Ames Municipal Airport

James Herman Banning Ames Municipal Airport is 2 mile southeast of Ames, in Story County, Iowa.

Originally consisting of two turf runways, the airport was created after a 1943 vote by the city of Ames. A new terminal and hangar were constructed in 2017, as part of a modernization effort.

Formerly named Ames Municipal Airport, and still commonly known as such, in 2023 the airport was officially renamed the James Herman Banning Ames Municipal Airport. James Herman Banning was the first African American to obtain a pilots license and was an alumnus of Iowa State University.

Facilities
The airport covers 700 acre and has two runways: 1/19 is 5701 by asphalt and 13/31 is 3491 by concrete.

In the year ending September 12, 2022 the airport had 30,150 aircraft operations, average 83 per day: 93% general aviation, 5% air taxi and 1% military. At that time, 63 aircraft were based at the airport: 47 single-engine, 6 multi-engine, 4 jet, 5 glider, and 1 helicopter.

NTSB records show no fatal accidents at Ames since 1962 (the earliest year which can be searched in their database).

Iowa State University utilizes the airport for charter flights for many of its athletic teams, although its football team must use Des Moines International Airport since Ames does not have runways long enough to accommodate the Boeing 757s and Boeing 767s most frequently used by college football programs for travel.