Visalia Municipal Airport was built in 1927 and purchased by the city in 1928. The Works Progress Administration began several projects at the Visalia Municipal Airport in 1936, and the WPA would continue to make improvements at the field. The War Department assumed control of the airport in February 1942, just weeks after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, which led the United States to enter World War II. The airport was renamed the Visalia Army Air Field and operations at the facility began almost immediately upon the United States Army Air Forces control of the airfield. Anti-submarine patrols were conducted from Visalia AAF by the 47th Bombardment Squadron using Lockheed A-29 Hudson, and later B-25 Mitchell medium bombers. In June 1942, the Visalia AAF was established as a sub-installations of the newly built Hammer Field in Fresno. It shared Hammer Field's mission to train light, medium and heavy bomber squadrons. During that period Consolidated B-24 "Liberator", B-25s, Martin B-26 "Marauder" and the A-29s operated from Visalia AAF. In January 1944, Army Air Forces headquarters ordered the entire Air Universitynight fighter training program to California to be headquartered at Hammer Field. Under the supervision of the Army Air Force School of Applied Tactics and the 481st Night Fighter Operational Training Group, night fighter crews were organized into Overseas Training Units and entered three phases of training. In all phases, Visalia AAF was used as a satellite training site. During this period, Douglas P-70 "Nighthawk" and Northrop P-61 "Black Widow" operated from Visalia AAF. It is known that the 425th Night Fighter Squadron was stationed at Visalia AAF for its entire training cycle from February until May 1944 when it was deployed to the European Theater at RAF Charmy Down, England as part of the Ninth Air Force. In 1946 the War Assets Administration, acting on behalf of the War Department, terminated the leases with the City of Visalia and other parties with the remainder of the lands transferred to the City of Visalia in 1947. United Airlines flights began in 1946-47; their DC3/CV340/DC6/737s ended in 1979-80. After the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978, Visalia Municipal Airport became eligible for the Essential Air Service program. Since then served the airport, but none was successful. SeaPort Airlines was the most recent airline at Visalia. Starting February 9, 2015, SeaPort operated 12 nonstop round trips a week to Burbank Bob Hope Airport and 12 nonstop round trips a week to Sacramento International Airport. The airline suspended its service without notice on January 15, 2016. On November 18, 2015, Visalia Transit began operating its new V-Line bus service connecting the Visalia Airport to Downtown Visalia, Downtown Fresno, California State University, Fresno and the Fresno Yosemite International Airport. After the abrupt cancellation of commercial air service, the US Department of Transportation received proposals from three other airlines to start service from Visalia using Essential Air Service funding, but the community rejected the offers. The City stated in a letter that, "Based on a thorough review of all proposals and consideration of industry trends and the recent history of declining air service performance in Visalia, it is the Council's belief that none of the carriers have a strong enough proposal to guarantee that Visalia would maintain eligibility in the EAS program." In January 2017, the city asked to be enrolled in the Essential Air Service Community Flexibility Pilot Program which allows communities to receive a cash grant equal to two years worth of subsidy in exchange for forgoing their EAS funding for the next ten years. Visalia was the first community ever to enroll in the program established in 2003. In March 2017, Visalia received a grant worth $3,703,368 for the construction of two 10-unit tee hangars to serve small single-engine aircraft, and one corporate hangar to serve business jets and large aircraft. In exchange, the city will be ineligible to receive EAS subsidy funding for service until April 30, 2026.
Facilities
Visalia Municipal Airport covers 821 acres at an elevation of 295 feet. It has one asphalt runway, 12/30, 6,559 by 150 feet, and one helipad 45 by 45 feet. In the year ending April 28, 2011 the airport had 63,900 aircraft operations, average 175 per day: 92% general aviation, 4% airline, 4% air taxi, and <1% military. 134 aircraft were then based at this airport: 78% single-engine, 18% multi-engine, 4% jet, and 1% glider.
