Colonel James Jabara Airport
IATA: none ICAO: KAAO FAA LID: AAO
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Wichita Airport Authority
Location	Wichita, Kansas
Elevation AMSL	1,421 ft / 433 m
Coordinates	37°44′51″N 097°13′16″W / 37.74750°N 97.22111°W / 37.74750; -97.22111
Map
AAO Location of airport in Kansas Show map of Kansas AAO AAO (the United States) Show map of the United States
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 18/36 6,101 1,860 Concrete
Helipads
Number Length Surface ft m H1 50 15 Concrete
Statistics
Aircraft operations (2019) 38,300 Based aircraft (2021) 113
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Colonel James Jabara Airport (ICAO: KAAO, FAA LID: AAO) is a public airport located nine miles (14 km) northeast of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States.^[1] It is named in honor of World War II and Korean War flying ace James Jabara, an American of Lebanese descent who has the distinction of being the first American jet ace.

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Colonel James Jabara Airport is assigned AAO by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA (which assigned AAO to Anaco Airport in Anaco, Venezuela).^[2][3]

Facilities and aircraft

Colonel James Jabara Airport covers an area of 600 acres (243 ha) which contains one runway.

• Runway 18/36: 6,101 ft × 100 ft (1,860 m × 30 m), surface: concrete

For 12-month period ending August 13, 2019, the airport had 38,300 aircraft operations, an average of 104 per day: 97% general aviation and 3% air taxi. In November 2021, there were 113 aircraft based at this airport: 60 single-engine, 31 multi-engine, 20 jet aircraft, 1 helicopter and 1 military.^[1]

LifeSave Transport, A private medevac company owned by Air Methods, is based out of this airport. They operate a fixed wing and ground operations out of their building.

Colonel James Jabara Airport used to have a dedicated helipad, but it was closed and now has an X painted over the helipad.

Incidents

On November 20, 2013, at approximately 9:30 pm CST, a Boeing 747-400 Dreamlifter (with registration N780BA and operated by Atlas Air) mistakenly landed at the Colonel James Jabara Airport, which was on the same heading as its destination, McConnell Air Force Base. After landing at McConnell, the plane was to taxi over to nearby Spirit AeroSystems, and pick up some fuselage parts for the assembly of Boeing 787 Dreamliners in Everett, Washington.^[4][5][6] The plane successfully took off at 1:15 pm CST on November 21 and landed at nearby McConnell AFB.^[7] The NTSB opened an investigation about the wrong landing.^[8]

Nearby airports