improvements by the Federal New Deal agency the Works Progress Administration. Over the years it grew to its present size of. The airport started with a single runway; a second was added in the 1950s. During World War II the airport was Modesto Auxiliary Airfield , and was an auxiliary training airfield for Stockton Army Airfield. The airport was named Modesto Municipal Airport; on May 25, 1955 when Stanislaus County and the City of Modesto became partners in the airport, the airport was renamed Modesto City–County Airport. In October 1974 Harry Sham Field was added to the name to honor the airport manager that served between 1949 and 1968. Scheduled passenger flights started in 1946 when United Airlines opened its new terminal and began the Valley Queen service. United served Modesto with Douglas DC-3s, Convair 340s and Douglas DC-6s and began Boeing 737-200 flights in 1968. United dropped Modesto in winter 1979-80, after the deregulation of the airline industry. Pacific Express flew BAC One-Elevens to Modesto in the 1980s. On October 12, 1991 the Modesto City Council and Stanislaus Board of Supervisors rededicated the remodeled passenger terminal that was enlarged to. The remodeling project upgraded the building built by United Airlines. In the 1990s corporate and business aviation became the fastest growing activity at the airport; in 2001 Modesto was the base for at least eight corporate jets. In mid-2006 United Express/SkyWest Airlines added four flights a day to/from LAX and a flight to SFO to total 5 flights a day to San Francisco. Passenger counts had continued to grow. In 2002 passenger counts averaged 3,035 per month; over the first six months of 2007 passengers averaged 7,739 per month. In 2007 Modesto set a record: 51,587 passengers boarded. In June 2008SkyWest Airlines flights to Los Angeles ended, and on June 4, 2014 the airline ended its flights to San Francisco leaving the airport with no airline flights.
Facilities
The airport has two runways:
10L/28R: 5,904 x 150 ft asphalt, Pavements 60/200/400, HIRL, MALSR, PCL 9:00 p.m. – 7:00 a.m. VASI – RW 10L.
10R/28L: 3,464 x 100 ft asphalt, Pavements 30/-/-, MIRL, not available when tower closed, PAPI – RW 10R/28L.
