The airport covers at an elevation of 6,472 feet ; its one runway, 6/24, is 7,316 by 100 feet asphalt. In the year ending March 31, 2009 the airport had 4,643 aircraft operations, average 12 per day: 58% air taxi, 26% general aviation, 12% airline and 4% military. 23 aircraft were then based at this airport: 57% single-engine and 43% multi-engine.
Historical Airline Service
Gallup has been served by many airlines since the late 1940s. The first was Monarch Airlines which provided Douglas DC-3 flights to Albuquerque and to Salt Lake City with several stops. In 1950 Monarch Airlines merged with two other carriers to become Frontier Airlines. Frontier added flights to Denver and Phoenix, each making several stops en route, and upgraded to larger 50-seat aircraft during the 1960s with the Convair 340 followed by the Convair 580. Frontier's service continued until 1981 when the carrier went to an all jet aircraft fleet and ended service to all their smaller cities. Meanwhile, several commuter carriers began serving Gallup; Cochise Airlines came in 1979 followed by Desert Airlines in 1980, each with flights to Phoenix making several stops. Sun West Airlines began service later in 1980 with flights to Albuquerque as well as Phoenix using Piper Navajo aircraft and later upgrading with Beechcraft 99s. Their service continued into 1985 at which time Mesa Airlines began operating on the same routes also using Beech 99's. Mesa ended their Albuquerque flights in 1989 and the Phoenix flights became America West Express in 1992 operating as a feeder for America West Airlines using Beechcraft 1900D airliners. The Phoenix service thrived with the major airline code-share and as many as seven flights per day were operated. Mesa/America West Express also added a larger 30-seat Embraer 120 Brasilia aircraft to its schedule for a brief time in 1994. In the late 1990s commuter airline traffic suffered a major downturn nationwide and the Phoenix flights ended in 1999. Flights to Albuquerque were reinstated under the Mesa Airlines brand but ended three years later. In 2005 Westward Airways provided flights to Phoenix using Pilatus PC-12 aircraft but the airline shut down after a few months. Gallup then went two years without airline service until an agreement was made with Great Lakes Airlines in 2007 to provide flights to Phoenix and Denver using Beech 1900D's. This service lasted a little over a year ending in 2008 and Gallup has not seen further airline service since.
