Leesburg Executive Airport

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Leesburg Executive Airport
IATA: none – ICAO: KJYO – FAA: JYO
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		Town of Leesburg, Virginia
Serves		Leesburg, Virginia
Location		Loudoun County, Virginia
Elevation AMSL		389 ft / 119 m
Website		http://www.leesburgva.gov/services/airport/
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
17/35	5,500	1,676	Asphalt

Leesburg Executive Airport (IATA: JYO, ICAO: KJYO), located 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the town of Leesburg, Virginia, is a busy general aviation airport in the Washington, DC area, and a reliever for nearby Washington Dulles International Airport.

[edit] History

Leesburg Executive Airport was built in 1963 to replace an earlier grass field on the eastern edge of the town, which had been used by radio personality Arthur Godfrey for his private DC-3 aircraft. Godfrey sold the field and used the proceeds to help fund a new airport further from the town, with matching funds from the FAA. Originally named Godfrey Field, it is now known as Leesburg Executive Airport at Godfrey Field.^{[citation needed]}

In 1986, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) consolidated its 308 Flight Service Stations into 61 'automated' stations (to be known as "AFSS"). The Flight Service Station at Leesburg was scheduled to close, but local lobbying convinced the FAA to rent space from the town and locate an AFSS at the airport.^{[citation needed]} In 1993, when the airport operator went bankrupt, the town of Leesburg assumed direct operation of the airport, lengthening the runway to 5,500 feet (1,700 m) to support business jets and adding a localizer approach and automated weather observation equipment to support all-weather operations.

The airport is currently a designated general aviation reliever airport for Dulles International, 10 miles (17 km) to the southeast, and in 2008 hosted 231 aircraft based on the field and an average of 265 aircraft operations per day.[1]

[edit] ADIZ

Leesburg Executive is located on the outer boundary of the 30 nautical mile (55.6 km) Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) instituted around Washington, DC after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Special procedures are still required for aircraft arriving at and departing from the airport, but due to a special triangular cut-out in the circle, they are less onerous than procedures for other ADIZ airports.[2]