Tulsa International Airport | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Airport type | Public/military | ||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | City of Tulsa | ||||||||||||||||||
| Operator | Tulsa Airport Authority | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Elevation AMSL | 677 ft / 206 m | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 36°11′54″N95°53′17″W / 36.19833°N 95.88806°W /36.19833; -95.88806 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | flytulsa | ||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) FAA diagram | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2024) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Source:Federal Aviation Administration,[1][2][3] | |||||||||||||||||||
Tulsa International Airport (IATA:TUL,ICAO:KTUL,FAALID:TUL) is a civil-military airport five miles (8 km) northeast ofDowntown Tulsa, inTulsa County,Oklahoma, United States. It was namedTulsa Municipal Airport when the city acquired it in 1929;[4] it received its present name in 1963.[5] While Tulsa International Airport only serves domestic destinations, it is still an international airport since it has customs and border patrol facilities.[6]
The138th Fighter Wing of theOklahoma Air National Guard is based at the co-locatedTulsa Air National Guard Base.[7] The airport is the global maintenance headquarters forAmerican Airlines.[8]
During World War II Air Force Plant No. 3 was built on the southeast side of the airport, andDouglas Aircraft manufactured several types of aircraft there. After the war this facility was used by Douglas (laterMcDonnell Douglas) andRockwell International (laterBoeing) for aircraft manufacturing, modification, repair, and research.[9]Spirit AeroSystems currently builds commercial airline parts for Boeing aircraft[10] in part of the building andIC Bus Corporation assembles school buses in the other part.[11] Spirit AeroSystems also builds Boeing wing and floor beam parts and Gulfstream wing parts in a facility on the east side of the airport, just north of runway 26.[10]
TheTulsa Air and Space Museum is on the northwest side of the airport.
Duncan A. McIntyre, an early aviator and native of New Zealand, moved to Tulsa in 1919. His first airport was located at Apache and Memorial and opened August 22, 1919.[12] He moved and established a private airport on an 80-acre tract at the corner of Admiral Place and Sheridan Avenue.McIntyre Field had three hangars to house 40 aircraft and a beacon for landings after sundown.[13]
McIntyre evidently closed his airport during the 1930s and merged it with R. F. Garland, a Tulsa oil man and owner of the Garland Airport at 51st and Sheridan Road for $350,000. He ran the airport and became the president of the new venture.[14] This airport would later become the Brown Airport (after a number of owners and names including the commercial airport before it moved to 61st and Yale). In 1940, McIntyre accepted a position withLockheed Corporation and moved to California.[15]
Charles Lindbergh landed at McIntyre Field on September 30, 1927. He had been persuaded to visit Tulsa byWilliam G. Skelly, who was then president of the local Chamber of Commerce, as well as a booster of the young aviation industry. In addition to being a wealthy oilman and founder ofSkelly Oil Company, Skelly foundedSpartan Aircraft Company. Lindbergh had already landed atOklahoma City Municipal Airport,Bartlesville Municipal Airport andMuskogee'sHatbox Field. All of these were superior to the privately owned McIntyre Field. Lindbergh pointed this out at a banquet given that night in his honor.[16]
The initial municipal airport was financed with a so-called "stud horse note", apromissory note like those used by groups of farmers or horse breeders who would collectively underwrite the purchase of a promisingstud horse. The note would be retired with the stud fees paid for use of the horse. In the case of the Tulsa airport, the note would be paid from airport fees.[16] Using this vehicle, Skelly obtained signatures from several prominent Tulsa businessmen who put up $172,000 to buy 390 acres (160 hectares) for a municipal airport.[16] It opened July 3, 1928. The city of Tulsa purchased the airport, then named Tulsa Municipal Airport, in 1929, and put its supervision under the Tulsa Park Board.[4] Charles W. Short was appointed Airport Director in 1929, and remained in this position until 1955.[17]
The first terminal building was a one-story wood and tar paper structure that looked like a warehouse. The landing strips and taxiways were mown grass. Still, it handled enough passengers in 1930 for Tulsa to claim that it had the busiest airport in the world. The Tulsa Municipal Airport handled 7,373 passengers in February 1930 and 9,264 in April. This outpacedCroydon Airport,Berlin Tempelhof Airport, andParis Le Bourget Airport for those months.[18]Braniff Airways stopped at Tulsa on its original route between Chicago and Wichita Falls,[19] andTWA stopped at Tulsa on its original route between Columbus and Los Angeles.[20] Later in the 1930s, Tulsa became a stop on theAmerican Airlines Chicago-Dallas route.[21]
