University Park Airport is a public airport located in Benner Township

Benner Township, Pennsylvania

Benner Township is a township in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Centre County, Pennsylvania

Centre County, Pennsylvania

Centre County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 153,990....

. The airport serves the towns of State College

State College, Pennsylvania

State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...

 and Bellefonte

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

Bellefonte is a borough in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies about twelve miles northeast of State College and is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, and the surrounding area. The airport is owned by The Pennsylvania State University, but the terminal building and parking areas are owned and operated by the Centre County Airport Authority. It is served by several regional airline

Regional airline

Regional airlines are airlines that operate regional aircraft to provide passenger air service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service...

s, connecting to hubs

Airline hub

An airline hub is an airport that an airline uses as a transfer point to get passengers to their intended destination. It is part of a hub and spoke model, where travelers moving between airports not served by direct flights change planes en route to their destinations...

 in the Northeast

Northeastern United States

The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...

 and Midwest

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

. Services at the airport include a fixed base operator

Fixed base operator

A Fixed-base operator or commonly abbreviated FBO is a term developed in the United States after the passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926...

 (FBO), fuel, flight planning services, aircraft repair, and hangar rental. Amenities include a snack bar

Snack bar

thumb|A snack bar in AmsterdamA snack bar usually refers to an inexpensive food counter that is part of a permanent structure where snack foods and light meals are sold. A beach snack bar is often a small building situated high on the sand. Besides soft drinks, candies and chewing gum, some snack...

 in the terminal building, a pilot lounge, and conference rooms. Taxi and limousine services, and car rentals are also available.

History

Starting in the 1950s, private pilots in the area had constructed a small airport on land leased from Penn State, just north of State College. Penn State assumed the lease and assets of the airport in 1972. The Centre County Airport Authority was created to manage the development of the airport. A permanent passenger terminal was built in 1985. A new passenger terminal was completed in 1993, and cargo operations moved to the original terminal building. The airport underwent a runway expansion project in 1997, and the main runway was lengthened to its present length. A new 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...

 hangar was built in 2001.

Future plans for the airport include construction of a control tower

Control tower

A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...

 and an instrument landing system

Instrument Landing System

An instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument...

 beginning in 2007. Construction on the control tower began on January 8, 2010 and expects to be complete by September 2011. University Park Airport is the busiest airport in the U.S. without an on-site air traffic control tower. The Airport Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) went operational on September 1, 2011. The ATCT is operated by Midwest Air Traffic Control under the Federal Contract Tower Program.

Airlines and destinations

External links

• University Park Airport (official web site)
• Pennsylvania Bureau of Aviation: University Park Airport