Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (IATA: CLE, ICAO: KCLE, FAA LID: CLE) is a city-owned international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. It is the largest and busiest airport in the state, as well as in the top fifty largest airports in the U.S. by passenger numbers. Located in Cleveland's Hopkins neighborhood 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Downtown Cleveland, it is adjacent to the Glenn Research Center, one of NASA's ten major field centers.
The airport has been at the forefront of several innovations that are now commonplace. It was the first airport with an air traffic control tower and a two-level design separating arrivals from departures. It was also the first airport in North America to be directly connected with a rail transit line.
Cleveland was a hub for United Airlines from the post–World War II era until the mid-1980s. After United moved out, Continental Airlines moved in, making it the dominant carrier at the airport in the 1990s and 2000s. After United and Continental merged in 2010, United closed the Cleveland hub, though it still has a flight attendant base, pilot base, and maintenance facilities at the airport and is its largest carrier by passenger count.
When United stopped using Cleveland as a hub, it closed Concourse D, but the airline kept paying to lease the facility. However, United's hub closure created an opening for low-cost carriers to enter the market, which had previously had among the highest average fares in the country. Within a few years after United closed the hub, passenger traffic rebounded to where it was before the closure.
Cleveland Hopkins offers non-stop passenger service to 43 destinations. Cleveland Hopkins is operated by the Cleveland Department of Port Control, which also operates Burke Lakefront Airport located downtown.
Cleveland Hopkins is of particular importance to the history of commercial air travel due to a number of first-in-the-world innovations that would eventually become the global standard. Founded on July 1, 1925, it was one of the first municipality-owned facilities of its kind in the United States. It was the site of the first air traffic control tower (1929), the first ground-to-air radio control system (1939), and the first airfield lighting system (1930),; and it was the first U.S. airport to be directly connected to a local or regional rail transit system (1968).
It was also the first airport to employ a two-level terminal design separating arrivals from departures. The airport was named after its founder, former city manager William R. Hopkins, on his 82nd birthday in 1951.
United Airlines established its easternmost domestic hub in Cleveland after World War II, which it maintained until the mid-1980s, when it closed its Cleveland hub and moved capacity to a new hub at Washington–Dulles. Following the closure of the United hub, Continental Airlines (which at the time was a separate carrier and lacked a Midwest hub) responded by adding capacity to Cleveland, as did USAir, which was the dominant carrier at the airport from 1987 until the early 1990s. While USAir soon reduced its schedule from Cleveland, Continental substantially increased its hub capacity, becoming the airport's largest tenant and eventually accounting for upwards of 60 percent of passenger traffic. Continental and the airport both made substantial operational and capital investments in the airport's infrastructure. In 1992, the airport completed a $50 million renovation of Concourse C, which housed all of Continental's flights. The renovation included the installation of a continuous skylight, a Continental President's Club lounge, and a new Baggage Claim area. In 1999, the airport completed an $80 million expansion that included the construction of the new Concourse D (now closed), which was built to accommodate Continental Express and Continental Connection flights.
In June 1999, Continental Airlines launched flights to London's Gatwick Airport aboard a Boeing 757-200. This was Cleveland's first scheduled transatlantic service. The carrier suspended the link after the September 11 attacks and resumed it in April 2002. The following year, Continental made the route seasonal.
Continental began flying into London's Heathrow Airport instead of Gatwick in May 2009; Heathrow offered more connecting flights. The airline discontinued the service four months later, citing the recession and an inability to obtain affordable seasonal slots at Heathrow. The company was also about to join the Star Alliance, to which United Airlines belonged. Consequently, London-bound passengers would be able to transit through United's Chicago hub instead of Cleveland. The cancellation of the route left the city without a direct link to Europe until 2018.
In 2010, Continental and United Airlines announced that they would merge operations. The merger prompted concerns that a post-merger United would reduce or close its hub in Cleveland and instead route passengers through the new United's Chicago-O'Hare and Washington-Dulles hubs. On November 10, 2010, Continental CEO Jeff Smisek stated in a speech in Cleveland that "Cleveland needs to earn its hub status every day" and added that overall profitability would be the determining factor in whether the new United kept or closed the Cleveland hub.
United continued to reduce its capacity in Cleveland following the merger, which already had been substantially reduced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. On February 1, 2014, United announced that the airline would shut down its Cleveland hub, stating as justification that the airline's hub at Cleveland "hasn't been profitable for over a decade." By June 5, 2014, United had effectively terminated its hub operation at the airport, reducing its daily departures by more than 60%. United also closed Concourse D and consolidated all of its remaining operations in Concourse C, although it is required to continue to pay the airport $1,112,482 a month in rent for the facility until 2027.
The airport initially experienced a sharp decline in passenger counts following the closure of United's hub in 2014. Several other airlines, however, increased their service to Cleveland in subsequent years. Frontier Airlines significantly increased its service to the airport and declared Cleveland a focus city. New routes connected Cleveland with destinations as far as Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In November 2023, Frontier Airlines announced it would make Cleveland a crew base in March 2024, employing up to 110 pilots, 250 flight attendants, and 50 aircraft maintenance personnel.
