KONT

Ontario International Airport

KONT is a public airport that is owned and operated under a joint-powers agreement with the city of Ontario and San Bernardino County.

Airport history

In 1923, a landing field named Latimer Field was established west of the current airport on land leased from the Union Pacific Railroad. It was there that The Friends of Ontario Airport was built. n 1929, Ontario paid $12,000 for 30 acres of land (equivalent to $181,000 in 2020) and established the Ontario Municipal Airport. In 1941, the city bought 470 acres near the airport and began building new runways, which were finished in1942, with funds from the Works Progress Administration. In February of that year, an Army Air Corps aircraft made the first landing at the new airport. Then in 1946, the name was changed to its current name, Ontario International Airport. Western Airlines began operating from the airport in 1949, with Bonanza Air following suit six years later. In 1967, Ontario and Los Angeles signed a a joint-powers agreement that now included Ontario International Airport as part of the Los Angeles regional airports system, and many years later, in 1985, Los Angeles would acquire KONT outright from Ontario. An additional second east–west runway was built in 1981. Runway 26R/8L was redone in order to strengthen it, with work being completed in 2006, the same year that the airport added "LA" to the name in order to avoid any confusion that may arise with the Canadian province of Ontario. In 2015, Los Angeles World Airports tentatively agreed to hand over ownership of Ontario Airport to the city of Ontario, and the following year the Ontario International Airport Authority took operations, and the airport's operating name reverted back to Ontario International Airport, since Los Angeles was no longer involved in running the facility.

Airport location

Situated two miles east of downtown Ontario, in San Bernardino County, California, about 38 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles and 18 miles west of Downtown San Bernardino

Airport facts

● Unlike other Southern California airports such as John Wayne Airport, Long Beach Airport, and San Diego International Airport, KONT does not have many noise restrictions/abatement rules. The airport is allowed to operate daily from 10 pm to 7 am, and all aircraft must arrive from the east on runway 26L or 26R and take off to the east on runway 8R or 8L 

● In 2020, the airport handled 924,160 tons of cargo. 

● There are 1,741 acres of airport space in use.

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