Departure
92%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Waco Regional Airport (KACT) is a city-owned, tower-controlled airfield serving Waco, Texas, roughly 15 to 20 minutes' drive from the downtown area. It combines a small scheduled airline operation with a busy general-aviation and flight-training base, including the Baylor University Flight Center, and offers an ILS approach to its longest runway.
Waco Regional Airport lies on the outskirts of Waco, McLennan County, Texas, and is owned and operated by the City of Waco. It handles a mix of general aviation, flight training, military, air taxi and a small amount of scheduled airline traffic to Dallas/Fort Worth, making it a useful and relatively uncomplicated field for a visiting VFR pilot. The airport is also home to the Baylor University Flight Center, supporting the university's Aviation Sciences Program, along with several independent flight schools, which gives the field a steady stream of training traffic in the pattern.
The airport sits in Central Texas at Waco, within the McLennan County area, about a 15 to 20 minute drive from downtown Waco. Radio contact is coordinated through Fort Worth for approach and departure services, and the field has its own control tower, so arriving pilots should expect to work with air traffic control rather than operate on a purely uncontrolled basis.
Waco Regional has two paved runways. Runway 01/19 is a hard-surfaced, lit runway of 7,006 to 7,109 ft, with an instrument landing system serving runway 19. Runway 14/32 is a hard-surfaced, lit runway of 5,075 ft. Field elevation is 505 ft.
Air traffic control is available, with the tower and CTAF both on 119.3 MHz. Ground movements are handled on 121.9 MHz, and the ATIS broadcasts on 123.85 MHz. Approach control is on 135.2 MHz and departure on 126.125 MHz. A remote radio outlet is available on 122.15 MHz, and UNICOM is on 122.95 MHz. Runway 19 is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
The airfield's origins date to 1941, when grazing farmland was selected for a new Waco Municipal Airport, with construction beginning that summer. In early 1942 the War Department leased the site for the Army Air Forces, and building plans were converted from civil to military use, with barracks, a hospital, a church, a theatre, hangars and a control tower added. The field was known successively as China Spring Army Air Field, Waco Army Air Field No. 2, and finally Blackland Army Airfield, after the local blackland soil. Blackland AAF was activated on 2 July 1942 as a glider training school before becoming home, from October 1942, to the Army Air Force Pilot School (Advanced Twin-Engine). On 8 January 1943 the 33d Flying Training Wing was constituted and activated at the field under the AAF Central Flying Training Command, training cadets on twin-engine types including the Cessna AT-17 Bobcat, Curtiss-Wright AT-9, Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita and TB-25 Mitchell, in a nine-week course combining flight training, ground school and Link Trainer instruction. Flying training ended on 4 February 1945, the field became a sub-base of Waco Army Airfield, and it was declared inactive on 31 October 1945. By 1950 the War Assets Administration had deeded the site to local government, and it reopened as Waco Municipal Airport. Braniff had already been serving Waco's earlier airport since the 1930s and continued flights here, followed by Pioneer in 1947; Continental and Braniff withdrew in 1963, Trans-Texas DC-3s served the field between 1956 and 1959 and again from 1963, and Texas International's last Convair 600 service departed in 1978. From the 1960s the airport also became a multi-use municipal facility, at one time hosting a skeet and rifle range, a soap box derby track and the forerunner of today's Cameron Park Zoo.
Waco Regional today covers 1,369 acres and continues to combine airline, military, air taxi and general-aviation flying. In the year to June 2022 it recorded 66,191 aircraft operations, the large majority general aviation, with 74 aircraft then based at the field. American Eagle operates scheduled flights to Dallas/Fort Worth. The airport hosts a full-service FBO, Texas Aero, and flight training is provided by Chiota Aviation, Universal Flight Concepts (fixed-wing and helicopter) and Waco Flight Training, which specialises in tailwheel instruction. The Baylor University Flight Center is also based here, supporting the university's Aviation Sciences Program.