In 1932 the city opened a more elegantArt Deco terminal topped with a control tower, designed by Frederick V. Kershner, a lead architect working forLeon B. Senter. The structure was masonry with rounded corners, resulting in a futuristic appearance. Charles Short decorated the inside walls with a collection of early aviation photographs.[22]
Although many Tulsans had concluded that the 1932 terminal was inadequate to serve the rapidly-growing city by the mid-1950s, the 1932 building served until Tulsa had to construct a new terminal, east of the old facility. The new terminal would be designed by noted architect Robert Lawton Jones, who later said that his design was inspired byMies van der Rohe[a] Terminal design work began in November 1958 and the completed building opened November 16, 1961;[5][23] on August 28, 1963, the facility was renamed Tulsa International Airport.[5][13] The 1932 terminal was demolished in 1969 to make way for a runway expansion project.In January 1928 Skelly bought the Mid-Continent Aircraft Company of Tulsa and renamed it theSpartan Aircraft Company. It first built a two-seat biplane, theSpartan C3 at its facility near the new airport. Later it would also build a low-wing cabin monoplane as a corporate aircraft, and the NP-1, a naval training plane used in World War II. In 1929 Spartan established theSpartan School of Aeronautics across Apache street from the new Tulsa airport to train fliers and support personnel. The Spartan School was activated by the U. S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) on August 1, 1939, as an advanced civilian pilot training school to supplement the Air Corps' few flying training schools. The Air Corps supplied students with training aircraft, flying clothes, textbooks, and equipment. The Air Corps also put a detachment at each school to supervise training. Spartan furnished instructors, training sites and facilities, aircraft maintenance, quarters, and mess halls.[24]
The138th Fighter Wing of theAir National Guard was organized at the Tulsa Airport in 1940 as the 125th Observation Squadron, then renamed when it deployed overseas during World War II. It is still based at TUL.[7]
On January 4, 1941, theWar Department announced thatTulsa would be the site of a $15 million plant.[25] The Federal Government built Air Force Plant No. 3 on the east side of the airport. The plant was operated by Douglas Aircraft Corporation to manufacture, assemble and modify bombers for the USAAF from 1942 to 1945; production was suspended when World War II ended.[26]
In 1946 American Airlines acquired two former Air Force hangars to start a maintenance and engineering base at Tulsa Municipal Airport.[27] In 1947, when transcontinental flights made at least one stop, American had nonstops from Tulsa to San Francisco and Los Angeles.[28]
Air Force Plant No. 3 was reactivated in 1950 to produce theBoeing B-47 Stratojet and later theDouglas B-66 Destroyer.[26]
The April 1957 OAG shows 20 weekday departures on American, 18 Braniff, 6 Continental, 6 Central and 4 TWA. American had a DC-7 nonstop to New York, but westward nonstops didn't get past Oklahoma City, Wichita and Dallas.[28]
In the late 1960sMcDonnell Douglas, the successor to Douglas Aircraft Corporation, continued to use Air Force Plant No. 3 for aircraft maintenance.Rockwell International leased part of the plant to manufacture aerospace products.[26]
In 1967 the Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust (TAIT) was established as apublic trust to build, operate, and maintain airport facilities for the city of Tulsa. TAIT has no authority to levy taxes and depends on airport revenues to repay airport-related debts. TAIT is independent of the city, but all board members are appointed by theMayor of Tulsa and confirmed by theCity Council. In October 1978 TAIT leased Tulsa International Airport and other city aviation facilities (other than police and fireheliports) to the city of Tulsa acting through the Tulsa Airport Authority (TAA), which agreed to disburse all airport-related income to TAIT. In 1979 the airport was also served byFrontier Airlines, Scheduled Skyways andTexas International Airlines.[28] In July 1989, a lease amendment gave daily airport operation and maintenance responsibility to the TAA.[29]: 13
McDonnell Douglas terminated its lease of Air Force Plant No. 3 in 1996.[26]Boeing bought Rockwell International's aerospace business in 1996, and took over much of the facility for aerospace manufacturing.[13]
TheTulsa Air and Space Museum (TASM) was established in 1998 on the northwest side of the airport.[30] The museum added the James E. Bertelsmeyer Tulsaplanetarium in 2006.
