Lebanon Municipal Airport (New Hampshire)


Lebanon Municipal Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located three nautical miles west of the central business district of Lebanon, a city in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. Also known as Lebanon Airport, it is the northernmost commercial airport in New Hampshire, near the Vermont border, off Interstate 89 just south of the junction with Interstate 91. Other nearby towns include Hanover, New Hampshire and White River Junction, Vermont. The area is also the home of Dartmouth College and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
In recent years, the airport has struggled due to competition with the much larger Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, 65 miles away and accessible via the I-89 freeway. Colgan Air formerly offered nonstop flights from Lebanon to New York LaGuardia Airport operating as US Airways Express via a code sharing agreement with US Airways. The airline first operated the flights with the Beechcraft 1900 commuter propjet and later with the Saab 340 regional turboprop before service ended in November 2008.
On November 2, 2008, Cape Air began offering service to Boston. Airline service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program utilizing the smaller Cessna 402 twin prop aircraft. The terminal building has typical facilities such as baggage claim, a check-in desk, rental car services, and airport security.
As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 8,294 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 6,089 enplanements in 2009, and 7,832 in 2010. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a non-hub primary commercial service facility.

Historical airline service

Lebanon Airport was served by Northeast Airlines before this air carrier was acquired by and merged into Delta Air Lines. In 1948, the airport was a stop on a daily round trip service operated by Northeast with a Douglas DC-3 linking New York City with Montreal. The June 16, 1948 Northeast Airlines system timetable listed the routing of this flight as New York City - Hartford/Springfield - Keene, NH - Lebanon - Monpelier/Barre, VT - Burlington, VT - Montreal. In 1964, Northeast was operating direct one stop service to New York John F. Kennedy Airport with four engine Douglas DC-6B propliners via Keene. By 1969, Northeast was operating up to ten flights a day from the airport with Fairchild Hiller FH-227 turboprop aircraft with nonstop service to New York LaGuardia Airport, Boston, Montpelier/Barre, Manchester, NH and Keene, NH with daily direct one stop service to Burlington. Northeast was merged into Delta Air Lines in 1972 which in turn continued to serve the airport.
In 1973, Delta was operating nonstop as well as direct service from the airport to New York LaGuardia Airport and New York John F. Kennedy Airport with Fairchild Hiller FH-227 turboprops with these aircraft having been previously operated by Northeast. At this same time, according to its March 1, 1973 system timetable, Delta had introduced McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jet service at nearby Keene, NH; however, Delta did not operate jet flights into Lebanon.
According to the April 15, 1975 edition of the Official Airline Guide, Delta was no longer serving the airport with all flights at this time being operated by Air New England with Beechcraft 99, de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 turboprop aircraft with nonstop service to Boston and Montpelier/Barre, VT as well as direct flights to New York LaGuardia Airport via a stop in Keene, NH. The OAG lists up to fourteen flights a day being operated into the airport by Air New England at this time.

Facilities and aircraft

Lebanon Municipal Airport covers an area of 563 acres at an elevation of 603 feet above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 7/25 is 5,496 by 100 feet and 18/36 is 5,200 by 100 feet.
For the 12-month period ending May 31, 2010, the airport had 39,283 aircraft operations, an average of 107 per day: 77% general aviation, 22% air taxi, and 1% military. At that time there were 52 aircraft based at this airport: 58% single-engine, 3.8% multi-engine, 2% jet, 35% helicopter, and 2% glider.

Airline and destinations

Passenger

Domestic Destinations Map

Statistics

Incidents