Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Alexandria International Airport (KAEX) lies a few miles west of downtown Alexandria, Louisiana, on the site of the former England Air Force Base. It offers a long ILS-equipped runway alongside a shorter crossing runway, and today mixes scheduled airline service with general aviation, air taxi and substantial military charter traffic.
Alexandria International Airport is a public-use, tower-controlled field a short distance west of the city of Alexandria in central Louisiana. Built on the grounds of the former England Air Force Base, it retains a long, ex-military runway with an ILS approach, making it a useful and well-equipped destination for a simulator pilot exploring the region. The field is operated by the England Authority and sees a mix of airline, general aviation, air taxi and military charter movements, giving it a busier and more varied character than many fields of its size.
The airport sits about four nautical miles west of the central business district of Alexandria, in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, at an elevation of 85 feet. It lies within reach of Fort Polk near Leesville, and military charter flights supporting personnel movements to and from Fort Polk are a routine feature of traffic at the field. The presence of ground and tower frequencies indicates the airport operates as a controlled aerodrome.
Alexandria International has two physical runways. The main runway, 14/32, is 9,339 feet long with a hard surface and lighting, and carries an ILS approach to runway 14. The secondary runway, 18/36, is 7,001 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit.
Pilots should expect the following frequencies at Alexandria International: Approach/Departure (Polk Approach) 132.05 MHz, Tower/CTAF 127.35 MHz, Ground 121.9 MHz, Clearance Delivery 121.9 MHz, and ASOS 123.975 MHz. The field is served by an ILS approach to runway 14.
Alexandria International Airport traces its origins to 1939, when it served as an emergency airstrip for Esler Airfield roughly ten miles to the northeast. On the eve of the Second World War the strip was taken over by the Department of Defense and named Alexandria Army Air Base, where fighter and bomber crews of the Army Air Force were trained. The base was placed on standby in early 1946 and handed to the city of Alexandria as a municipal airport, before being reactivated as Alexandria Air Force Base with the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. On 23 June 1955 it was renamed England Air Force Base in honour of Lieutenant Colonel John Brooke England, commander of the 389th Bomber Squadron, who died in November 1954 after steering his aircraft away from a barracks and into open ground while attempting a fog-bound landing in France, having run out of fuel. As the Cold War ended and the Department of Defense moved to close the base, the city of Alexandria formed the England Economic and Industrial Development District, known as the England Authority, to take over the site and develop it as a major regional air transport resource. The Department of Defense duly granted the England Authority all airside and landside areas, and Alexandria International Airport opened for service in August 1993. Commercial airline passenger service began in August 1996, with flights to Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and, initially, Memphis. Following the September 11 attacks, the airport took on an important role moving military personnel and cargo in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the US military investing close to sixty million dollars in airfield facilities including hazardous cargo aprons, a military passenger processing facility and the resurfacing of runway 18. The airport also served as a staging and command centre for disaster relief after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In February 2004 Air Force One landed at the field carrying President George W. Bush, and President Bill Clinton had also arrived aboard Air Force One during his presidency; the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is recorded as the largest aircraft type to have used the airport.
Alexandria International remains under the operation of the England Authority as part of the wider England Airpark development on the former air force base site. The field combines scheduled airline service with general aviation, air taxi and significant military charter activity, including flights supporting personnel based at nearby Fort Polk. Charter operations for the US military to international destinations continue to be a routine part of activity at the airport. Fixed-base handling is provided by Million Air, which supports general aviation as well as military users at the field.
