Lakefront Airport (former New Orleans Army Air Base) | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 USGS 2006 orthophoto | |||||||||||||||||||
 Lakefront Airport, main terminal, 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | Orleans Levee District | ||||||||||||||||||
| Operator | Lakefront Management Authority | ||||||||||||||||||
| Serves | New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 7 ft / 2 m | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 30°02′33″N 090°01′42″W / 30.04250°N 90.02833°W | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | lakefrontairport.com | ||||||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||||||
  NEW  NEW | |||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Statistics (2016) | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
Lakefront Airport (IATA: NEW[2], ICAO: KNEW, FAA LID: NEW) is a public airport five miles (eight kilometers) northeast of downtown New Orleans, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States.[1] The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a general aviation reliever airport.[3]
Originally the airline airport for the New Orleans area, Lakefront Airport relinquished that role in the summer of 1946 when airline service began from Moisant International Airport (now Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport), a larger facility in the nearby suburb of Kenner. Lakefront Airport continues as a general aviation airport with charter, private, and occasional military operations. Airline service is also available to destinations in the Gulf South Region.
The terminal building's interior retains much of its original lavish 1930s decoration, and the Art Deco exterior, obscured for decades by a "bomb-proof" facade installed after World War II, has been returned to its original appearance. The terminal building houses a restaurant frequented by nearby residents, the Walnut Room. The sculpture in front of the terminal, Fountain of the Four Winds by Enrique Alferez, is a local landmark.
Lakefront Airport was damaged by hurricane-force winds and the storm surge of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and a number of the hangars and outlying buildings were destroyed. While the airport soon resumed functioning, restoration of the terminal building and other facilities proceeded slowly. With the exterior of the main terminal fully restored, however, the classic Art Deco building was used as the headquarters of the fictional company Ferris Aircraft in the 2011 action hero film Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
Since 2014, Lakefront Airport has hosted the WWII Air, Sea & Land Festival. The three-day airshow hosted by the National WWII Museum, Commemorative Air Force, and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation honor the men and women of WWII through aviation displays, vehicle displays, and re-enactments.
- ^ a b FAA Airport Form 5010 for NEW PDF. Federal Aviation Administration. Effective March 2, 2017.
- ^ "IATA Airport Code Search (NEW: Lakefront)". International Air Transport Association. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
- ^ "2011–2015 NPIAS Report, Appendix A" (PDF). National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems. Federal Aviation Administration. October 4, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF, 2.03 MB) on September 27, 2012.