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Lawton Chiles-Central Florida International Airport is a public use airport located four nautical miles (5 mi, 7 km) southwest of the central business district of Lakeland, a city in Polk County, Florida, United States; and serves as a secondary airport for both the Greater Orlando and Tampa Bay areas.

The airport possesses a Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 139 operating certificate entitling it to conduct commercial passenger aircraft operations and the current terminal facility, which opened in late 2001, was designed to enable it to conduct airline operations with minimal modifications. Scheduled commercial airline service returned to the airport in June 2011, when Direct Air began service to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Niagara Falls, New York and Springfield, Illinois. However, commercial service was suspended on March 13 when Direct Air unexpectedly announced an end to operations. The charter carrier, who offered flights from Lakeland to Niagara Falls and Plattsburgh, New York; Springfield, Illinois and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with Boeing 737 aircraft, was subject to Chapter 7 liquidation on April 12, 2012.

Annually, in the March–April time frame, the airport is host to Sun 'n Fun, a six day Fly-in, airshow and aviation convention. It is the second largest such event in the United States after the Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) annual "AirVenture" event each summer at Wittman Regional Airport (OSH) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Although originally begun by a local EAA chapter, Sun `n Fun is now an independent nonprofit corporation and no longer affiliated with EAA. During the week of Sun 'n Fun, Lakeland Linder Regional Airport becomes the world's busiest airport with approximately 60,000+ aircraft movements.

Facilities and aircraft


Lakeland Linder Regional Airport covers an area of 1,710 acres (692 ha) at an elevation of 142 feet (43 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 9/27 is 8,499 by 150 feet (2,590 x 46 m) and 5/23 is 5,005 by 150 feet (1,526 x 46 m).

The Lakeland VORTAC is physically located on the airfield and all runways have high intensity runway lighting (HIRL) and P4L precision approach path indicator (PAPI) systems. Runway 5 is equipped with a Category I Instrument Landing System (ILS), a Medium Intensity Approach Light System with Runway Alighment Indicator (MALSR) and a published Cat I ILS precision instrument approach. All other runways have published non-precision approaches. The airport has been a tower-controlled airport since the 1970s and the airport management's air traffic control division operates an FAA Level I air traffic control tower under the FAA Contract Tower Program. The FAA has also installed an Automatic Detection Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) ground station at the airport. Emergency services are provided by the Lakeland Fire Department, which maintains a 24-hour manned station on the airfield with a specialized crash truck and crew providing aircraft rescue and fire fighting (ARFF) capability.

For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2011, the airport had 73,247 aircraft operations, an average of 200 per day: 94% general aviation, 5% military, 1% air taxi, and <1% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 139 aircraft based at this airport: 77% single-engine, 14% multi-engine, 4% jet, and 6% helicopter.

The airport hosts corporate flight operations for the respective national headquarters of the Publix supermarket corporation, its associated PECU Insurance Agency, LLC, and the Watkins Motor Line trucking corporation. It is also the official home of the Black Diamond Jet Team, a civilian aerobatic demonstration team which flies four Aero L-39 Albatros high performance trainers and two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 fighter jets.

Atlantic Airlines, Inc. headquarters is located on the airport and provides flights throughout Florida.

The main terminal building contains the airport administrative offices, a conference facility, a fixed-base operator and an aviation-themed restaurant, Earhart's Runway Grill - named in honor of Amelia Earhart located on the terminal's second floor. A Hilton Hotels Corporation Hilton Garden Inn is conveniently located adjacent to the terminal.

History

 * For the World War II use of the airport, see: Lakeland Army Airfield
 * For the original Lakeland Municipal Airport, see: Lodwick Field

Origins
In 1940, the Lakeland City Commission passed a resolution to replace the city's Lakeland Municipal Airport, which was built in 1933 & early 1934. The new airport, tentatively named Lakeland Municipal Airport No. 2 was named Drane Field in honor of Herbert J. Drane, one of Lakeland's outstanding citizens.

The city had barely begun work on the new airport when, with war already raging in Europe, it leased the facility to the War Department. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers improved the three existing runways and constructed the necessary buildings to operate a training facility to fly combat bombers and fighters. The new base, initially a sub-base of MacDill Field, near Tampa, was named Lakeland Army Air Field. Thousands of men received part of their flight training in Lakeland during the war. After the war ended, the Army Airfield was left unused due to the size of the facility far exceeding the needs of the city as well as the costs involved of converting it to civil use.

