Lake Charles, LA, September 24, 2007 - Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Transitional Field Office Director Jim Stark addressed a group of local, state and federal officials on the second anniversary of Hurricane Rita and the ground breaking for the new Lake Charles Regional Airport terminal, which was completed in 2009. The new facility replaced one destroyed by Hurricane Rita. FEMA provided more than $2.7 million for the project. Photo by Manuel Broussard/FEMA.
The airport has two runways. They are oriented 5/23 and 15/33 and do not cross. The grounds are bounded by Lake Street to the west, Gauthier Road to the north, Highway 385 to the east, and Lincoln Road to the south. The entrance is off of Highway 385.
A new modern terminal building was officially opened to the public in 2009.[2] Built in the Louisiana plantation architectural style, it is a two-story terminal with one concourse.[3] In 2009, American Eagle (now Envoy Air) began twice daily, nonstop regional jet service to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.[4] American Eagle had previously served the airport with turboprop aircraft before discontinuing all flights at one point.
The airport was heavily damaged in the passing of Hurricane Laura in the early morning of August 27th, 2020. The National Weather Service office located at the airport suffered a loss of its WSR-88D radar as the powerful hurricane made landfall and moved inland.
The airport received $18 million from the CARES Act during the covid-19 pandemic, the largest amount of any airport in Louisiana. The money went towards upgrades to the airport's runways and taxiways as well as toward new lighting.[5][6][7]
Facilities and aircraft
Lake Charles Regional Airport covers an area of 1,878 acres (760 ha) at an elevation of 15 feet (5 m) above mean sea level. It has two runways: 5/23 is 5,200 by 100 feet (1,585 x 30 m) with an asphalt surface; 15/33 is 6,500 by 150 feet (1,981 x 46 m) with a concrete surface.[1]
For the 12-months ending December 31, 2015, the airport had 31,961 aircraft operations, an average of 88 per day: 55 percent general aviation, 36% air taxi, 9% military and 1% scheduled passenger airlines. In August 2017, there were 93 aircraft based at this airport: 39 single-engine, 10 multi-engine, 3 jet and 41 helicopter.[1]
A large number of helicopters are based at LCH and serve the petroleum industry in the Gulf and other purposes. A large marine spill operation is on the southwest corner of the grounds. The property also includes a 300-acre industrial park which provides land leases to many businesses and individuals.
Historically, Lake Charles was served by Eastern Air Lines beginning in the late 1940s with Martin 4-0-4 and Convair 340 twin prop "Silver Falcon" airliner flights to Houston via Beaumont/Port Arthur and also to Baton Rouge and New Orleans via Lafayette. Some eastbound flights operated by Eastern continued on with direct, no change of plane service to Atlanta, New York/Newark Airport and Boston, although a number of intermediate stops were made en route.[10] In 1958, Eastern was operating daily round trip Convair 340 service on a routing of Brownsville - Corpus Christi - Houston Hobby Airport - Beaumont/Port Arthur - Lake Charles - Lafayette - Baton Rouge - New Orleans - Mobile - Pensacola - Montgomery - Birmingham - Atlanta.[11] Eastern ceased all flights to Lake Charles during the mid 1960s when it withdrew its Convair 440 propliner service.
Trans-Texas Airways (TTa) began serving Lake Charles during the mid 1950s with Douglas DC-3 aircraft flying a routing of Lafayette - Lake Charles - Shreveport - Longview, TX - Tyler, TX - Dallas Love Field - Fort Worth.[12] By 1959, TTa had expanded its DC-3 service with direct flights to Houston via Beaumont/Port Arthur and also direct to Jackson, MS via Alexandria and Natchez, MS.[13] Trans-Texas then introduced Convair 240 service and in 1961 was flying nonstop to Houston and Monroe, LA as well as direct to Dallas, New Orleans, Little Rock, Memphis, San Antonio and other destinations.[14] By the mid 1960s, Trans-Texas was serving the airport with Convair 600 turboprop flights primarily to Houston, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Trans-Texas Airways subsequently changed its name to Texas International Airlines (TI) and introduced Douglas DC-9-10 jetliner service from Lake Charles to Houston and New Orleans with direct service to Dallas/Ft. Worth. Together, TTa and TI served Lake Charles for over 25 years with aircraft as diverse as DC-3s to DC-9s. According to the Official Airline Guide (OAG), in April 1975 Texas International was operating ten flights a day into the airport with these services including nonstop DC-9 jet service from Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, New Orleans, Shreveport, Lafayette, LA and Beaumont, TX as well as direct, no change of plane DC-9 jet flights from Mexico City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, Abilene and San Angelo.[15] By December 1979, TI was operating all of its Lake Charles flights with jets including the larger McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 as well as the Douglas DC-9-10 with nonstop service from Houston, Baton Rouge and Lafayette as well as direct, no change of plane flights from Dallas/Fort Worth, New Orleans, Denver, Brownsville, TX, McAllen, Amarillo and Lubbock.[16]
By the late 1980s, American Eagle had begun service to Lake Charles and by the mid 1990s was operating Saab 340B turboprop service from the airport to two American Airlines hubs at the time: nonstop to Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) with direct, one stop flights to Nashville (BNA) via Gulfport, MS[19] before ending these propjet flights. American Eagle then resumed service to Lake Charles several years later with nonstop flights to DFW.
