Eugene Airport (IATA: EUG, ICAO: KEUG, FAA LID: EUG), also known as Mahlon Sweet Field, is a public airport 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Eugene, in Lane County, Oregon. Owned and operated by the City of Eugene, it is the fifth-largest airport in the Pacific Northwest. The terminal building has "A" gates on the upper level and "B" gates, ticketing, and baggage claim on the lower level. The airport has an expanded air cargo facility and three fixed-base operators (FBOs) to handle general aviation. In 2015, the Eugene Airport handled 909,121 passengers and 59,961 aircraft movements. The airport was named for Mahlon Sweet (1886–1947), a Eugene automobile dealer who was a strong supporter of aviation and pushed to get the now-defunct Eugene Air Park built in 1919, followed by the current airfield in 1943. In 2010, a new airport rescue and firefighting facility was built.
There is one fixed based operator on field that caters to general aviation, Atlantic Aviation. Atlantic specializes in maintenance and working on larger general aviation aircraft like Gulfstreams and Learjets. They are the only on-airport company that has fuel trucks. There is also a general aviation self serve fuel station located on the field.
Eugene Flight Center, a flight school and charter operation, operates on the north end of the airport. They offer charter and aerial photography flights as well as flight instruction. Fairbanks Aircraft Service LLC is collocated with Eugene Flight Center and offers general aviation maintenance and repair services.
Mahlon Sweet is also home to the Lane Community College Flight Academy. LCC's Flight Technology Center provides flight instruction for private, commercial, instrument, multi-engine and flight instructor. Their fleet includes several Cessna 152's, a few Piper Warrior II's, Piper Arrow IV, and a Piper Seminole. Lane Aviation Academy is located at the southern end of Mahlon Sweet Field. The Aviation Maintenance Technician program is one of the oldest FAA Pt. 147 approved AMT schools in continuous operation. The AMT program also operates a Pt. 145 Approved Repair Station. During the two-year program the students are taught all aspects of aircraft and helicopter maintenance and repair in preparation to pass the written and oral and practical exams to obtain an FAA Airframe and Powerplants (A&P) certificates.
The parking facility is attended 24 hours a day and contains 237 short-term and more than 1000 long-term parking spaces in the main lot, with an additional 582 spaces in the overflow lot. A shuttle service serves the overflow lot when in use.
At the request of Mahlon Sweet the original Eugene Air Park was built in 1919 at what is now the southeast corner of West 18th Avenue and Chambers Street. This first airstrip took care of all aviation operations until the modern Mahlon Sweet Field opened in 1943.
During World War II the airfield was used by the United States Army Air Forces. The December 1951 C&GS diagram shows three runways forming an asterisk: the 026-deg runway was 5229 ft long, the 111-deg was 5205 ft and the 158-deg was 3999 ft.
Airport diagram for 1955
United Airlines was the first airline to serve Eugene. In June 1944 its Douglas DC-3s flew to Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco with various stops en route. United eventually operated Boeing 727-100s, 727-200s, 737-200s, 737-300s and 737-500s into the airport nonstop to Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland.
West Coast Airlines began Douglas DC-3 service to Eugene in 1947. Later West Coast operated Piper Navajos, Fairchild F-27s and Douglas DC-9-10s to the airport before merging with Bonanza Airlines and Pacific Air Lines to form Air West in 1968. Shortly before the merger, West Coast was operating DC-9s to San Francisco via Medford and also nonstop to Portland continuing to Seattle (Boeing Field), Boise and Salt Lake City.
Air West was renamed Hughes Airwest in 1970 with each airline serving Eugene with Douglas DC-9-10s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s. In summer 1968 Air West was flying Spokane-Pasco-Yakima-Portland-Eugene-Medford-San Francisco-Fresno-Las Vegas with a DC-9 and had a nonstop DC-9 to San Francisco. By summer 1980, Hughes Airwest had become all-jet and was flying nonstop DC-9s to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boise and Pasco with direct DC-9s to Denver, Tucson, Redding, Redmond, Klamath Falls, and Yakima.
The original Frontier Airlines began a pair of Boeing 737-200 one stop direct flights to Denver via Salt Lake City in July 1979. That December, Frontier rerouted its Denver service via a stop in Boise.
Eureka, CA-based commuter air carrier Century Airlines began flights to Crescent City, Eureka, Portland, Sacramento, and San Francisco out of Eugene in December 1979.
Portland, Oregon-based commuter air carrier Air Oregon began serving the airport in the late 1970s and by 1981 was operating Fokker F27 Friendship and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner propjets on flights to Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, Eureka, Redding, Medford, Redmond, Pendleton and North Bend.
Republic Airlines acquired Hughes Airwest in September 1980 and continued to operate DC-9s to the airport but reduced the frequency formerly operated by Hughes Airwest to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Pasco, Yakima, Redmond and Klamath Falls, and ended all flights to Boise and Denver. During summer 1984 the airline had just two nonstop routes to San Francisco and Portland, and by the spring of 1985, Republic had left Eugene.
Horizon Air acquired Air Oregon in 1981 and began serving Eugene with flights to Portland, Seattle and other destinations with Fairchild F-27s and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners. Horizon Air continues to serve the airport and has done so for 35 years.