In December 2000 TAIT guaranteed a loan toGreat Plains Airlines in cooperation with the Tulsa Industrial Authority (TIA), theBank of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa.[29]: 30 The TIA mortgaged Air Force Plant No. 3 for $30 million, which was loaned to Great Plains, and TAIT agreed to purchase the property if the airline defaulted.[31] Great Plains went bankrupt in January 2004 and was unable to repay $7.1 million of the loan, but the loan guarantee was deemed to violateFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) policies prohibiting an airport authority from subsidizing a particular airline, and when the Bank of Oklahoma tried in June 2004 to collect the debt, TAIT declined to purchase the property from the TIA. The TIA promptly sued TAIT for violating the agreement and later added the city of Tulsa to the lawsuit in June 2008. The parties tried to settle the suit in August 2008 by repaying the TIA with $7.1 million of city funds, but this was challenged by a taxpayer group in aqui tam action, and the settlement was deemed illegal in October 2011 by theOklahoma Supreme Court.[29]: 30–31 The TIA and the Bank of Oklahoma then sued TAIT for breach of contract in March 2013, seeking $15.6 million ($7.1 million in 2004 plus interest). The dispute was finally settled on 31 August 2015 with TAIT agreeing to pay $1.56 million to the TIA and the Bank of Oklahoma's parent company and $125,000 to the Tulsa Regional Chamber.[31]
Allegiant Air began service in 2013 toOrlando/Sanford. In 2015 Allegiant also began service toLas Vegas,Los Angeles International Airport, andSt. Petersburg/Clearwater in 2015. TUL also saw a completed terminal renovation in 2015. Allegiant Air has had routes come and go such as New Orleans, Baltimore, and Nashville.Frontier Airlines returned once again in 2018 after pulling out of TUL a decade prior and began year-round service toDenver International Airport. Frontier also has been a victim of short lived routes in this timeframe such as Washington Dulles, San Jose (CA), Orlando, and San Diego. Former Regional Carrier Via Air served TUL with nonstop service to Austin from 2018 to 2019.American Airlines reunited year-round service toLos Angeles in April 2019 after the route was cut in the late 2000s. Allegiant Air began seasonal service toDestin/Fort Walton Beach in June 2019. During this time frame Runway construction took place along with the return of a jet bridge to gate B9 for Frontier's return.
COVID-19 affected TUL like any other airport during the timeframe. New service on Allegiant Air to San Diego and Nashville along with a new Southwest Airlines seasonal service to Baltimore were all slated to start in the summer of 2020. Nashville was attempted but did poorly as expected considering the circumstance. Ultimately, the route was cut in August 2020. Tulsa International Airport rebounded very well from COVID-19 thus leading to many new routes and aircraft upgrades. The first began withAmerican Airlines adding nonstop service toPhoenix Sky Harbor in November 2020 to attract leisure travel, this route was very successful, therefore, the route turned into a year-round service just a few months after flights began. Startup low-cost carrierBreeze Airways began service to TUL as the airport scored Breeze as one of their first 15 cities with nonstop service toNew Orleans,San Antonio, andTampa, flights began in the summer of 2021.American Airlines began a surge at Tulsa International Airport adding four new destinations within one year, nearly doubling their network with new services toAustin,Miami,New York–LaGuardia, andWashington–National. This was huge for TUL as many unserved markets were reunited at long last. Unfortunately, Tulsa did have some miscues to complement the new services. Breeze Airways discontinued service toNew Orleans andSan Antonio in November 2021. Allegiant Air also attempted service toAustin but was unsuccessful as the route was discontinued a little over a month after beginning. Allegiant Air began new seasonal service toPhoenix/Mesa andSarasota in November and December 2021 respectively. Southwest Airlines launched two new routes for the first time in four years with service toAustin to complement American Airlines and the return ofChicago–Midway as Southwest served MDW till 2015 from Tulsa. Breeze Airways launched non-stop service toNashville in June 2022 and will addOrlando in March 2023.
