Ponca City Regional Airport


Ponca City Regional Airport is a city-owned airport two miles northwest of Ponca City, in Kay County, Oklahoma. Enrique's is a well known Mexican restaurant in the terminal.
Scheduled passenger flights on Great Lakes Airlines to Denver and Dodge City ended in August, 2006. The service was subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

History

The airport opened in November 1938 with a single concrete runway. The United States Army Air Forces took over the facility in the summer of 1941 and used it as part of the British Flying Training School Program. This training was part of the Lend-Lease act where Royal Air Force flying cadets received a 20-week basic flying course taught by civil contractors. The Darr School of Aeronautics provided flight training. Fairchild PT-19s were the primary trainer at the airfield, but PT-17 Stearmans and P-40 Warhawks were also assigned to training.
In November 1942, Royal Air Force training ended at Miami and the airfield became a primary pilot training airfield assigned to AAF Flying Training Command, Gulf Coast Training Center. The civil instructors were retained under USAAF control by the 323d Flying Training Detachment.
Pilot training at the airfield apparently ended on May 30, 1944, with the reduced demand for new pilots. The airfield was returned to the local government at the end of the war.
Airline flights began in the 1930s, on Braniff.

Facilities

Ponca City Regional Airport covers 500 acres at an elevation of 1,008 feet. Its one runway, 17/35, is 7,201 by 150 feet concrete.
In the year ending August 26, 2008 the airport had 61,500 aircraft operations, average 168 per day: 93% general aviation and 7% military. 64 aircraft were then based at this airport: 91% single-engine, 5% multi-engine, 3% jet, and 2% ultralight. There are multiple hangars on the grounds, and the Northern Oklahoma Flight Academy is based there.