Smallest airport in the region with commercial pax service?

[Nonstop2AUH]

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Rockland, Maine, where the airport (Knox County/KRKD) is serviced commercially only by Colgan (US Airways Express) with the Beech 1900.

The terminal is essentially a house alongside the parking ramp and baggage claim is an outdoor package shelf. In this era of similar-looking, generic big airports with their long lines, Cinnabons and blaring TVs (and indifferent service) I quite enjoyed the retro experience, complete with a small airport staff who obviously know many of the regular passengers on a first-name basis (and a stray dog that found its way into the check-in area and waiting room - can't make this stuff up)!

So, the experience got me wondering if RKD is the smallest airport in the Northeast with commercial airline passenger service. It is surely among the smallest, but does anyone here know what the others would be and how they rank in terms of size and traffic?

PS Since I promised the staff a plug here, if you get to the nearby tourist town of Camden, be sure to visit the Quarterdeck Bar & Grille. In addition to having good chow and nice people, it is largely decorated with vintage airline memorabilia as I was told one of the owners is the son of a former Pan Am pilot!

[Matt Molnar]

There are some very small towns in extreme northern New York which still receive Beech 1900 service from US Express...PIT-ART-MSS-OGS is the route (ART = Watertown, MSS = Massena, OGS = Ogdensburg).

Also, Continental Express serves Saranac Lake with Beech 1900 service from Boston via Burlington, VT and Plattsburgh, NY.

[Edited to correct Watertown code]

[LGA777]

Watertown is actually ART, not ARK.

Cheers

LGA777

[Alex T]

i live near a regional airport.

only service is 4 daily MWA-STL American Connection flown by RegionsAir.

Bae Jetstream 32 is the aircraft.

Alex

[hiss srq]

Ahhhh the beloved jetstream

[Nonstop2AUH]

Thanks for the info. Quick look on airnav.com reveals that all of the above have longest runway of around 5000ft, and all but OGS have 2 runways (OGS has one), but does anyone know how they would rank by number of flights or passengers handled?

PS Another plug in the RKD area, the Owl's Head Transportation Museum is on the airport and features vintage airplanes (mostly WW1 era through 1930s vintage) and classic cars. Small but interesting collection.

[h2opunk1822]

i know avp is kinda short, cause its ontop of a montian.. (wilks barre)

[moose135]

i know avp is kinda short, cause its ontop of a montian.. (wilks barre)

It's not that short - their long runway is 7,500 ft, the other is 4,300 ft. They get a mix of RJs, Dash-8s and Beech 1900s in there all day. I think ComAir has regular service, not sure who the other operators are. Haven't found a really good place for spotting/photography. Rwy 4, the longer one, has an approach where the lights are on a bridge-like structure (sort of like the pier at LGA) because of the drop-off past the end of the field. I've never flown in there, but it must be an "interesting" view from the cockpit.

[Nonstop2AUH]

I had a look on the American Association of Airport Executives site and there is some enplanement data from CY2003 (latest they had) showing that, at least by this metric, the least-used airports with commercial pax service in the NE are AUG (3310 enplanements), LEB (5894), and GON (5952). If you include what they define as the Eastern region both BKW (2860) and FKL (3085) would be even less utilized. The data's a bit old and obviously some of these airports are not small (just receive little commercial pax usage) but just thought I'd put it out here for those interested.