Salisbury-Ocean City: Wicomico Regional Airport (IATA: SBY, ICAO: KSBY, FAA LID: SBY), or, more succinctly Wicomico Regional Airport, is located in unincorporated Wicomico County, Maryland, 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast from downtown Salisbury, Maryland. Salisbury is the largest city of Maryland's Eastern Shore with a population of 125,200 in the metro area. As the only commercial airport on the Delmarva Peninsula, Salisbury also serves Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which include the other large cities of Ocean City, Cambridge, and Easton. Currently, the General Airport Management is headed by manager Robert Bryant.
History
Salisbury was once used as a naval training base during World War II up until 1945. After the war ended, the Wicomico County government acquired the land used for the naval base and turned it into a commercial airport. After the new airport was built, including paved runways, Chesapeake Airways provided cargo and passenger service to Baltimore. Henson Airways, owned by Richard A. Henson, came to the airport in 1968 and operated with the idea of using "frequency" flights using small aircraft which would shuttle passengers to many airports along the east coast. Henson Airways reigned as the primary air service provider in Salisbury until US Airways Express purchased Henson Airways in 1992. After the merger, the airline was renamed Piedmont and it deemed Salisbury as its primary operating base and quickly grew into a large regional carrier. After opening the base, the airline operated flights to Philadelphia and Washington. A few years later, Piedmont opened a new hub in Charlotte, North Carolina which rapidly grew to become larger than its hub in Washington D.C. The service to Washington was later cancelled and was replaced with service to Charlotte.
Airport construction and expansion
Several construction projects were recently completed in late 2011 to extend runway 14-32 an extra 1,000 feet (300Â m) to a length of 6,400 feet (2,000Â m). Along with the main runway being extended, the taxiways around the runway were extended and a new ILS system was installed with new approaches. These multi-million dollar projects will allow flights using larger aircraft such as regional jets which had previously been unable to operate at the airport due to the previously short length of the runway.
Facilities
The Richard A. Henson Terminal is a 26,000 square feet (2,400Â m2) building opened in 1990. There is a American Eagle ticket counter and a TSA bag scanning area at the southeast part of the building. Two departure gates, one arrival gate, and security checkpoints are in the middle and northwest part of the terminal. The Airport's Cafe and Lounge used to provide food and refreshments, but closed in 2011. The terminal is surrounded by 6 acres (2.4Â ha) of parking apron which services the arriving and departing aircraft. Avis, Hertz, and Enterprise all operate automobile rental services in the arrival terminal.
Fixed Base Operators
Bayland aviation is the fixed base operator at Salisbury. Jet fuel, a Shell product, is handled and supplied by Bayland. They also offer public flight training using a group of small Cessna aircraft. Bayland currently owns an aircraft maintenance facility. Charter flights can be scheduled through Bayland to multiple destinations throughout the East Coast.
Airlines and destinations
The airport is the operational headquarters for US Airways Express carrier Piedmont Airlines. Piedmont exclusively uses the Bombardier Dash 8-100/300 Series twin-engine turbo-prop airliner, with maximum seating of up to 50 passengers. In 2012 Piedmont established a passenger record of 150,086 passengers.
Passenger airlines
Cargo airlines
Local Carriers
Terminated Airline Services
Piedmont has previously served Salisbury with flights to Washington and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The service to Washington was on and off throughout the years until the year 2008 and the Baltimore service stopped shortly afterwards in late 2009.
Allegiant Air began twice a week service to Orlando-Sanford International Airport in February 2012, using its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jets, but ended the route less than a year later on January 5, 2013 due to the route's relatively small amount of passengers.
References
External links
- Salisbury-Ocean City: Wicomico Regional Airport
- Bay Land Aviation, Inc. - Exclusive Fixed base operator
- FAA Airport Details
- Resources for this airport:
- AirNav airport information for KSBY
- ASN accident history for SBY
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for KSBY
- FAA current SBY delay information