Overview
When combining the existing 5,800 acres (23 km²) of the current airport with the 17,500 acres (71 km²) of undeveloped land for the future airport, at 23,300 acres (94 km²) Palmdale Airport can be considered one of the largest civilian airports in the world. The two main runways at this airport are each over 2 miles (3 km) in length.
Most of the existing airport serves predominantly as a manufacturing plant for aircraft used by the United States' and their allies' military forces. The LA/Palmdale Regional Airport itself is a small commercial air terminal leased from the Air Force by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a department of the city of Los Angeles. The airport terminal is located at the southwest corner of the airport and began civilian operations in 1971.
The FAA's Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center is located next to the facility at Palmdale Airport.
This airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service facility based on enplanements in 2008 (more than 10,000 per year). As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 10,392 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, an increase of 82% from the 5,712 enplanements in 2007.
Read more about this topic: LA/Palmdale Regional Airport