Vernal Regional Airport (IATA: VEL, ICAO: KVEL, FAA LID: VEL) is a mile southeast of Vernal, in Uintah County, Utah. It is owned by the city and county and sees one airline, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.
Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 5,474 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 3,805 in 2009 and 4,461 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011â€"2015 categorized it as a non-primary commercial service airport (between 2,500 and 10,000 enplanements per year).
History
The original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) served Vernal for over 30 years. In 1950, Frontier was operating Douglas DC-3 flights from the airport with nonstop service to Salt Lake City and Rock Springs as well as direct, no change of plane service to Denver, Billings, Casper, Laramie and Cheyenne. By 1967, Frontier was serving Vernal with Convair 580 turboprops with nonstop flights to Salt Lake City and direct flights to Denver. At this same time, Frontier was operating a Convair 580 "milk run" flight with a routing of Salt Lake City-Vernal-Moab-Grand Junction-Farmington-Gallup-Albuquerque-Silver City-Tucson-Phoenix. Frontier was still serving Vernal during the late 1970s and early 1980s with Convair 580 flights nonstop to Salt Lake City and direct to Denver; however, as Frontier then began to transition to an all-jet fleet, service to Vernal had been discontinued by 1982. Prior to Frontier's service, a Challenger Airlines 1948 route map depicted Vernal as a proposed destination with service to Salt Lake City. In 1950, Challenger merged with Arizona Airways and Monarch Airlines to form Frontier Airlines which then in turn began service that year to Vernal.
A number of commuter airlines also served Vernal over the years. In 1979, Transwestern Airlines was competing with Frontier on the Salt Lake City route with Piper Aircraft twin prop airplanes. Salmon Air operated nonstop service as well to Salt Lake City at one point. By 1983, Air Link Airlines was operating direct, one stop flights to Denver via Hayden, CO or Rock Springs, WY with Swearingen Metroliner turboprops. In 1985, SkyWest Airlines was operating Swearingen Metroliner propjets nonstop to Salt Lake City (SLC) as an independent air carrier. By 1987, SkyWest was flying Metroliner propjet service nonstop to SLC as Western Express via a code share feeder agreement with Western Airlines. In 1989, SkyWest had become a Delta Connection air carrier operating code share feeder service for Delta Air Lines and was continuing to operate nonstop Metroliner service to Salt Lake City. Air Midwest, a subsidiary of Mesa Airlines which operated service to Vernal as America West Express, commenced nonstop flights to Salt Lake City International Airport on July 2, 2006. In January 2008, Great Lakes Aviation replaced Air Midwest and began operating Beechcraft 1900D turboprop flights to Denver and on December 5, 2011, Great Lakes began service to Canyonlands Field in Moab, Utah as an extension of its Denver service. However, Great Lakes Airlines subsequently ended its flights to Denver and ceased all service to Vernal.
Facilities
The airport covers 254 acres (103 ha) at an elevation of 5,278 feet (1,609 m). It has two asphalt runways: 16/34 is 6,201 by 150 feet (1,890 x 46 m) and 7/25 is 4,108 by 60 feet (1,252 x 18 m).
In 2011 the airport had 8,960 aircraft operations, average 24 per day: 84% general aviation and 16% air taxi. 36 aircraft were then based at the airport: 64% single-engine, 22% ultralight, 11% multi-engine, and 3% helicopter.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Boutique Air operates both Pilatus PC-12 turboprop and Beechcraft King Air 350 twin-turboprop aircraft on their flights.
References
External links
- Aerial image as of July 1997 from USGS The National Map
- FAA Terminal Procedures for VEL, effective September 14, 2017
- Resources for this airport:
- FAA airport information for VEL
- AirNav airport information for KVEL
- ASN accident history for VEL
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures
