Garden City Regional Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Garden City Regional Airport
nativename =
nativename-a =
nativename-r =


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IATA = GCK
ICAO = KGCK
type = Public
owner =
operator = City of Garden City
city-served =
location = Garden City, Kansas
elevation-f = 2,890
elevation-m = 880.9
coordinates = Coord|37|55|39|N|100|43|28|W|type:airport_region:US|display=inline,title
website =
metric-elev =
metric-rwy =
r1-number = 17/35
r1-length-f = 7,300
r1-length-m = 2,225
r1-surface = Concrete
r2-number = 12/30
r2-length-f = 5,700
r2-length-m = 1,737
r2-surface = Concrete
stat-year =
stat1-header =
stat1-data =
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Garden City Regional Airport Airport codes|GCK|KGCK|GCK is a public airport located eight miles (13 km) southeast of the central business district (CBD) of Garden City, in Finney County, Kansas, USA. The airport covers convert|1848|acre|ha|0|lk=on and has two runways. It is mostly used for general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline. Service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

Airlines

* Great Lakes Airlines (Denver, Dodge City, Kansas City, Liberal)

History

During World War II, the facility was known as Garden City Army Airfield and was used as a United States Army Air Forces Second Air Force training field.

Opened in 1942, aircraft operated were Vultee BT-13A Valiants. The BT-13 was the basic trainer flown by most pilots during WWII. It was the second phase of the three phase training program for pilots.

There were three auxiliary airfields associated with Garden City AAF which were built in 1943. The main Garden City Army Airfield and it's auxiliaries were closed at the end of the war in 1945, and were declared excess by the military in 1947. Civil authorities developed the main airfield into Garden City Regional Airport.

Garden City Regional Airport's former status as Garden City AAF helped it serve an important role during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. When orders were dispatched to ground all domestic flights, three large jets were ordered to land at GCRA as it was the closest airport with runways that could accommodate the planes. Since planes of such size don't normally use the airport, the passengers had to be evacuated with the aid of ladder trucks from the Garden City Fire Department.

ee also

* Kansas World War II Army Airfields

References

*FAA-airport|ID=GCK|use=PU|own=PU|site=06621.*A
* [http://www.fly2gck.com/ Garden City Regional Airport] (City of Garden City web site)
* [http://special.gctelegram.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=661&format=html/ Story about the 9/11 landings from the Garden City Telegram's web site]

External links