In fall 1984 Cascade Airways began serving the airport with BAC One-Elevens, HS-748s and Beechcraft 1900Cs. Cascade operated BAC One-Elevens nonstop to Portland and Medford, and also flew the British twin jet direct to Seattle, Spokane and Calgary from Eugene.
In 1985 American Airlines began direct, one stop McDonnell Douglas MD-80 service to Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago via Portland on July 2.
Also in 1985, Cascade Airways was continuing to operate HS-748s and Beechcraft 1900Cs to Portland and other cities after ending its BAC One-Eleven service to the airport.
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) began three BAe 146-200 flights a day to San Francisco in December, 1985.
On August 24, 1986, the original Frontier Airlines ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy, ending its flights to Denver.
Continental Airlines began Boeing 737-300 service to Eugene in April 1987, picking up Frontier Airlines' previous service to Denver. Frontier's service to the airport ended when the airline filed for bankruptcy the previous year and was acquired by Continental's parent company, the Texas Air Corporation.
After its acquisition of Pacific Southwest Airlines, USAir (later renamed US Airways) flew BAe 146-200s from the airport in 1989 to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Medford.
Also in 1989, United Express operated by North Pacific Airlines was flying Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and BAe Jetstream 31s to Portland and Seattle.
American Airlines flew three daily Boeing 737-200 flights to its San Jose (SJC) hub from December 2, 1988 until September 10, 1993.
Delta Connection operated by SkyWest Airlines flew Canadair CRJ-200s nonstop to Salt Lake City from March 1995 until 1998, when it dropped the route due to a fleet shortage.
In 1999, Air Wisconsin operating as United Express was flying BAe 146s nonstop to Denver in addition to nonstop United Boeing 727-200s on the same route.
America West Express operated by Mesa Airlines started regional jet flights to Phoenix in September 1999.
Delta Connection operated by SkyWest Airlines resumed Canadair CRJ-200 regional jet service to Salt Lake City on May 1, 2004, with $1.2 million of incentives offered by various public and private sources to kick-start service.
United Airlines flew Boeing 737s to San Francisco until January 6, 2003 (United Flight 1423 was the last Boeing 737 flight operated by the airline out of Eugene until United briefly resumed mainline service in 2008). United had previously served Eugene with Boeing 727-100s and 727-200s as well.
SkyWest Airlines took over for United, flying Canadair CRJ-200s and operating as United Express to San Francisco on January 7, 2003.
America West Express operated by Mesa Airlines also started flights to Las Vegas in March 1, 2003.
Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, flew nonstop to Los Angeles from June 4, 2007 until June 6, 2010. The airline continues to operate flights to Portland and Seattle with the Bombardier Q400 propjet which is the largest and fastest member of the Dash 8 regional turboprop airliner family.
In 2005 the crosswind runway was removed and replaced with Runway 16L/34R, 6,000 feet (1,800 m) long parallel to the primary runway 16R/34L.
United Airlines resumed Boeing 737 flights to San Francisco in March 2008 but ended them the following August.
Delta Connection operated by ExpressJet Airlines flew Embraer ERJ-145s nonstop to Los Angeles until September 1, 2008 when Delta ended its contract with ExpressJet on the Eugene-LAX route.
Allegiant Air began flying McDonnell Douglas MD-80s nonstop to Phoenix/Mesa in October 2008 in addition to its nonstop MD-80s to Las Vegas.
Allegiant Air launched twice weekly MD-80 flights nonstop to Los Angeles on June 3, 2010.
Allegiant Air announced Eugene's first nonstop service to Hawaii in 2012. Launched on November 17, 2012, the once a week Boeing 757-200 to Honolulu was the largest scheduled passenger airliner at Eugene. Allegiant later ended nonstop service to Honolulu from Eugene; it continues to fly mainline jets nonstop to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland and Phoenix/Mesa.
On February 18, 2013, the current version of Frontier Airlines announced new Eugene–Denver service three times per week scheduled from May 16 to September 8. Frontier Airlines subsequently ceased all service to Eugene.
In April 2013 American Airlines announced twice-daily Canadair CRJ-200 flights to Los Angeles (LAX) flown by Skywest Airlines operating as American Eagle, to begin June 2013.
In November 2015 Alaska Airlines began daily Bombardier Dash 8 flights to San Jose (SJC) flown by Horizon Air.
In June 2016 United Airlines began mainline service to San Francisco International Airport flown by Airbus A319s and A320s.
Incidents and accidents
On May 2, 1986, a Horizon Air Fairchild Metroliner was hijacked during a flight from Eugene to Portland. The flight was carrying 12 passengers and two pilots when it was hijacked by Douglas Burton Thomas, an unemployed Oklahoma man who was checking into a rehabilitation center in Eugene. The pilots then convinced the hijacker to allow the plane to stop in Hillsboro, where the pilot then left the plane and called the FBI. The hijacker then held passengers and crew hostage on the aircraft while he demanded fuel, drinking water, and four parachutes and threatened to kill one passenger or blow up the plane if these demands were not met. During negotiations with the FBI, four of the passengers were released shortly and the remainder about half an hour later. This left the hijacker alone on the aircraft, however he surrendered about 15 minutes later. It was later discovered that the hijacker had boarded the aircraft without a ticket.
On November 10, 1988, an American Airlines flight from San Jose to Seattle made an emergency landing in Eugene after severe vibrations were observed during the flight. Of the 31 passengers on board, there were no injuries reported and the passengers were flown to their destinations on other airlines.
