Trenton-Mercer Airport is a county owned, public airport four miles northwest of Trenton, in Ewing Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. Formerly known as Mercer County Airport, the airport has one scheduled airline plus general and corporate aviation.
Trenton-Mercer is the sixth busiest airport in New Jersey (after Newark, Essex County, Teterboro, Morristown, and Atlantic City).
Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 24,634 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2007, 974 enplanements in 2008, 561 in 2009, 853 in 2010, 3,414 in 2011, and 6,457 in 2012. It is in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which called it a general aviation facility.
TRENTON MERCER AIRPORT HISTORY
The first airplane landed at what is now Trenton-Mercer Airport in 1907, in what was then Alfred Reeder’s farm field, just off of Bear Tavern Road in Ewing. Twenty-two years later in 1929 Skillman Airport opened to the public.
During World War II the nearby General Motors Corporation|General Motors plant ceased producing civilian vehicles and began making TBF Avenger bombers for the United States Navy. Skillman Airport expanded to accommodate test-flights of this aircraft, and after the airport returned to county control following the end of the war it was renamed Mercer County Airport.
Airport Air Traffic Control operations based in the control tower were 6 AM to Midnight during the 1980s and early 1990s. Since January 1994, tower operations have been shortened to 6 AM to 10 PM.
In 1995 the airport’s name was changed to Trenton-Mercer Airport in an effort to identify it with the city of Trenton (the capital of New Jersey and county seat of Mercer County).
On March 11, 1998 an NWS/FAA Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) became operational at the airport, replacing the human weather observers which had previously reported weather conditions.
For many years the county has planned to expand the airport and attract more commercial airlines. The plans have been opposed by residents of suburban housing tracts in Ewing, Lawrence, Hopewell, Lower Makefield, Pennington and Yardley (some of which are in Pennsylvania, across the Delaware River). Most of these developments were built after the airport.
In 1994 as a cost-cutting measure, the Mercer County Airport Police and Fire Department was disbanded and replaced by the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office (police) and ProTec Fire Services (Aircraft Fire Rescue). The fire department was initially lead by Chief James Lonergan, who was previously was the director of aircraft rescue at Philadelphia International and Boston Logan Airport.
TRENTON MERCER AIRPORT LOCATION
TRENTON MERCER AIRPORT FACTS
ICAO/IATA: KTTN/TTN
Lat: 40°16′36″N
Long: 74°48′48″W
Elevation: 212 ft.
Runway length available: 06/24 6006×150 ft. :: 16/34 4800×150 ft.
