Airport type Public Website flycrescentcity.com 5,000 1,524 Elevation 17 m | Elevation AMSL 61 ft / 19 m 11/29 5,000 Code CEC | |
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Serves Crescent City, California Owner Border Coast Regional Airport Authority | ||
Del Norte County Regional Airport (IATA: CEC, ICAO: KCEC, FAA LID: CEC), also known as Jack McNamara Field, is a public airport three miles northwest of Crescent City, in Del Norte County, California. It is used for general aviation and has airline flights subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.
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Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 12,541 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 11,490 in 2009 and 14,341 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).
History
The airfield was used during World War II as Crescent City Outlying Field supporting Naval Air Station Alameda and a naval radio station at Point Saint George.
Facilities
The airport covers 544 acres (220 ha) at an elevation of 61 feet (19 m). It has two asphalt 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).
In the year ending May 31, 2011 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: 77% single-engine and 23% multi-engine.
Passenger
PenAir operates the Saab 340B turboprop aircraft with nonstop service between Crescent City (CEC) and Portland, OR (PDX). The flights operated by PenAir appear in the Alaska Airlines system timetable as code sharing flights.
Historical airline service
Southwest Airways was serving the airport by 1950 with Douglas DC-3 aircraft flying multi-stop routings several times a day to San Francisco. According to the airline's July 7, 1950 timetable, the first flight of day was named the "Sun Riser" and flew a routing of Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Fort Bragg/Mendocino - Ukiah - Santa Rosa - Vallejo/Napa - Oakland - San Francisco. This same timetable lists other southbound flights serving Crescent City that were named the "San Francisco Express" and the "Woodsman" while northbound flights were named the "Lumber King", the "Redwood Empire Express" and the "Sundowner". Southwest Airways then changed its name to Pacific Air Lines which in 1959 was serving the airport with Douglas DC-3 and Martin 4-0-4 prop aircraft with flights to San Francisco on routings of 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 and was also operating nonstop service between Crescent City and Medford, Oregon. By 1964, Pacific Air Lines had introduced the airport's first turbine powered airline flights with Fairchild F-27 turboprops and was continuing to operate the Martin 4-0-4 into Crescent City as well with similar multi-stop routings being flown to San Francisco and also nonstop to Portland, Oregon.
In 1968, Pacific Air Lines merged with Bonanza Air Lines and West Coast Airlines to form Air West which subsequently changed its name to Hughes Airwest in 1970. Air West was operating all flights into the airport in 1968 with Fairchild F-27 turboprops with daily roundtrip routings of Portland, Oregon - Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Redding - Chico - Marysville/Yuba City - Sacramento - San Francisco or Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Redding - Chico - San Francisco In 1972, Hughes Airwest was continuing to serve the airport with the F-27 with one of the flights operating a northbound routing of San Francisco - Eureka/Arcata - Crescent City - North Bend, Oregon - Corvallis, Oregon - Portland, Oregon - Astoria, Oregon - Tacoma, Washington - Seattle. By 1980, Hughes Airwest was no longer serving the airport as the air carrier had retired its F-27 fleet and had become an all-jet airline.
Several commuter airlines served the airport over the years as well. In 1976, Eureka Aero Industries was operating nonstop flights to Eureka/Arcata with continuing service to Eureka's Murray Field airport with Cessna 402 aircraft. WestAir was serving the airport by the early 1980s and in 1985 was operating Cessna 402 aircraft nonstop to Eureka/Arcata with continuing service to Sacramento. WestAir also offered connecting service via either Eureka/Arcata or Sacramento to San Francisco at this time. WestAir subsequently became a United Express air carrier via a code sharing agreement with United Airlines and in 1994 was operating British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 propjets on a routing of Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Sacramento - San Francisco several times a day. During the late 1990s, WestAir lost its designation as a United Express carrier and was replaced by SkyWest Airlines which in 1999 was operating service as United Express from the airport with nonstop and direct flights to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) operated with Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops. In 2007, SkyWest operating as United Express was continuing to fly Embraer EMB-120 propjets from the airport with nonstop service to both San Francisco and Eureka/Arcata with direct one-stop flights to Sacramento. SkyWest subsequently ceased all United Express service into Crescent City in 2015. Currently, the only airline service is operated by PenAir with Saab 340 turboprops flying nonstop to the Portland International Airport (PDX) in Oregon.