Barkley Regional Airport
New terminal at Barkley Regional Airport, 2023
IATA:PAH ICAO:KPAH FAALID:PAH
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Barkley Regional Airport Authority
Serves	Jackson PurchaseRegion
Elevation AMSL	410 ft / 125 m
Coordinates	37°03′37″N088°46′23″W / 37.06028°N 88.77306°W /37.06028; -88.77306
Website	FlyBarkley.com
Map
PAH Show map of Kentucky PAH Show map of the United States
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 5/23 6,500 1,981 Asphalt 14/32 5,499 1,676 Asphalt
Statistics
Aircraft operations (2018) 23,537 Based aircraft (2018) 40 Total passengers served (2016) 40,770
Source:Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Barkley Regional Airport (IATA:PAH^[2],ICAO:KPAH,FAALID:PAH) is anAmericandomestic airport inWest Paducah, Kentucky, 14 miles west ofPaducah inMcCracken County.^[1] It is used forgeneral aviation and sees one airline, subsidized by theEssential Air Service program.

The only airline isContour Airlines, withEmbraer 145 flights toCharlotte Douglas International Airport inCharlotte, North Carolina. A new $43M terminal building opened in June 2023, roughly 70 years after the original terminal was built in 1953.^[3]

TheFederal Aviation Administration (FAA)National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2023-2027categorized it as a non-hub primary commercial service facility.^[4]

Federal Aviation Administration records say Barkley Regional had 13,643 passenger boardings (enplanements) incalendar year 2021 and 14,677 in 2022.^[5]

Barkley Regional Airport is named after formerVice President of the United StatesAlben W. Barkley, who was from western Kentucky. The airport was previously served byNorthwest Airlink (operated byMesaba Airlines)Saab 340 regional turboprops with service toMemphis International Airport. WhenNorthwest Airlines merged withDelta Air Lines, service to Memphis from Paducah was discontinued. New airline service began when Chicago-basedUnited Airlines started dailyCanadair CRJ200 regional jets nonstop to ChicagoO'Hare International Airport with this service operated bySkyWest Airlines flying asUnited Express on behalf of United. Service began in the winter of 2010. This service was replaced byContour Airlines on December 6, 2022, with nonstop flights to Charlotte, NC, usingEmbraer 145 regional jets.

Originally built as a military airfield in 1941, thanks to the efforts of then Senator Alben Barkley, the airfield was originally used to facilitateU.S. Army Air CorpsB-17 bomber crew training which was taking place at nearbyDyersburg, TN. In 1945 the U.S. government deeded the land to the city of Paducah and McCracken County, making it available for civilian use.

On April 1, 1946, aChicago and Southern Air Lines (C&S Air Lines)Douglas DC-3 was the first airline flight out of Paducah and the airport has had scheduled airline flights ever since. Chicago and Southern was then acquired by Delta Air Lines which in turn continued to serve Paducah.^[6]Ozark Airlines arrived in 1951. According to theOfficial Airline Guide (OAG), two airlines were serving Paducah in 1976: Delta withMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets nonstop fromEvansville andMemphis as well as direct, no change of plane DC-9-30 jet flights fromAtlanta,Birmingham, AL,Boston,Chicago O'Hare Airport,Indianapolis andPhiladelphia, and Ozark with nonstopMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jet and/orFairchild FH-227B turboprop flights fromClarksville, TN,Louisville,Nashville andSt. Louis as well as direct, no change of plane DC-9-30 jet flights fromChicago O'Hare Airport,Columbia, MO,Indianapolis,Kansas City andMilwaukee.^[7] Delta left in 1979 and Ozark pulled out in 1980.

Several commuter and regional air carriers operating turboprop aircraft served Paducah during the 1980s. In 1981Air Illinois was operating nonstop service fromCape Girardeau, MO,Carbondale, IL,Memphis andSt. Louis with largerHawker Siddeley HS 748 regional aircraft as well as with smallerde Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter andHandley Page Jetstream commuter aircraft whileAllegheny Commuter was flying on behalf ofUSAir nonstop fromLouisville withBeechcraft commuter aircraft.^[8] In 1985 Allegheny Commuter had expanded its service on behalf of USAir with nonstops fromEvansville, Louisville,Nashville, andOwensboro, KY withBeechcraft 99s whileBritt Airways was flying nonstop from Cape Girardeau, Evansville, Memphis and St. Louis withFairchild Swearingen Metroliner propjets.^[9] By 1989 three airlines were serving the airport:American Eagle operating on behalf ofAmerican Airlines with nonstop service from Nashville flown with Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners,Northwest Airlink flying on behalf ofNorthwest Airlines nonstop from Evansville and Memphis withBritish AerospaceBAe Jetstream 31 andSaab 340 aircraft, andTrans World Express operated byAir Midwest on behalf ofTrans World Airlines (TWA) nonstop from Evansville and St. Louis flown with Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners and Saab 340 aircraft.^[10]

Barkley Regional Airport covers 1,018acres (412ha) at anelevation of 410 feet (125 m). It has twoasphaltrunways: 5/23 is 6,500 by 150 feet (1,981 x 46 m) and 14/32 is 5,499 by 150 feet (1,676 x 46 m).^[1] An expansion of runway 14/32 was completed in December 2005.

In 2015 the airport had 23,269 aircraft operations, average 63 per day: 80%general aviation, 8% military, 6%air taxi and 6% airline. In March 2017, 40 aircraft were based at the airport: 29 single-engine, 6 multi-engine, 4 jet and 1 helicopter.^[1]

Fixed-base operator Midwest Aviation provides charter services, flight training, aircraft maintenance, aircraft rental, avionics service, aircraft sales, and other aviation services.^[11]

• September 30, 1991: A man was spotted falling from the wing ofNorthwest Airlink Flight 2940 bound forMemphis shortly after takeoff. He was later located deceased at the northern end of the airport with no identification. An airport worker recalled the man asking to trade his jacket for a flight outwest. Later, the same employee, along with two other eye-witnesses, observed him scaling the airport's fence before running towards the Northwest aircraft sitting on the runway.^[19][20] The incident was covered in the September 16, 1992 episode ofUnsolved Mysteries, which eventually led to the man being identified in 1999 as 28 year-old Brian Stanley Duecker ofCincinnati.^{[21][22][23][24]}

• List of airports in Kentucky

• Barkley Regional Airport, official site
• FAA data
• NWS Paducah Kentucky
• Aerial image as of November 1998Archived 2012-10-04 at theWayback Machine fromUSGSThe National Map
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective January 22, 2026
• FAA Terminal Procedures for PAH, effective January 22, 2026
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNavairport information for KPAH
  • ASNaccident history for PAH
  • FlightAwareairport information andlive flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS weather observations:current,past three days
  • SkyVectoraeronautical chart for KPAH
  • FAAcurrent PAH delay information

• Airports in Kentucky
• Buildings and structures in McCracken County, Kentucky
• Essential Air Service
• Transportation in McCracken County, Kentucky

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Use American English from March 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Webarchive template wayback links