Missoula International Airport is a public use airport located four nautical miles (5 mi, 7 km) northwest of the central business district of Missoula, a city in Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is owned the Missoula County Airport Authority.
This airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year). As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 288,071 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 281,428 enplanements in 2009, and 289,875 in 2010.
There are currently several expansion projects planned or underway, including the construction of 150 foot control tower. An expansion of the terminal building, providing a new security screening area, was completed in 2007.
MISSOULA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HISTORY
Missoula’s first landing strip was laid out in 1923 south of the university. An additional strip near the Western Montana Fair Grounds on what is now Sentinel High School was sold to the county in 1927 at the request of the Missoula chapter of the National Aeronautic Association and would become Missoula’s first true airport. The current airfield is named after that chapter’s first president, Harry O. Bell along with mountain flying pioneer Bob Johnson of Johnson Flying Service (now Minuteman Aviation). The original Garden City Airport was renamed Hale Field in 1935 and would operate as such until closing forever in 1954. The airport was gradually replaced by the Missoula County Airport opened in 1941 with WPA funds and the cooperation of the US Forest Service who needed access to an airport. The new airport was renamed Johnson-Bell Field in 1968 and today serves nearly 600,000 passengers a year.
MISSOULA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LOCATION
MISSOULA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT FACTS
ICAO/IATA: KMSO/MSO
Lat: 46°54′59″N
Long: 114°05′26″W
Elevation: 3,206 ft.
Runway length available: 07/25 4612×75 ft. :: 11/29 9501×150 ft.
