Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Atlantic City International Airport (KACY) is a shared civil-military field in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, about nine miles northwest of central Atlantic City. Home to a long runway pair capable of handling airline and military jets, it also hosts the New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing and a Coast Guard air station, making it a busy and historically rich destination for the visiting sim pilot.
Atlantic City International Airport is a joint civil-military airport operated by the South Jersey Transportation Authority, sitting in Egg Harbor Township with parts of the airfield also touching Galloway and Hamilton Townships. It combines scheduled airline service with a significant military and federal presence, including the New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing flying the F-16C/D and the United States Coast Guard's Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City with its HH-65 Dolphin helicopters. The airport property also contains the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center, a major aviation research and training facility. For a visiting VFR or IFR pilot, the mix of long instrument runways, active fighter traffic and Class C airspace makes ACY an interesting and demanding stop.
ACY lies within Class C airspace, as noted by the FAA, and pilots unfamiliar with that environment are advised to review the airspace requirements before arrival. The airport is situated roughly nine miles northwest of central Atlantic City, New Jersey, and is reached from the ground via Exit 9 of the Atlantic City Expressway. It sits in Egg Harbor Township, with the field also extending into the Pomona section of Galloway Township and into Hamilton Township.
The airfield has two physical runway pairs. Runway 13/31 is the longer of the two, a hard-surfaced, lit runway of 9,982 to 9,983 feet equipped with an ILS on both ends. Runway 04/22 is a shorter hard-surfaced, lit runway of 6,143 feet without an ILS. Field elevation is 66 feet.
ACY is served by a range of radio frequencies. Tower operates on 120.3 MHz and Ground on 121.9 MHz, with Clearance Delivery on 127.85 MHz. ATIS broadcasts on 108.6 MHz. Approach and Departure control is available on 124.6 MHz and on 38.55 MHz. A separate Operations frequency, 138.12 MHz, is associated with the Air National Guard unit based at the field, and a Millville remote communications outlet is available on 122.55 MHz. The field is equipped with an ILS, supporting instrument approaches to runway 13/31.
The site began life in 1942 as Naval Air Station Atlantic City, built on leased private land in Egg Harbor Township to train carrier air groups made up of fighter, bomber and torpedo squadrons. From August 1943 the base's mission narrowed to fighter training alone, covering low and high altitude gunnery, field carrier landing practice, carrier qualification, bombing, formation tactics, fighter direction and night operations, alongside an associated ground school. The Navy announced plans to close the base in 1957, and NAS Atlantic City was decommissioned in June 1958, its lease passing to the Airways Modernization Board and then to the newly formed Federal Aviation Agency (later the FAA) in November 1958. The FAA expanded the former naval land to around 5,000 acres and established the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center, which developed into today's William J. Hughes Technical Center. When the Navy departed in 1958, the 119th Fighter Squadron of the New Jersey Air National Guard moved in from Newark with F-84F Thunderstreaks, founding an Air National Guard presence that continues today as the 177th Fighter Wing. During the 1960s and early 1970s the active-duty 95th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, based at Dover AFB, kept F-106 Delta Darts on 24-hour alert at Atlantic City, and after the 177th itself re-equipped with the F-106 in 1973 it assumed the air defence alert mission. Civil airline history has been varied: American International Airways attempted a small DC-9 hub in 1983 serving cities including Boston, Chicago, Miami and Orlando; US Airways and US Airways Express, Continental Express, People Express, Delta Connection and Comair have all served the field at various times; WestJet operated Boeing 737 flights to Toronto until May 2010, after which the airport lost international service; and United Airlines briefly served Chicago-O'Hare and Houston from April to December 2014.
Atlantic City International remains a shared civil-military airport, currently served by scheduled carriers including American Airlines, Allegiant and Breeze Airways, alongside the ongoing military presence of the New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing and the Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City. The airport property also houses the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center, a research and testing hub and training centre for the Federal Air Marshal Service.
