North Platte Regional Airport
North Platte Regional Airport (Lee Bird Field) is a public airport three miles east of North Platte, in Lincoln County, Nebraska. It is owned by the North Platte Airport Authority and sees one airline, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program. The Federal Aviation Administration says the airport had 10,288 passenger enplanements in calendar year 2008, 7,924 in 2009 and 8,391 in 2010. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2019–2023, in which it is categorized as a regional primary commercial service facility. History. North Platte Regional  Airport was originally North Platte Field and was built in 1921 with private funds. The original location was the east side of the North Platte River near the river bridge south of U.S. Highway 30. The first hangar and terminal buildings were built there. The airport was the site of the first night airmail flight, on February 22, 1921. The field was lit using burning fuel barrels and the plane landed at 7:48 p.m. and left for Omaha at 10:44 p.m. after repairs to the de Havilland 4. In 1929 the City of North Platte bought the airfield and leased  it to the Boeing Transport Company, an original part of United Airlines. More construction was done in 1941 and the site became the site of a B-17 training command. The same year the airport was renamed Lee Bird Field after Lee Bird, the son of a North Platte family, who was killed in 1918 while training as a pilot for World War I. The Airport Authority began operating the airport in July 1963 and the airport was renamed the North Platte Regional Airport Lee Bird Field in June 1992. United Airlines stopped at North Platte from the 1930s until Frontier  took over in 1959; Frontier's 737s left in 1984. Facilities. The airport covers 1,544 acres (625 ha) at an elevation of 2,777 feet (846 m). It has two runways: 12/30 is 8,001 by 150 feet (2,439 x 46 m) concrete; 17/35 is 4,436 by 100 feet (1,352 x 30 m) asphalt. In the year ending December 31, 2018 the airport had 28,300 aircraft operations, average 77 per day: 82% general aviation, 12% air taxi, 5% airline, and 2% military. In April 2020, there were 42 aircraft based at this airport: 38 single-engine, 2 multi-engine, 1 jet, and  1 helicopter.