By Peter Corbett / ADOT Communications

TUSAYAN – For a half century, Grand Canyon National Park Airport has been a landing and launching point for many of those visiting Arizona’s most popular tourist attraction.

And for the same half century the airport has been owned and operated by the state, first under the Arizona Department of Aeronautics and since 1974 under the Arizona Department of Transportation.

In 2016, Grand Canyon National Park Airport and its private air-tour operators served close to 325,000 passengers, making it one of the four busiest airports in Arizona.

Less than a decade after the Grand Canyon became a national park in 1919, pilots were taking off from dirt airstrips to ferry tourists over the mile-deep gorge. The current airport in Tusayan came nearly 50 years later. The 14,000-square-foot terminal, with an A-frame lobby and wood-burning fireplace, was dedicated in 1967.

Since then, Arizona’s only state-owned airport has been an essential hub for tourists.

The first airports around the Grand Canyon, including one on the current site, were little more than meadows with unpaved runways and windsocks. By the 1960s, the state and federal governments moved to build a modern airport at Grand Canyon 7 miles from the South Rim.

That development was set in motion after a 1956 mid-air crash of commercial airliners over Grand Canyon that killed all 128 of the people aboard the planes. That disaster, which led to the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration, advanced the state’s interest in developing airports in Arizona.

Cities, counties and regional airport districts oversee most U.S. airports. Only a handful of states own and operate airports.

Because Tusayan wasn’t incorporated at the time, Arizona assumed the responsibility of operating Grand Canyon National Park Airport. Built on U.S. Forest Service land, the runway was completed in 1965, while the terminal was dedicated Oct. 20, 1967.

The airport property includes a fire station, employee housing, the main terminal and three private terminals for helicopter tours on land leased from the state. The fire station also houses snowplows to keep the runways clear, with firefighters doing double duty as plow operators. At an elevation of 6,609 feet, the airport receives between 50 and 100 inches of snow annually.

An FAA tower completed in 2003 controls air traffic at Grand Canyon. Federal rules set restrictions on flights over the national park.

The airport’s runway is generally limited to aircraft weighing less than 100,000 pounds, but other planes can seek waivers for special landing privileges. Air Force One has landed several times with visiting presidents, most recently in 2009.

By Peter Corbett / ADOT Communications

For nearly a century, visitors have been taking to the skies for Grand Canyon scenic flights.

One of the first recorded air tours took off in February 1919, the same month Grand Canyon became a national park. A few years later, a barnstorming pilot landed safely within the canyon at Plateau Point near Indian Gardens.

For the past half century, scenic flights have embarked from Grand Canyon National Park Airport, a facility in Tusayan, just south of the park, operated by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Those flights have become a popular option for seeing the mile-deep gorge, but it didn’t start out that way.

Pioneering South Rim photographers Ellsworth and Emery Kolb established the first airfield outside the park in 1925. Air traffic was scarce, and other entrepreneurs built a competing airfield nine miles south of the national park near Red Butte.

Former Army pilot J. Parker Van Zandt, airport architect B. Russell Shaw and other investors developed the Red Butte Aerodrome starting in 1927 and launched Scenic Airlines there a year later.

“Their goal was an unprecedented, expansive passenger air tour over every national park in the United States,” said Giacinta Bradley Koontz, an aviation historian and author of “The Original Grand Canyon Airport – A 1930s Scrapbook of Life at Red Butte.”

She describes Red Butte as a “significant American contribution to aviation.”

Red Butte Cabin

Red Butte was one of the state’s better equipped airports at the time, with cabins and a lodge catering to pilots, according to a report nominating Red Butte for the National Register of Historic Places. Red Butte was added to the register in 2007.

The historic airport’s cabins and lodge are gone, but its hangar, a bungalow, a barn and a root cellar remain on a Kaibab National Forest site east of State Route 64. A stone structure just off the highway is all that remains of a road sign with a windsock that marked the airfield.

Ponderosa pines surround the 90-acre airport site. Grasses now obscure the unpaved runways that crisscrossed a meadow. Red Butte to the south of the airport served as a landmark for pilots searching for the airstrip.

Red Butte hangar

The Red Butte hangar, built with corrugated sheet-metal siding, looks intact from a distance. But wood-frame rooms that served as offices, a radio room and a mechanics shop are collapsing.

The hangar has a fading Grand Canyon Airlines sign on its façade. An older Scenic Airlines sign is discernible underneath layers of paint. Grand Canyon Airlines took over Red Butte Aerodrome from Scenic in 1930.

Today, the weathered airport is a ghost of its high-flying early years.

Charles Lindbergh visited Red Butte Aerodrome in April 1928, 11 months after his historic New York-to-Paris flight.

Scenic Airlines’ air tour business ramped up in the summer of 1928 with about 500 flights. That included a flight for humorist Will Rogers after his visit to the Hopi mesas.

Van Zandt and Shaw expanded their Scenic Airlines operation to Phoenix in 1929 with a “dude flight school” and airfield they called Sky Harbor Airport. Shaw had worked as an engineer for the Wright brothers in 1916-17.

The stock market crash in 1929 grounded Scenic Airlines, and Grand Canyon Airlines took over Red Butte Aerodrome.

In September 1935, the airline hosted famous female aviator Amelia Earhart for a few days. She also relied on Red Butte chief mechanic Ernest Tissot to prepare her Lockheed Vega airplane for an historic flight from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif.

The U.S. military used Red Butte Aerodrome during World War II and built another airfield in Valle at SR 64 and US 180 that still exists.

