Hagerstown Regional Airport

History

The airfield opened in 1928 on 60 acres (24 ha) of farmland purchased by the Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company. It was purchased by the City of Hagerstown in 1933.

In 1934, after purchase by Fairchild, Kreider-Reisner was renamed the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation. In the following years, an aircraft manufacturing facility was built on the Hagerstown municipal airport site. In the 1940s, the Fairchild Aircraft factory at Hagerstown produced PT-19 trainers and C-82 Packet transport aircraft for the war. After World War II, Fairchild would go on to produce C-119 and C-123 military transports and license-produce Fokker F27 airliners at Hagerstown. From 1973 to 1984, final assembly and checkout of the A-10 Thunderbolt II was performed at Hagerstown. Following A-10 production, Fairchild shut down the Hagerstown plant. In 57 years of operation, the Fairchild factory had built over 10,000 aircraft.

The facility was named Washington County Regional Airport in 1981, when ownership was transferred from the City of Hagerstown to Washington County. In 1998, the county renamed it Hagerstown Regional Airport - Richard A. Henson Field.

Various subsidiaries of US Airways Express had served Hagerstown Regional Airport for quite some time. The airport lost eligibility for Essential Air Service funding on October 1, 2007, because it was located less than 70 miles (110 km) from a larger airport. The last discontinued destination from Hagerstown by this air carrier group was Pittsburgh International Airport. Due to low ridership and the expired federal subsidy, Air Midwest ended their flights from Hagerstown on September 30, 2007.

Hagerstown Regional Airport was without an airline for just over a year until the advent of Allegiant Air which flew from Hagerstown Regional Airport to Orlando Sanford International Airport with two departures on Friday and two arrivals on Monday. The airline started commercial service on November 14, 2008. The airline used the McDonnell Douglas MD-82/MD-83 aircraft on this route. Scheduled service at Hagerstown ended on July 19, 2010, but service later resumed. On August 13, 2013, Allegiant began another hiatus from operations at Hagerstown Regional Airport. They resumed service on November 15, 2013, with afternoon flights.

Beginning on March 24, 2009, Cape Air served Hagerstown Regional with four flights daily on Cessna 402 aircraft to Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Baltimore. These flights were subsidized by the Essential Air Service federal program. This service ended in 2012 and was replaced on November 5, 2012 with EAS-subsidized service when Sun Air International began offering daily flights to Washington Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington, D.C..

On June 23, 2011, Hagerstown Regional Airport began service from Direct Air, operated by Dynamic Airways, to Lakeland, Florida, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In August 2011, Direct Air decided to temporarily suspend service from Hagerstown, saying that demand for service during the winter was expected to decrease. Direct Air stated they would consider returning to the Hagerstown market in the spring of 2012. Direct Air was subject to Chapter 7 liquidation on April 12, 2012.

Hagerstown Regional Airport's eligibility for Essential Air Service was planned to be cut because the airport had fewer than ten enplanements per service day in 2013, in accordance with the FAA Modernization Act of 2012. United States Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski and U.S. Congressman John Delaney advocated for the United States Department of Transportation to approve a waiver, pointing to a significant increase in enplanements in early 2014. The Department of Transportation approved the waiver, and Hagerstown Regional Airport retained its eligibility for Essential Air Service.

In February 2015, Allegiant Air began offering nonstop jet service twice weekly to St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport, which was followed by twice weekly service to Orlando Sanford International Airport.

Facilities and aircraft

Hagerstown Regional Airport covers an area of 693 acres (280 ha) at an elevation of 703 feet (214 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 9/27 is 7,000 by 150 feet (2,134 x 46 m) and 2/20 is 3,165 by 100 feet (965 x 30 m).

In October 2010, a new 43,000-square-foot (4,000 m²) aviation hangar opened. Construction of the hangar was financed with $6.5 million of Recovery Zone Facility Bonds, a tax-exempt bond from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development for projects that stimulate business development projects in distressed areas.

For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2011, the airport had 43,035 aircraft operations, an average of 117 per day: 79% general aviation, 11% military, 10% air taxi, and <1% scheduled commercial. At that time 129 aircraft were based at this airport: 94% single-engine, 4% jet, and 2% ultralight.

In 2014, the United States Department of Transportation awarded a $1,000,000 grant to Hagerstown Regional Airport to plan and design major rehabilitation efforts on two taxiways, including ensuring the structural integrity of the taxiway and adding LED safety lighting.

[1] Rider Jet Center is the field FBO and offers dining at Runways Restaurant, but it is not directly accessible from the passenger terminal.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines offer scheduled passenger service:

Transportation

Hagerstown Regional Airport is 15 minutes by car from downtown Hagerstown, and it is located directly off Interstate 81 and U.S. Route 11. Interstate 70 is 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the airport and the airport is accessible via Interstate 81. Parking at the airport is free. Car rental service are available at the airport. Taxi service is available to and from the airport upon request. County Commuter buses make regular stops at the airport, and there are also buses to nearby hotels.

Incidents

On February 19, 2005, a Cessna 402 landed without the right wheel of the main landing gear. The pilot managed to burn most of the fuel off to prevent a fire. The pilot was able to land on Runway 27 and all five people on board deplaned within minutes. Nobody was hurt. Several fire departments around the Tri-State area responded to the incident.

On July 23, 2009, a Robinson R-44 helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from Hagerstown Regional Airport. The helicopter crashed onto Interstate 70 near South Mountain at 10:30 p.m. 4 people on board were killed and nobody on the ground was hurt. The NTSB is investigating the cause of the crash.