Del Norte County Regional Airport Jack McNamara Field | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Del Norte County | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Border Coast Regional Airport Authority | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Crescent City, California | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 61 ft / 19 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 41°46′49″N124°14′12″W / 41.78028°N 124.23667°W /41.78028; -124.23667 | ||||||||||||||
| Website | flycrescentcity | ||||||||||||||
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  CEC  CEC | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2019) | |||||||||||||||
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| Source:Federal Aviation Administration[1] | |||||||||||||||
Del Norte County Regional Airport (IATA:CEC,ICAO:KCEC,FAALID:CEC) (Jack McNamara Field) is a public airport three miles (4.8 km) northwest ofCrescent City, inDel Norte County,California, United States.[1] It has one airline flight per day to/from Oakland and Los Angeles/Hawthorne under theEssential Air Service program. TheNational Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (i.e. more than 10,000 enplanements per year).[2]
The airfield was used duringWorld War II asCrescent City Outlying Field supportingNaval Air Station Alameda.[3] and a naval radio station at Point Saint George.[4]High-frequency direction finding (HFDF) was used for radio intercept. These sites alongthe coast could track Japanese warships and merchant marine vessels as far away as the Western Pacific. The other stations in California were atPoint Arguello,Farallon Islands and San Diego.Bainbridge Island, Washington also hosted a station.[5]
The airport covers 544acres (220ha) at anelevation of 61 feet (19 m). It has twoasphalt runways: 11/29 is 5,000 by 150 feet (1,524 x 46 m) and 17/35 is 5,001 by 150 feet (1,524 x 46 m).[1]
In the year ending July 31, 2019; the airport had 12,565 aircraft operations, average 34 per day: 72%general aviation, 27%air taxi, and 1% military. 26 aircraft were then based at the airport: 65% single-engine and 35% multi-engine.[1]
By 1950Southwest AirwaysDouglas DC-3s were flying to San Francisco,[6] e.g. Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Fort Bragg/Mendocino - Ukiah - Santa Rosa - Vallejo/Napa - Oakland - San Francisco. Southwest Airways changed its name toPacific Air Lines which in 1959 was flying DC-3s orMartin 4-0-4s Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - San Francisco; Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Ukiah - Santa Rosa - San Francisco; or Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Redding - Red Bluff - Chico - Marysville/Yuba City - Sacramento - San Francisco. Also, nonstop between Crescent City and Medford, Oregon.[7] By 1964 Pacific Air Lines was flyingFairchild F-27s and Martin 4-0-4s to Crescent City on similar multi-stop routings to San Francisco and nonstop to Portland.[8] In 1968 Pacific Air Lines merged withBonanza Air Lines andWest Coast Airlines to form Air West which changed its name toHughes Airwest in 1970. All Air West flights to the airport in 1968 were Fairchild F-27s.[9] In 1972 Hughes Airwest F-27s flew San Francisco - Eureka/Arcata - Crescent City - North Bend, Oregon - Corvallis, Oregon - Portland, Oregon - Astoria, Oregon - Tacoma, Washington - Seattle.[10] By 1980 Hughes Airwest was no longer serving the airport as it had retired its F-27s.[11]
Several commuter airlines served the airport. In 1976 Eureka Aero Industries was flying nonstop to Eureka/Arcata continuing to Eureka'sMurray Field airport withCessna 402s.[12]WestAir was serving the airport by the early 1980s and in 1985 was flying Cessna 402s nonstop to Eureka/Arcata and on to Sacramento.[13] WestAir also offered connecting service via either Eureka/Arcata or Sacramento to San Francisco. WestAir became aUnited Express airline via acode sharing agreement withUnited Airlines and in 1994 was flyingBAe Jetstream 31s Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Sacramento - San Francisco several times a day.[14] In the late 1990s, WestAir was replaced bySkyWest Airlines which in 1999 was operating as United Express from the airport with nonstop and directEmbraer EMB-120 Brasilias toSan Francisco International Airport.[15]
In 2007 SkyWest operating as United Express was continuing to fly Embraer EMB-120s nonstop to both San Francisco and Eureka/Arcata with direct one-stop flights to Sacramento.[16] Due to the 2013 imposition of new Part 121 air carrier flight, duty and qualification rules by theFederal Aviation Administration, SkyWest was forced to retire its fleet of E-120s due to a growing shortage of pilots and an inability to crew the E-120 in an economical manner.[17] SkyWest ended all United Express service into Crescent City in mid-April 2015 because the airport runway could not accommodate its fleet of largerCRJ-200 regional jets.[18] From August 2017, the only remaining passenger airline service, flown byPenAir withSaab 340s via acode sharing agreement withAlaska Airlines, operated nonstop to thePortland International Airport in Oregon. This service ended after PenAir filed for bankruptcy.
On February 28, 2018Contour Airlines announced it would begin flying anEmbraer ERJ-135 regional jet between Crescent City andOakland with service which began on April 11, 2018.[19] This new service marked the first time Crescent City had scheduled passenger airline flights operated with a jet aircraft.
According toFlightAware, scheduled passenger flights are currently being operated byAdvanced Air withDornier 328JET regional jets nonstop to Oakland (OAK).[20]
| Airlines | Destinations | Refs |
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| Advanced Air | Los Angeles/Hawthorne,Oakland | [21] |
| Airlines | Destinations |
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| Ameriflight | North Bend/Coos Bay,Portland (OR) |
| FedEx Feeder | Arcata/Eureka,Sacramento |
| International | |
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| National | |
