Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Lehigh Valley International Airport (KABE) serves the Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton area of eastern Pennsylvania from a site in Hanover Township, Lehigh County. It is a Class C, ATC-towered field with a long ILS-equipped runway pairing and a busy mix of airline, cargo and general aviation traffic, making it a useful destination for simulator pilots wanting instrument approach practice close to the northeastern seaboard.
Lehigh Valley International Airport is owned and operated by the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority and lies in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, roughly 7 miles northeast of Allentown, 4 miles northwest of Bethlehem and 11 miles southwest of Easton. It is one of the oldest continually operating airports in the United States, having opened in 1929, and today combines scheduled passenger service, a significant cargo operation and general aviation activity. For a sim pilot the field offers a long ILS-served runway, a control tower and Class C airspace, giving a realistic mix of airline and light traffic to work around.
The airport sits within Class C controlled airspace, centred on Hanover Township in the middle of the Lehigh Valley, between Allentown to the southwest, Bethlehem to the southeast and Easton further to the northeast. Pilots operating VFR in the vicinity should expect to establish two-way radio contact with air traffic control before entering the surrounding Class C airspace.
The airport has two physical runways. Runway 06/24 is a hard-surfaced, lit strip equipped with an ILS, listed at 7,593 ft in the 06 direction and 7,078 ft in the 24 direction. Runway 13/31 is also hard-surfaced and lit, 5,781 ft in length, with an ILS available on the 13 approach; the reciprocal 31 direction is lit but without a published ILS.
Air traffic services are provided by an operating control tower. Published frequencies include Tower on 120.5 MHz, Ground on 121.9 MHz, Approach/Departure on 118.2 MHz, Clearance Delivery on 124.05 MHz, ATIS on 126.975 MHz and UNICOM on 122.95 MHz. An ILS is available for runway 06/24 and for the 13 approach of runway 13/31.
As a Class C, tower-controlled aerodrome, arriving VFR traffic should establish contact with approach control before entering the surrounding airspace and follow tower instructions for sequencing and runway use; no specific circuit heights or local noise-abatement procedures are given in the available material.
Lehigh Valley International Airport opened in 1929, with scheduled airline service beginning on 16 September 1935 when United Airlines began flights with Boeing 247s; the airport hangar initially doubled as the passenger terminal until a dedicated terminal building was constructed in 1938 under a Works Progress Administration project. During the Second World War the airport hosted the U.S. Navy's V-5 flight training program, with associated ground instruction held at nearby Muhlenberg College, and it was home to the headquarters of Group 312 of the Civil Air Patrol, whose Allentown-based pilots flew coastal patrols and helped recruit for the Air Force's cadet program. A new runway was completed in January 1944 alongside the installation of a Class A U.S. Weather Bureau station, and around 1,000 Naval Aviation Cadets trained there that year. The Navy's V-5 program ended in August 1944 when flight training was consolidated at naval air bases. In April 1946 the Lehigh Airport Authority was created to own and manage the field; an October 1946 diagram shows four runways arranged in an asterisk pattern, the longest being 4,000 feet. A new passenger terminal was built between 1948 and 1950, and the airport, then known as Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport, hosted United and TWA services from 1947 and Colonial Airlines from 1949, with Douglas DC-4s and DC-6s appearing after runway 6 was extended to 5,000 feet. TWA departed in 1967, replaced by Allegheny Airlines, while Colonial's successor Eastern Air Lines remained until 1991. Republic Airlines, and later Northwest Airlines following its acquisition of Republic, operated DC-9 services to Detroit. The present terminal was designed by Wallace & Watson, with construction beginning in 1973 and completion in 1976.
In the twenty-first century the airport has continued to develop its airline network, with Delta Air Lines adding nonstop service to Atlanta and Harrisburg from 1991, and Allegiant Air now operating nonstop flights to Orlando via Sanford, Florida, with the airport serving as an Allegiant operating base. Lehigh Valley International is the fourth-busiest passenger airport in Pennsylvania, behind Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, recording 1,067,114 passengers and over 301 million pounds of cargo in 2025, an all-time record for the field. With more than 81,000 aircraft operations in 2025 it ranks as the third-busiest airport in the state for total takeoffs and landings, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and it has become a significant air-cargo hub linked to regional e-commerce growth.
