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Lawton Chiles - Lakeland International Airport is a public airport located four miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Lakeland, a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. It is owned by the City of Lakeland.

The airport possesses a Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 139 operating certificate entitling it to conduct commercial passenger aircraft operations, but there is currently no scheduled commercial airline service at the airport. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, service was provided by the former National Airlines. 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 2011, a new passenger terminal will open. The new terminal will have two concourses, each with 5 gates. The easternmost concourse will be equipped with ramps leading to a new US Customs and Immigration checkpoint, allowing LAL to take international flights. As a result, several European charter airlines, including Air Europa, Condor Flugdienst, and Monarch Airlines, have committed to serving LAL when the new terminal opens, all taking advantage of Lakeland's proximity to both Orlando and Tampa. Delta Air Lines has also announced flights, to be operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

Annually, in the March/April time frame, the airport is host to Sun 'n Fun, a Fly-in, airshow and aviation exposition of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). It is the second largest such event in the United States after EAA's annual "AirVenture" event each summer at Wittman Regional Airport (OSH) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The event will not change as a result of the beginning of passenger airline service. Instead, the terminal will close to most commercial flights, including all international flights, and become a showplace for large aircraft during Sun 'n Fun.

History
The airport was initially constructed in the early 1940s and served as Drane Field, an auxiliary United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) airfield to MacDill Field, now MacDill Air Force Base in nearby Tampa. The original wartime airfield was consisted of three 5000 ft runways and served as a training base for medium bombardment groups such as the 320th Bomb Group and the 344th Bomb Group flying the B-26 Marauder. The airfield was assigned to the Third Air Force.

During 1944, the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics (AAFSAT) used Lakeland Army Airfield as a training base for Air Commando units, assigned to the 2d and 3d Air Commando Groups. The 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Fighter (Commando) Squadrons flew P-51 Mustangs from the airfield before being reassigned to India and Burma in the summer of 1944. At the end of World War II, the airfield was closed as a military facility and turned over to the City of Lakeland for redevelopment as a civilian airport.

The City of Lakeland had operated another municipal airport before and after World War II, which was renamed Al Lodwick Field in 1948. Lodwick Field continued to be used by the city for several more years as its principal airport, but gradually more and more of the complex was converted for use as the spring training home of the Detroit Tigers professional baseball team. By the summer of 1957, the city had decided to phase out Lodwick Field as a municipal airport and concentrate its resources on Drane Field in south Lakeland. Drane Field had languished underutilized for many years following the departure of the Army Air Forces in 1945 until its rededication as Lakeland Municipal Airport in 1960 with Don Emerson as its first director.

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). 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 prinicpal 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 nortwest 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. Construction of the current 2 1/2 story airside/landside terminal was begun in early 2000 and completed in late 2001. It contains the airport administrative offices, a conference facility, and a fixed-base operator. An aviation-themed restaurant previously located on the terminal's second floor closed in 2008. However, a Hilton Hotels Corporation Hilton Garden Inn hotel and its associated restauarnt are located on the airport property, approximately 400 yards northwest of the airport terminal building.

In 2009, the name of the airport was changed commemorate former Florida governor, and Lakeland native Lawton Chiles. The name changed coincided with the groundbreaking of the new passenger terminal and subsequent construction of an extension of runway 9/27.

The Experimental Aircraft Association's Sun 'n Fun complex and its associated Florida Air Museum are located in the southwest quandrant of the airport.

Facilities and aircraft
Lakeland Linder Regional Airport covers an area of 1,528 acres (618 ha), which contains two asphalt paved runways: Runway 9/27 measuring 10,000 x 150 ft (3,048 x 46 m) and Runway 5/23 measuring 5,005 x 150 ft (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 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'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 provide 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.

An Category III ILS system is currently being installed for both runway 9 and runway 27 to prepare for the beginning of passenger service.

For the 12-month period ending November 30, 2006, the airport had 101,365 aircraft operations, an average of 277 per day: 97% general aviation, 2% military and 1% air taxi. There are 177 aircraft based at this airport: 73% single-engine, 14% multi-engine, 8% jet and 5% helicopter.

The airport also 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.