Prescott Municipal Airport, Ernest A. Love Field (IATA: PRC, ICAO: KPRC, FAA LID: PRC) is eight miles north of Prescott, in Yavapai County, Arizona. Love Field is used for general aviation but is served by Great Lakes Airlines, who has a code-share agreement with United and Frontier Airlines, a service subsidized by the federal government's Essential Air Service program at a cost of $2,094,325(per year).
Most traffic at PRC is training flights from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University but includes training flights from operations including Guidance Aviation and North-Aire.
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems categorized it as a non-primary commercial service airport. Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 5,816 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 11,668 in 2009 and 7,836 in 2010.
The City of Prescott announced that passenger totals for 2009 were 11,690. Reaching over 10,000 boardings will allow the airport to get a million dollar grant each year for the next five years for improvement projects. This also prompted Great Lakes Airlines to add a second daily weekday flight to Denver.
The first airline flights at Prescott were TWA DC-3s in late 1947.
Video Ernest A. Love Field
Namesake
The airport is named for Ernest A. Love (1895-1918), First Lieutenant, United States Army Air Service. Love was born in New Mexico and raised in Prescott. He was a graduate of Prescott High School, and studied mechanical engineering at Stanford. He served in World War I and was shot down near Verdun, France on 16 September 1918, and died of his wounds as a prisoner of war a few days later. Lieutenant Love is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The hamlet of Love, Arizona is also named for him.
Maps Ernest A. Love Field
Facilities
Ernest A. Love Field covers 760 acres (308 ha) at an elevation of 5,045 feet (1,538 m). It has three asphalt runways: 3R/21L is 7,616 by 150 feet (2,321 x 46 m); 3L/21R is 4,848 by 60 feet (1,478 x 18 m); 12/30 is 4,408 by 75 feet (1,344 x 23 m).
Plans to extend Runway 3R/21L and Runway 3L/21R were mentioned in the latest master plan update in 2009. The extension onto Runway 3R/21L would be more than 3,300 feet and the extension onto Runway 3L/21R would be more than 1,300 feet.
In the year ending March 31, 2011 the airport had 244,080 aircraft operations, average 668 per day: 98.2% general aviation, 1.6% air taxi, <1% military, and <1% airline. 232 aircraft were then based at this airport: 89% single-engine, 8% multi-engine, 1% helicopter, 1% jet, and <1% glider.
Airlines and destinations
Scheduled passenger service:
Great Lakes Airlines has served the airport since 2008, when Mesa Airlines terminated their agreement. Although Great Lakes Airlines over the last few years ran into staffing issues due to the nationwide pilot shortage, Prescott has always been one of their top destinations. In 2016, the company turned itself around and was able to pull out of its staffing problems by signing a contract with Frontier Airlines to agree to employ their pilots after they have completed a required employment period with Great Lakes first. The company currently flies to Los Angeles and Phoenix. The company cut back on the destinations it served so it could dramatically increase reliability and staffing abilities towards its profitable airports. Prescott in November received the first of several planned upgrades by the company. Great Lakes increased its total round trip daily flights to/from Los Angeles from 2 flights a day to 4. On December 17, 2016 part 2 of the upgrade plan took place, which included bringing in a larger aircraft, an Embraer EMB-120 which includes 30 seats, restroom facilities and flight attendant service. The company has also leased a corporate maintenance hangar on the airfield and plans to employ a full time aircraft mechanic to turn Prescott into a west coast maintenance hub. Finally, the airline resumed flying to Denver, CO twice per week with one-stop in Farmington, NM. In 2017 Great Lakes reverted back to 2 flights per day to Los Angeles and 2 flights per week to Denver using Beech 1900D aircraft.
Statistics
Historical Airline Service
The following is a list of all known air carriers that have served Prescott. Most of these airlines provided flights to Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Arizona Airways 1946-1948
Trans World Airlines (TWA) 1947-1949
Frontier Airlines 1950-1964
Bonanza Airlines 1949-1968
Air West 1968-1970
Hughes Air West 1970-1974
Apache Airlines early 1970's
Cochise Airlines 1974-1982
Golden Pacific Airlines 1982-1989
Sun West Airlines 1984-1985
Mesa Airlines 1989-1992
America West Express (Mesa Airlines) 1992-2005
Great Lakes Airlines 2005-2007
US Airways Express (Mesa Airlines) 2007-2008
Great Lakes Airlines 2008-current
See also
- List of airports in Arizona
References
Other sources
External links
- Official website
- Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) at Arizona DOT airport directory
- Aerial image as of June 1992 from USGS The National Map
- FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective February 1, 2018
- FAA Terminal Procedures for PRC, effective February 1, 2018
- Resources for this airport:
- AirNav airport information for KPRC
- ASN accident history for PRC
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for KPRC
- FAA current PRC delay information
Source of the article : Wikipedia