An evolving airport
Ontario’s airport key to city’s development
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Sunday, June 8, 2008 2:31 AM PDT
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| This small office was the first to be built at the fledgling Ontario Municipal Airport in the mid-1930s, not long after the City of Ontario gained control of the facility. It served as the terminal building for commercial air service in Ontario, which was started by Empire Airlines, followed by West Coast Airlines, which eventually merged into Hughes Air West. |
ONTARIO - The establishment of the Ontario Municipal Airport is a significant news event in the city’s history as it has evolved from a single runway with an office building into an ongoing work in progress that contributes to the city’s growth and is still considered important in the efforts to attract more business.
The airport has an unusual history. It was started by private citizens who, confronting a huge task, then transferred the property to the American Legion. In turn the Legion turned it over to the county with the understanding it can only be used as an airport, according to Alan Daniels, airport manager.
“It is not the city’s to give away or sell,” Daniels said. “They (the American Legion) donated it to Malheur County,” he said, which turned the airport over to the City of Ontario in 1933.
The land was cleared and a runway built with city funding and the help of the local pilot’s association, according to history compiled for the Airport Layout Plan. In the mid-1930s, the city improved the runway and built a small office building that still exists.
During 1937 and 1938, Casey Jones started Ontario Flight Service as a full-time flight-training school, and in 1939 and 1940, the Civil Pilot Training Program provided the flight training at the airport.
At the beginning of World War II, in 1941, Bessie Halliday leased Ontario Flight Service and resituated her flight training school inland, to Portland, because of the war.
The airport was also used by the Navy for a flight school.
The runways, as they currently exist, date from 1943, when constructed by the Works Progress Administration as an emergency alternate airport for B-17 bombers.
A runway lighting system was installed in 1950, and the Federal Aviation Administration and Weather Bureau and Flight Service Station were resituated there from the Weiser area.
Commercial air service came to Ontario with the arrival of Empire Airlines, which became West Coast Airlines, which, itself, was bought out by and became part of Hughes Air West.
Commercial air service to Ontario was discontinued in the early 1970s, and the flight service station and FAA weather station were closed.
Private pilot training peaked during the 1970s when the fixed base operator enrolled around 100 students, but by the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, interest in private flight training dropped significantly, as did enrollment.
A significant change since the early 1970s was the closure of the east-west runway, which allowed for the development of a 14-acre industrial park.
Of that acreage, 7.7 acres was then sold to Ozawa Research,which is still operating at the site.
Part of the original east-west runway is still used as part of the primary runway apron, where planes are parked.
“We have 84 planes based here,” Daniels said.
Most recently, the runway was extended to 5,015 feet to accommodate larger private and business jets and help make the airport and community more attractive to companies that operate business jets.
The project was funded primarily through the ConnectOregon Program.
Airport and city officials have applied for a second ConnectOregon Grant to allow them to enlarge the apron to make room for larger planes, to create a new apron for the largest planes and to provide an overlay on the existing apron and runway.
