Lea County-Jal Airport is a county-owned public-use airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 located three nautical miles (6 km) northeast of the central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 of Jal

Jal, New Mexico

Jal is a city in Lea County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,996 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Jal is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land....

, a city in Lea County

Lea County, New Mexico

-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*75.0% White*4.1% Black*1.2% Native American*0.5% Asian*0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*2.6% Two or more races*16.5% Other races*51.1% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

This airport is included in the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems

The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. It is developed and maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration . Its purposes are:* to identify all the airports in the U.S...

 (2009-2013), which categorizes

FAA airport categories

The United States Federal Aviation Administration has a system for categorizing public-use airports that is primarily based on the level of commercial passenger traffic through each facility. It is used to determine if an airport is eligible for funding through the federal government's Airport...

 it as a general aviation

General aviation

General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

 airport.

Facilities and aircraft

Lea County-Jal Airport covers an area of 320 acres (129.5 ha) at an elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 3,118 feet (950 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 paved runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

s: 1/19 is 4,704 by 60 feet (1,434 x 18 m) and 9/27 is 2,604 by 50 feet (794 x 15 m). For the 12-month period ending April 7, 2008, the airport had 4,200 aircraft operations, an average of 11 per day.