Florida Keys Marathon Airport

Florida Keys Marathon Airport
Florida Keys Marathon Airport
IATA: MTH – ICAO: KMTH – FAA: MTH
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Monroe County
Location	Marathon, Florida
Elevation AMSL	7 ft / 2.1 m
Coordinates	24°43′34″N 81°03′05″W / 24.72611°N 81.05139°W
Runways

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The Florida Keys Marathon Airport (IATA: MTH, ICAO: KMTH, FAA LID: MTH) is a public airport located three miles (4.8 km) east of Marathon, in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The airport covers 190 acres (77 ha) and has one runway.

[edit] History

Marathon Airport was originally constructed by the U.S. Navy in the early 1940s as Outlying Field Marathon (OLF Marathon), an auxiliary airfield to Naval Air Station Key West. It was deactivated as a military facility at the end of World War II and conveyed to the government of Monroe County for use as a civilan airport. For most of its existence, the airport has been a general aviation facility. Regional turboprop airline service began in the late 1980s, later developing into a mix of turboprop and regional jet service.

Marathon Airport was served by American Eagle until 2000. In mid-2006, Delta announced planned non-stop service to Marathon via its regional subsidiary ASA. Shortly after the Delta announcement, Continental announced that it would begin services to Marathon via its Florida subsidiary Gulfstream International. In July 2006, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) notified airport officials at Marathon Airport that due to a shortage of personnel, the TSA would not be able to staff Marathon Airport with federal security screeners; instead, passengers would have to enplane and deplane the aircraft at the general aviation ramp area located on the opposite end of the runway instead of at the airport's passenger terminal. Both Continental and Delta have since stated that enplaning and deplaning aircraft in this area is inconvenient to both passengers and airline staff, as it will cause lengthy delays in boarding due to all passengers having to be screened as they enter the aircraft rather than before reaching the gate. Connecting passengers will also have to be rescreened at the intermediate destination before boarding their connecting aircraft, causing further inconveniences in passenger connections; both airlines stated that if the airport cannot resolve the TSA issue before their announced service start days, they will withdraw their previously announced scheduled service offers.^[1]

However on December 1, 2006, the TSA bowed to the effective lobbying efforts of local government, congressional and business officials when it announced that screeners would be provided at the airport no later than February 15, 2007, even if it meant using a contractor [1][2]. As a result of the TSA decision, Delta subsidiary ASA began daily scheduled service on February 15, 2007. In late spring of 2007, Delta began using Freedom Airlines and ended its ASA service. The reason for this switch was because the ERJ-145s have better short field performance and the runway at Marathon Airport is 5,000 feet (1,500 m). When ASA serviced the airport it used special 40 seat CRJ-100s because the 50 seat versions would be dangerous to take off in due to weight.

In mid summer of 2007, Delta announced it would end service to Marathon Airport due to low demand.

On October 4, 2008, Continental announced it would begin service to Marathon Airport via a Cape Air codeshare to Fort Myers, with TSA security clearance to occur once on the ground in Fort Myers, if connecting to another flight. Service began on December 19, 2008.