Clovis Municipal Airport

Clovis Municipal Airport
IATA: CVN – ICAO: KCVN – FAA LID: CVN
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner City of Clovis
Serves Clovis, New Mexico
Elevation AMSL 4,216 ft / 1,285 m
Coordinates 34°25′31″N 103°04′45″W / 34.42528°N 103.07917°W / 34.42528; -103.07917Coordinates: 34°25′31″N 103°04′45″W / 34.42528°N 103.07917°W / 34.42528; -103.07917
Website airport.cityofclovis.org
Map
CVN

Location of airport in New Mexico

Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
4/22 7,200 2,195 Asphalt
12/30 5,697 1,736 Asphalt
8/26 2,442 744 Turf
Statistics (2009)
Aircraft operations 27,489
Based aircraft 71

Clovis Municipal Airport (IATA: CVN, ICAO: KCVN, FAA LID: CVN) is a city owned, public use airport located six nautical miles (7 mi, 11 km) east of the central business district of Clovis, a city in Curry County, New Mexico, United States.[1] It is mostly used for general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline. Current scheduled passenger service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 2,419 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008,[2] 2,028 enplanements in 2009, and 2,165 in 2010.[3] It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation airport (the commercial service category requires at least 2,500 enplanements per year).[4]

Facilities and aircraft

Sign at Clovis airport welcoming arrivals

Clovis Municipal Airport covers an area of 1,480 acres (599 ha) at an elevation of 4,216 feet (1,285 m) above mean sea level. It has three runways, two of which have asphalt surfaces: 4/22 is 7,200 by 150 feet (2,195 x 46 m) and 12/30 is 5,697 by 150 feet (1,736 x 46 m). It also has one turf runway designated 8/26 which measures 2,442 by 75 feet (744 x 23 m).[1]

For the 12-month period ending January 1, 2009, the airport had 27,489 aircraft operations, an average of 75 per day: 89% general aviation, 7% military, 5% scheduled commercial, and <1% air taxi. At that time there were 71 aircraft based at this airport: 72% single-engine, 25% multi-engine, 1% jet, and 1% helicopter.[1]

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
Boutique Air Dallas/Ft. Worth

Boutique Air operates Pilatus PC-12 turboprop aircraft on all flights.

Historical airline service

Clovis was a stop on the first coast to coast "air rail" service between Los Angeles and New York City which began in 1929.[5] Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) used a Ford Trimotor aircraft to fly passengers between Los Angeles and Clovis with en route stops at Kingman and Winslow, AZ as well as Albuquerque, NM. At Clovis, passengers heading east would then transfer to and board an overnight train operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to Waynoka, OK where they would connect to another TAT operated Ford Trimotor aircraft the next morning and continue their journey to Port Columbus, OH where they would transfer again for the final stage of the journey to New York City via the Pennsylvania Railroad. The same rail and flight services, transfers and connecting points were used by passengers heading west. By 1931 the service had been modified to where the aircraft would fly the western portion of the service with a stop in Amarillo, TX rather than Clovis. Transcontinental Air Transport went on to merge with another airline to form what eventually became Trans World Airlines (TWA).

In 1948 a new carrier, Pioneer Airlines, began serving Clovis with the airport being one of several stops on a route between Albuquerque and Dallas. The other stops included Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and Tucumcari, NM as well as Lubbock, Abilene, Mineral Wells, and Ft. Worth, TX. Initially the airline used 21-seat Douglas DC-3 aircraft but upgraded to the 36-seat Martin 2-0-2 in 1952.

In 1955 Pioneer was acquired by and merged into Continental Airlines which maintained the same route, minus some of the stops, and also upgraded its service with Convair 340 prop aircraft followed by the four-engine, British manufactured Vickers Viscount turboprop in 1959. According to the September 27, 1959 Continental Airlines system timetable, the Viscount was being operated on a routing of Dallas Love Field-Fort Worth (via Greater Southwest International Airport)-Abilene-Lubbock-Clovis-Santa Fe-Albuquerque.[6] Initially, all airline service had been operated via the current Cannon Air Force Base and was then transferred to the present municipal airport which opened in April, 1959.

As Continental was growing into a major airline, they transferred all of their Clovis service as well as service to other smaller cities in New Mexico to Trans-Texas Airways (TTa) in 1963. Trans-Texas again kept the same routing with flights to Albuquerque and Dallas originally reverting to DC-3 aircraft but later upgrading to Convair 240 prop aircraft followed by Convair 600 turboprops. TTa then changed its name to Texas International Airlines (TI) in 1969 and for a brief period during the late 1970s, TI introduced 85-seat Douglas DC-9-10 jet service to Clovis. This was the only time Clovis had jet service which was operated via the Cannon AFB airfield in order to accommodate the DC-9. Texas International's service then reverted to Clovis Municipal Airport with Convair 600 turboprop service only being flown to Albuquerque.

