July 2018

310 311 THE CHESTER COUNTY G.O. CARLSON AIRPORT NUMBER THREE IN GA TRAFFIC The Chester County Airport AT A GLANCE CHESTER COUNTY G.O. CARLSON AIRPORT WHAT: A public-use airport WHERE: 45 miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WEB SITE: www.chestercountyairport. wordpress.com T he Chester County G.O. Carlson Airport is a public-use airport located about 45 miles west of Philadelphia. It opened in 1928 as the Coatesville Airport, named after its owner-operator and location, Coatesville, Pennsylvania. In 1959, Chester County purchased the facility and changed the name to the Chester County Airport. That year also saw the formation of the Chester County Area Airport Au- thority, which assumed ownership of the airport, and in 1962 the name was again changed, this time to the Chester County G.O. Carlson Airport, in honor of the Authority’s first chairman. The 250-acre facility has a single runway and handles general aviation traffic only. It is the third busiest GA airport in Pennsylvania. “We’re behind Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which is the busiest, and then Allegheny County Airport (outside Pittsburgh), which is the second busiest,” says Airport Manager, Gary L. Hudson. “For the most part, I would say 85 percent of the corporate traffic that comes into the airport is by Fortune 500 companies. Right now, we probably have