The airport covers 4,360 acres (1,764 ha) and has three pavedrunways:[1][32]
As of August 31, 2023, the airport had 86,011 aircraft operations, average 235 per day: 40% commercial airline, 18% air taxi, 27% general aviation, and 15% military. 133 aircraft were based at the airport: 47 single-engine, 15 multi-engine, 46 jet, 3helicopter and 22 military.[1]
The airport has a smaller regional terminal with newly renovated concourses. Concourse A, which houses Allegiant, American and Delta, has 11 departure gates: A1 through A11. Currently, seven of those are in use. Concourse B, opened in 2012, has ten gates, but only seven have jet bridges. Southwest and United use Concourse B.
In 2010, a renovation of the 1960s-era terminal began. The renovations were designed byGensler andBenham Companies.[33] Concourse B (home to Southwest and United) underwent a $17.9 million renovation between September 7, 2010[34] and January 18, 2012,[35] including major HVAC replacement along with the more noticeable design changes. These changes include sky lights and raising the somewhat low ceilings in the concourse area, improved passenger waiting areas and gate redesigns. Concourse A (home to Allegiant, Delta, American and US Airways before its merger with American) subsequently underwent renovation and upgrades which were completed in 2015.[36][37]
TUL is the headquarters for all Maintenance and Engineering activities atAmerican Airlines worldwide,[b] and is the maintenance base for the airline's fleet ofAirbus A320 family,Boeing 787 andBoeing 737 aircraft – a combined total of nearly 800 airplanes. It employs over 5,000 people, with the majority as licensed aircraft and jet engine mechanics. According to the company, it is one of the largest private employers in Oklahoma.[8]
While many other major domestic airlines (e.g., United, Northwest and US Air) were closing their maintenance facilities and outsourcing the work to major contractors in the early 2000s, American consolidated these activities at the MRO. The airline vowed to make the center as cost-effective as private centers and attract some of this work from other airlines as well. AA won major cost concessions from its own employees, pledged to relocate all its Boeing 737 heavy maintenance work to Tulsa, along with its work on the GE CFM-56 engine work. It also contains a wheel-and-brake overhaul facility and composite repair center.[38] AA received $22 million in funding from Tulsa's Vision 2025 program that helped it buy machines, tooling and test equipment that only original-equipment manufacturers previously had. This funding helped it get contracts for maintenance work from Synergy Aerospace for F100 aircraft; Aeroserve, for JT8 engine work; GE Aviation Materials, for work on CF6-80 engines; Omni Air International and Vulcan Flight Management for work on Boeing 757 aircraft; and Aero Union for work on A300 landing gear.[38]
The MRO occupies about 260 acres (1.1 km2) and 3,300,000 square feet (310,000 m2) of maintenance "plant" at the Tulsa Airport. Each year, the base performs major overhaul work on about 80% of American's fleet. It also does aircraft maintenance for other carriers on a contract basis.[8]
On 28 February 2020, American Airlines announced an investment of half billion US dollars for the MRO base that will include two new hangars, including a 193,000-square-foot facility big enough to hold six narrow-body planes, such as a Boeing 737, or two larger planes.
Lufthansa Technik Component Services LLC (LTCS), a subsidiary ofLufthansa Technik AG, is headquartered at Tulsa Airport. LTCS provides maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to airlines. The Tulsa location includes the departments of Production and Product Development Engineering, the department of Finance and Controlling as well as Human Resources Management, Strategic Purchasing and a Customer Service team. The workshops and various department occupy an area of 72,000 square feet (6,700 m2).[39]
MetroLink Tulsa operates public transport service to the main terminal via Route 201[1] Monday through Saturday, with 45 minute frequency on weekdays and 65 minute frequency on Saturdays.