As a result, the Lakeland Municipal Airport remained Lakeland's commercial airport. After the war ended, Lakeland Municipal Airport was renamed Al Lodwick Field in 1948, and ontinued to be used by the city. Lodwick Aircraft Industries was established in February 1946 at Lodwick Field to convert war surplus military aircraft to non-military use. In addition, beginning about 1950, passenger service was provided by National Airlines, with Lockheed Lodestar and Convair 340/440 aircraft.

However by the early 1950s, the number of military aircraft available for conversion to commercial use dwindled and most of the surplus parts & equipment it contracted to sell were obsolete & had no market. By 1954 Lodwick Aircraft was moribund. It had lost most of its assets in a bank foreclosure & ceased operations in September. Al Lodwick moved to the Miami area during the following year.

Commercial use
With the closure of Lodwick Aircraft, the city had decided to phase out Lodwick Field as a municipal airport in the summer of 1957 and concentrate its resources on Drane Field in south Lakeland. Drane Field had deteriorated and languished underutilized for many years following the departure of the Army Air Forces in 1945. After several years of new construction and conversion to a civil airport, it was rededicated  as Lakeland Municipal Airport in 1960 with Don Emerson as its first director.

During the rest of the 1960s and into the early 1970s, prior to airline deregulation, commercial airline service was provided by Allegheny Commuter and the former Sun Airlines. In the 1970s, the facility was renamed Lakeland Regional Airport. In the late 1980s, it was again renamed as Lakeland Linder Regional Airport for local businessman Paul Scott Linder. Linder had founded Lakeland-based Linder Industrial Machinery, a multi-million dollar heavy construction machinery company, in 1953. The Chairman of the Lakeland Economic Development Council, Linder was also director of the Florida Council of 100, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Council of Economic Education. He was named Florida’s Free Enterpriser of the Year in 1988, received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Florida, and was named 1989 Florida Entrepreneur of the Year. Paul Scott Linder died on November 11, 1990.

From the 1970s until 1999, the airfield operated as a joint civil-military facility when it hosted Army Aviation Support Facility #2 of the Florida Army National Guard, operating since-retired UH-1 Huey helicopters, followed by locally-based UH-60L Blackhawk helicopters of Detachment D, 171st Aviation Battalion (GS) and C-23B+ Sherpa fixed-wing cargo aircraft of Detachment 1, H/171st Aviation Battalion (TA). The establishment of these units and aircraft in Lakeland was due primarily to the efforts of former U.S. Senator and later Governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles, a Lakeland native. In 2000, the Florida Army National Guard aviation units relocated to a new facility at Hernando County Airport in Brooksville, Florida. Despite the military's departure from Lakeland, Florida Army National Guard aircraft, as well as Air Force aircraft from MacDill AFB, Coast Guard aircraft from CGAS Clearwater and other transient military aircraft throughout the southeast United States continue to use the airfield for practice approaches, landings and takeoffs. The airport's principal fixed base operator (FBO) also continues to provide DoD contract jet fuel services for transient military aircraft.

Over the years, the airport has seen a number of layout modifications. An original northwest/southeast 5000 ft runway was converted to a taxiway to permit construction of the Publix supermarket chain's corporate aircraft facility on the northwest end, while Runway 9/27 was incrementally increased in length to 6000 ft in the late 1950s and then to 8500 ft in the late 1990s. Runway 9/27, its associated taxiway system and the current airport terminal ramp area is currently built to a design standard that enables it to accommodate Boeing 737-700/800 series aircraft.

Design of the current 2½ story airside/landside terminal was begun in 1997, with construction comencing in 2000 and completed in late 2001. From 2006 to 2008 the airport had limited air service under FAR Part 135 (AirTaxi) provided by DayJet utilizing Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ) aircraft. DayJet also maintained a "DayPort" facility in the airport's main terminal building. However, DayJet ceased operations in September 2008 and subsequently declared bankruptcy, again leaving Lakeland without scheduled commercial airline service until 2011 when Direct Air launched scheduled commercial service to a number of destinations from Lakeland Linder. The charter carrier was liquidated in April 2012. Currently the airport has limited air service by one FAR Part 135 Air Carrier, Atlantic Airlines, Inc. since June 7, 2010. Atlantic Airlines currently provides (Air Taxi) service throughout Florida and is headquartered at the airport. The Sun 'n Fun complex and its associated Florida Air Museum are located in the southwest quadrant of the airport.