In 1956, a crash of two airliners into Grand Canyon that killed 128 passengers and crew led to dramatic changes in aviation. The agency now known as the Federal Aviation Administration was created to improve safety. Arizona proposed building and operating dozens of airports statewide, but Grand Canyon was the only one the state developed.

Red Butte Aerodrome closed after Grand Canyon Airport opened in 1967. The Red Butte property was used for the Ten-X Ranch until 2003. The Red Butte lodge, said to be as impressive as El Tovar on the South Rim, burned in 1994.

The owners of Red Butte Aerodrome plan to stabilize and restore the hangar and other buildings.

By Ryan Harding
ADOT Office of Public Information

Last week, Santa Claus made a quick stop at the Grand Canyon National Park Airport, owned and operated by ADOT; but he didn’t exactly arrive in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Instead, he was flown in from way up north by Maverick Helicopters, a long-time tenant at the airport.

The group of around 30 first-graders from the local Grand Canyon Elementary School who came to see Santa cheered wildly as the helicopter landed and jolly ol’ Saint Nick hopped out and did a little dance for the kids.

Santa and the kids made their way inside the terminal where each child told Santa what they wanted for Christmas and then received a gift from Santa. Among the items most requested were iPads and puppies. One little girl just said to Santa, “Surprise me.”

The staff at the airport has put on this event for more than a decade.

“This party has become a tradition here at the airport,” said Mike Halpin, Grand Canyon Airport manager. “The smiles on the kids’ faces make the effort by the staff worth it. They really do a great job of hosting this event.”

The children also helped decorate the Christmas tree in the main terminal and enjoyed snacks provided by the airport staff and Vision Airlines.

For years, the event was handled entirely by airport staff members, who would pay for the snacks and gifts out of their own pockets. This year, ADOT Awards and Recognition got involved to help put on the event by getting sponsors like Walmart to donate gifts for the children.

“We are happy to help the airport staff with the kids’ Christmas party this year,” said Candee Samora, ADOT awards and recognition program administrator. “It is important for us at ADOT to give back to the community, especially around the holidays.”

We’ve got some exciting news to share!

The Operations and Aircraft Rescue and Firefight Facility (ARFF) building at the Grand Canyon National Park Airport (which is owned and operated by ADOT), was recognized at the 22nd Annual Excellence in Masonry Architectural Awards sponsored by Arizona Masonry Guild on Sept. 20.

The ARFF building was presented with a Merit Award for architectural design at the guild’s annual banquet. The awards program honors projects for outstanding masonry design, workmanship and creativity with the use of brick, block or stone.

The winners include ADOT, LEA-Architects, LLC, TLCP Structural, Inc., FCI Contractors, Inc., Yavapai Block Co, Inc., Trig, Inc. and 3 North Natural Stone, LLC.

The building was recognized for its varying levels of lighting as a result of the architecture, consistency of building design and good use of a complex material. Awards are presented to the project owner, architectural firm, the structural engineering firm, general contractor, masonry supplier and masonry contractor for each winning project.

The Arizona Masonry Guild, Inc. is a non-profit organization celebrating 55 years of service to both the masonry industry and Arizonans.

To learn more about the airport, you can visit the Grand Canyon Airport website or check out these previous blog posts.

By Ryan Harding
ADOT Office of Public Information

A different sight greeted the staff at the Grand Canyon National Park Airport on Dec. 3 when instead of tourist helicopters, two U.S. Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters landed to engage in their annual mission to deliver toys and food to members of the Havasupai Tribe who live at the bottom of the canyon.

This event, known as Operation Supai, has been conducted every year by Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 764 (HMM-764) based out of Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The Grand Canyon airport, owned and operated by the Arizona Department of Transportation, provides support to this Marine squadron every year by providing jet fuel, a temporary base of operations and local ground transportation before and during the mission. In past years when snowy conditions threatened the success of the operation, ADOT staff would plow the landing pads and runway so the squadron could still deliver goods to the tribe.

“The support ADOT provides is invaluable,” said Major Charles Nunally, executive officer and helicopter pilot for the squadron. “Without the support of the airport, we wouldn’t be able to do this mission.”

HMM-764 partners with the local Marine Toys for Tots program based in Flagstaff and St. Mary’s Food Bank every year to bring 150 bags of toys to over 100 children and 100 boxes of food and turkeys to the small, remote tribe. Their CH-46 helicopters allow them to deliver the goods down into the Grand Canyon where the Havasupai live. The Grand Canyon airport serves as a staging area to load goods and personnel and refuel the helicopters.

“This is the biggest day of the year for the tribe,” said Rick Wiselus, a Toys for Tots volunteer and board member on the Marine Corps League Charities. “The smiles on the kids’ faces are heartwarming. The airport is wonderful to us every year. They pull together to help us.”

Operation Supai began in 1995 when the Northern Arizona Marine Corps League requested a squadron to deliver goods to the Havasupai. HMM-764 was selected for the mission, and they have delivered goods every year for 17 years to the tribe which consists of around 300 people.

The Havasupai Reservation is remotely located near the southwest corner of the Grand Canyon National Park outside of the main park area. They are largely dependent on tourism as their primary source of revenue. This annual Marine operation is something the Havasupai have come to depend on every year.

“We are honored to help the Marines with this operation every year,” said Mike Halpin, Grand Canyon airport manager, who also served in the Marines as captain of an air wing. “This is an important event for the Havasupai and we are glad to provide support in any way we can.”