Although generally single-level, the entry section of the airport has separate departure and arrival curbs; the inner Apache Drive for departures and outer Airport Drive for arrivals. Baggage claim carousels are located on Airport Drive on the Arrival upper-level curb. TIA has six baggage carousels in service. Currently American Airlines, Delta, and Allegiant on carousels 1, 2, and 3, and Southwest, United, and Frontier are 4, 5, and 6.
| Destinations map |
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  Tulsa  Destinations from Tulsa International Airport Red = Year-round destination Green = Seasonal destination Blue = Future destination |
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Ameriflight | Dallas/Fort Worth |
| DHL Aviation | Austin,Cincinnati |
| FedEx Express | Fort Worth/Alliance,Memphis,Oklahoma City,Wichita |
| UPS Airlines | Louisville,Oklahoma City,Ontario |
| Rank | City | Passengers | Carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas | 291,590 | American |
| 2 |  Denver, Colorado | 197,700 | Southwest, United |
| 3 |  Atlanta, Georgia | 138,750 | Delta |
| 4 | Houston–Intercontinental, Texas | 111,940 | United |
| 5 |  Chicago–O'Hare, Illinois | 105,370 | American, United |
| 6 | Dallas–Love, Texas | 104,030 | Southwest |
| 7 |  Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Arizona | 95,600 | American, Southwest |
| 8 |  Las Vegas, Nevada | 82,110 | Allegiant, Southwest |
| 9 |  Charlotte, North Carolina | 80,580 | American |
| 10 | Houston–Hobby, Texas | 74,690 | Southwest |
| Rank | Airline | Passengers | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southwest Airlines | 1,131,000 | 36.28% |
| 2 | American Airlines | 534,000 | 17.14% |
| 3 | SkyWest Airlines | 364,000 | 11.68% |
| 4 | Delta Air Lines | 242,000 | 7.75% |
| 5 | Envoy Air | 200,000 | 6.41% |
| Other | 647,000 | 20.75% |
| Year | Passengers | Year | Passengers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 3,300,422 | 2017 | 2,865,824 | |
| 2008 | 3,261,560 | 2018 | 3,048,357 | |
| 2009 | 2,888,858 | 2019 | 3,053,532 | |
| 2010 | 2,846,588 | 2020 | 1,332,433 | |
| 2011 | 2,794,751 | 2021 | 2,316,751 | |
| 2012 | 2,740,338 | 2022 | 2,887,560 | |
| 2013 | 2,733,510 | 2023 | 3,144,567 | |
| 2014 | 2,840,324 | 2024 | 3,247,670 | |
| 2015 | 2,816,967 | |||
| 2016 | 2,810,537 |
In 2008, Tulsa Airport Authority began a new industrial land development project. Aerospace is one of the Oklahoma's largest industry clusters with 400 companies that directly or indirectly employ more than 143,000 people with a payroll of $4.7 billion and an industrial output of $11.7 billion. Tulsa is ranked eighth nationally for the size of its aerospace engines manufacturing cluster and 20th for its defense-related cluster.
TUL's central location in the south is easily accessible by a multi-modal transportation network. With a total of 4,000 acres (16 km2) and 14,000 on-airport employees, Tulsa is a large center of aviation activity. Six sites totaling over 700 acres (2.8 km2) of real estate will be developed. Each of the sites can be divided into smaller lots to meet any organization's individual needs.[47]
The HP Enterprise Services (formerlyEDS) building hosting some ofSabre's datacenter servers is located at the Tulsa Airport. The company applied a reflective material on the roof to reduce heat gain, thereby reducing the air conditioning power consumption.[48] In front of this building is a 6-foot sculptured penguin, given to the company as part ofa local art campaign by theTulsa Zoo.
"Our current thinking is that we erred,' said David Kruse, vice president of American's Maintenance and Engineering Center at Tulsa International Airport.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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