Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport
| Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: LJN – ICAO: KLBX – FAA LID: LBX | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | Brazoria County | ||
| Serves | Angleton / Lake Jackson, Texas | ||
| Location | 0 County Road 220, Angleton, Texas 77515 | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 25 ft / 8 m | ||
| Coordinates | 29°06′31″N 095°27′44″W / 29.10861°N 95.46222°W | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 17/35 | 7,000 | 2,134 | Concrete |
| Statistics (2006) | |||
| Aircraft operations | 60,000 | ||
| Based aircraft | 92 | ||
| Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] | |||
Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport (IATA: LJN, ICAO: KLBX, FAA LID: LBX), previously known as Brazoria County Airport, is a county-owned public-use airport located four miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Angleton and north of Lake Jackson, both cities in Brazoria County, Texas, United States.[1]
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Brazoria County Airport is assigned LBX by the FAA and LJN by the IATA (which assigned LBX to Lubang in the Philippines).[2][3]
On March 24, 2010, the Brazoria County Commissioners' Court voted to change the name of the airport to Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport, effective October 1, 2010.[4]
Contents |
[edit] Facilities and aircraft
Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport covers an area of 674 acres (273 ha) which contains one concrete paved runway (17/35) measuring 7,000 x 100 ft (2,134 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2006, the airport had 60,000 aircraft operations, an average of 164 per day: 97% general aviation, 3% air taxi and 1% military.[citation needed] There are 92 aircraft based at this airport: 77% single-engine, 8% multi-engine, 7% jet and 9% helicopter.[citation needed]
The airport's runway was closed in December 2009 for a major reconstruction project, in which the runway's former asphalt surface was replaced with concrete. During the runway closure, aircraft temporarily used the airport's main taxiway for takeoffs and landings. Larger aircraft, such as the Aerodynamics (ADI) Dynajet Airbus ACJ operated as a shuttle service for Dow Chemical, were diverted to William P. Hobby Airport in Houston during the runway closure.[5] The runway reconstruction project was completed in July 2010, and the airport is fully operational once again.
The airport had the Windsock Restaurant. It closed in 2011.[6] The airport has a renovated restaurant called Crosswinds Cafe opened in November 2011. The menu has a wide variety of local favorites and very good deserts.
[edit] Airline History
Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport in the late 1970's and early 80's once was linked to the national airway grid with regularly scheduled airline service. Among some of the more unusual routes were Victoria, Texas and the Clear Lake City STOLport [1] served in between the regular schedules from Brazoria County to Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) as this airport was called prior to airline deregulation. In the 1980's the airport was moved from the older shorter runway facilities close to Lake Jackson's town center to an area just north of the city limits of Lake Jackson. It is to this original former airport, in which the largest commercial airliner to visit the area a National Airlines (NA) Boeing 727[2] was hijacked in the early years of the 1970's.
After the airport was moved to its present location, Metro Airlines occasionally and briefly used larger flight attendant staffed Shorts 330 regional airliners later to be supplanted by the much smaller Twin Otters on "commuter" routes linking "Brazosport" to IAH. Other sorts of regional aircraft seen occasionally at LBX in scheduled airline serve were Royale Airlines Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirantes and Beechcraft Model 99s. Royale functioned as a feeder airline for Continental Airlines to IAH prior to its bankruptcy and the difficulties which small communities suffered affected by the post deregulation airline industry.
Other airlines which more recently are seen regularly at the Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport were Comairs CRJ Regional jets and Aerodynamics Inc. (ADI), Fokker F28s.[3] Both of these airlines had contracts doing scheduled corporate charters shuttling employees to Dow Chemicals Midland Michigan facilities.
Currently, Dow Chemical uses the services of Aerodynamics (ADI)- Dynajet and their European built Airbus 319 Airbus equipment for the corporate shuttle to Michigan.
At present, no regularly scheduled commercial passenger service is offered from this underused airfield.
[edit] References
- ^ a b FAA Airport Master Record for LBX (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-10-25
- ^ Great Circle Mapper: KLBX - Angleton/Lake Jackson, Texas (Brazoria County Airport)
- ^ Great Circle Mapper: LBX / RPLU - Lubang, Philippines
- ^ Lowman, John. "County OKs name change for airport." The Brazosport Facts. Thursday March 25, 2010. Retrieved on March 11, 2011.
- ^ http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DNJ170/history/20100107/2342Z/KHOU/KMBS
- ^ Tompkins, John. "County airport’s Windsock Restaurant closes its doors." The Facts. Wednesday February 23, 2011. Retrieved on March 11, 2011.
[edit] External links
- Resources for this airport:
- AirNav airport information for KLBX
- ASN accident history for LJN
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures
  |
This article about an airport in Texas is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