As Texas International was now growing into a larger all-jet airline, TI discontinued its flights in 1979 and with service being transferred to two smaller commuter airlines, Air Midwest and Crown Aviation. Crown had started service to Clovis two years prior with flights to Albuquerque and Lubbock but went out of business in 1980. Air Midwest used 17-seat Swearingen Metroliner propjets with flights to Albuquerque, Amarillo, and Wichita. Mesa Airlines began serving Clovis in 1985 using Beechcraft 99 followed by Beechcraft 1900 turboprop airliners on flights to Albuquerque. Air Midwest discontinued their service shortly afterwards. Mesa continued to serve the city for 20 years until 2005 when they were replaced by Great Lakes Aviation which operated flights to Albuquerque as well as service to Amarillo and Denver using Beechcraft 1900D turboprops. The flight to Amarillo was later dropped and all service was briefly shifted to a Clovis-Santa Fe-Denver route before Great Lakes ended their flights in 2013. The city was without any airline service until July, 2014 when Boutique Air inaugurated three daily nonstop flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth using 8-seat Pilatus PC-12 aircraft via a federal Essential Air Service contract.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 FAA Airport Master Record for CVN (Form 5010 PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. Effective April 5, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Enplanements for CY 2008" (PDF, 1.0 MB). CY 2008 Passenger Boarding and All-Cargo Data. Federal Aviation Administration. December 18, 2009. External link in |work= (help)
  3. ↑ "Enplanements for CY 2010" (PDF, 189 KB). CY 2010 Passenger Boarding and All-Cargo Data. Federal Aviation Administration. October 4, 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  4. ↑ "2011–2015 NPIAS Report, Appendix A" (PDF). National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems. Federal Aviation Administration. October 4, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF, 2.03 MB) on 2012-09-27. External link in |work= (help)
  5. ↑ http://www.timetableimages.com, Sept. 11, 1929 Transcontinental Air Transport system timetable (including connecting railroad schedules)
  6. ↑ http://www.timetableimages.com, Sept. 27, 1959 Continental Airlines system timetable
  7. ↑ Timetables from the various airlines that have served Clovis, NM

Other sources

  • Essential Air Service documents (Docket OST-1996-1902) from the U.S. Department of Transportation:
    • Order 2004-12-21 (December 29, 2004): selecting Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., to provide essential air service with 19-passenger Beech B1900D aircraft at Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico, for two years at a combined annual subsidy rate of $1,718,113.
    • Order 2007-3-18 (March 20, 2007): selecting Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico, for two years, beginning May 1, 2007, through April 30, 2009. Clovis will receive 18 one-stop round trips per week to Denver at an annual subsidy of $999,932. Silver City/Hurley/Deming will receive 12 nonstop weekly round trips to Phoenix at an annual subsidy of $992,799. Both communities will be served with 19-passenger Beech 1900 aircraft. The total combined annual subsidy is $1,992,731.
    • Order 2007-4-5 (April 4, 2007): the Department is granting the motion of Grant County, New Mexico, to file a petition for reconsideration of Order 2007-3-18, issued March 20, 2007, and, upon review, deciding to vacate the earlier decision and resolicit Essential Air Service proposals.
    • Order 2007-5-19 (May 31, 2007): selecting Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico, for two years, beginning May 1, 2007, through April 30, 2009. Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming each will receive 12 nonstop round trips per week to Albuquerque with 19-passenger Beechcraft 1900D aircraft at an annual combined subsidy of $2,365,290.
    • Order 2009-3-3 (March 6, 2009): re-selecting Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. to provide essential air service (EAS) at Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico, at a combined annual subsidy rate of $2,959,451 ($1,517,277 for Clovis and $1,442,174 for Silver City), for the two-year period from May 1, 2009, through April 30, 2011.
    • Order 2011-4-19 (April 22, 2011): reselects Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., to provide subsidized EAS with 19-passenger Beechcraft B-1900D aircraft at Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico (Silver City), for the period from May 1, 2011 to May 31, 2013, at a combined annual subsidy rate of $3,186,249.
    • Ninety-Day Notice (June 4, 2012) of Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. serving notice of intent to terminate scheduled air service to·Clovis, New Mexico and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico from Albuquerque, New Mexico effective September 3, 2012.

External links

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