Other low-cost airlines such as Spirit Airlines and Allegiant Air began new service to the airport as well, and existing airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines also increased their number of daily flights and destinations. As a result, by 2017, the airport's passenger count exceeded levels achieved during the last full year that United maintained a hub in Cleveland.
Despite the closure of its hub, as of 2017 United still maintained roughly 1,200 employees in Greater Cleveland, including a flight attendant and pilot base as well as maintenance facilities. United also remains the largest carrier at Hopkins. Regional airline CommuteAir, which flies exclusively on behalf of United Express, is headquartered in nearby North Olmsted.
Icelandair and Wow Air inaugurated flights to Reykjavík in May 2018. Wow Air employed Airbus A321s on the route, while Icelandair used a Boeing 737 MAX. Wow Air left Cleveland in October 2018 amid financial troubles. Icelandair decided to make its service seasonal, with the first season ending in October. In March 2019, however, the carrier announced it would not be returning. The Boeing 737 MAX had been grounded, and some analysts said Icelandair might have been dissatisfied with the route's performance.
In 2021, the airport received $32.5 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to provide economic relief funds for costs related to operations, personnel, cleaning, sanitization, janitorial services, debt service payments, and combating the spread of pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2023, Aer Lingus launched flights between Cleveland and Dublin on Airbus A321LR aircraft. It is currently the only nonstop transatlantic flight between Europe and Cleveland.
In 2023, Cleveland was one of the areas where United Airlines pilots picketed in pursuit of a better contract.
Frontier overtook United for the #1 spot in passengers carried monthly in June 2024.
Cleveland Hopkins consists of one two-level passenger terminal, which was completed in 1978, and renovated in 2016. There are four concourses, three of which are currently in use.
In 2022, the airport began discussions for a $2 billion renovation. The airport wanted to expand security and check-in counters, add an improved checked baggage inspection system, expand gate waiting areas, and add 8 new gates to be able to accept additional flights. Concourses A and C will be renovated, concourse B would be rebuilt, and a new concourse would be built to replace Concourse D.
Cleveland Hopkins covers an area of 1,717 acres (695 ha) and has three runways:
Cleveland Hopkins is home to both crew and maintenance bases for United Airlines.
The airport is also home to one of five kitchens operated by airline catering company Chelsea Food Services, a subsidiary of United Airlines.
Cleveland Airmall, a unit of Fraport USA, manages the retail and dining locations at the airport. Tenants include Johnston & Murphy, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum Store, Bar Symon, and Sunglass Hut.
A former Sheraton Hotel also occupies the airport grounds immediately east of the terminal. Built in 1959, it had 243 rooms and was a popular layover point for passengers and crews during the airport’s hub days with United and Continental. The hotel closed in June 2022 after its ownership group defaulted on its loans. The airport subsequently acquired the building and intends to demolish it in 2024.
The airport has two lounges: a United Club in Concourse C and The Club CLE near the entrance to Concourse B in the Main Terminal.
The airport is connected to the Cleveland Rapid Transit system with the Red Line Rapid Transit station beneath the terminal. The airport has a dedicated taxi service of 110 vehicles. In 2023, the airport received $3.2 million in federal funding to renovate, among other terminal facilities, the public transportation tunnel to the airport. This will include modernizing wall surfaces, replacing the tunnel ceiling and waterproof membrane in the tunnel tramway, structural repairs, and installation of a new drainage system.
Rental car operations are located at a consolidated rental car facility off the airport property. Shuttle services are provided between the airport and the facility.
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2021, the airport had 91,615 aircraft operations, an average of 251 per day. This was 79% commercial, 14% air taxi, 7% general aviation, and <1% military. For the same time period, 43 aircraft were based at the airport: 37 jets, 4 military aircraft, and 2 multi-engine airplanes.
In May 2015, the airport moved the pick-up and drop off location for most shuttles to the former limo lot, requiring most passengers to take two escalators underneath the former shuttle parking in the arrivals lane at the airport. Originally meant to be a temporary fix, the airport made the Ground Transportation Center a permanent fixture in May 2017. This angered many travelers, who complained on various social media platforms, as well as local media outlets, garnering negative publicity for the airport's plans. In March 2019, the pick up and drop off locations for most of the shuttles (except for limo shuttles) have moved to the north end of the baggage claim level.
In May 2013, the airport demolished its aging, 2,600-space Long Term Garage, replacing it with a 1,000 space surface lot for $24 million. This in turn created a parking shortage and daily lot closings when parking lots would become full. The airport's Twitter account became a daily update of parking closures at the airport. The airport converted the Short Term Garage to a so-called Smart Garage and valet parking garage. The airport eliminated its free half-hour courtesy parking perk, and began to charge $3 for a half-hour.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency