Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Burke Lakefront Airport sits on reclaimed land along the Lake Erie shoreline in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, serving as the city's general aviation reliever to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Its two parallel asphalt runways, lakefront position and proximity to the city's sports venues make it a distinctive and busy VFR destination for pilots visiting downtown Cleveland.
Burke Lakefront Airport (KBKL) is a city-owned general aviation airport built on reclaimed land jutting into Lake Erie in the northeast part of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It is operated by the City of Cleveland's Department of Port Control and functions as an FAA-designated reliever airport for the larger Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. For a simulator pilot, Burke offers a compact downtown approach right along the Lake Erie shoreline, with the Cleveland skyline, sports stadiums and lakefront dike walls providing an unmistakable visual setting.
The airport lies on the Lake Erie shoreline immediately north of downtown Cleveland, close to Huntington Bank Field, Progressive Field and Rocket Arena, which makes it a popular arrival point for sports-team charter flights. It operates within the busy airspace of the Cleveland area, which sits astride the major east-west traffic corridor between New York and Chicago, and it works closely with Cleveland Approach/Departure for traffic in and out of the region (source: clevelandohio.gov). Burke Lakefront is one of three airports serving Greater Cleveland, alongside Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and Akron-Canton Airport.
Burke Lakefront has two parallel asphalt runways aligned northeast-southwest. The longer runway, 06L/24R, is a hard-surfaced, lit strip measuring 6,419 ft as runway 06L and 5,997 ft as runway 24R, with an instrument landing system serving runway 24R. The shorter parallel runway, 06R/24L, is also asphalt and lit, measuring 4,910 ft as runway 06R and 5,188 ft as runway 24L. Field elevation is 581 ft.
Burke Lakefront is a towered field. Lakefront Tower operates on 124.3 MHz, which also serves as the CTAF; Ground control is on 121.9 MHz. Cleveland Approach/Departure works arrivals and departures on 125.35 MHz. The airport broadcasts ATIS and ASOS information on 125.25 MHz, and UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. An instrument landing system is installed on runway 24R, allowing approaches in poor weather.
The airport's position directly on the Lake Erie shoreline, built out on a reclaimed dike, is the primary visual cue for pilots approaching from the lake or along the shore. Downtown Cleveland's skyline lies immediately to the south, with Huntington Bank Field, Progressive Field and Rocket Arena all close to the airport boundary and useful as landmarks when inbound from the city side (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Burke_Lakefront_Airport).
Burke Lakefront occupies land that began as a dumping ground for the city's refuse, reinforced by a dike retaining wall built into Lake Erie from the early 1940s. The airport opened in 1947 as the United States' first downtown airport and its first municipally owned-and-operated airfield, originally featuring a 2,000-foot dirt runway. A 1950 federal grant funded a 5,200-foot hard-surface runway completed in 1957, and a terminal, control tower and passenger concourses followed between 1957 and 1968 as the city sought to attract commercial services. The airport was named in 1958 in honour of Cleveland mayor and U.S. senator Thomas A. Burke, with formal dedication on 9 October that year. Further expansion in the 1970s added a new control tower, additional runway and the since-closed Aviation High School. From 1981 the airport hosted the Cleveland Grand Prix, an IndyCar street race run on its runways and aprons until 2007, and it has staged the Cleveland National Air Show every Labor Day weekend since 1964. In 1998 the main runway was rehabilitated and fitted with an instrument landing system. A succession of small airlines operated from Burke over the decades, including TAG Airlines, Wright Airlines, Midway Airlines and, more recently, Ultimate Air Shuttle to Cincinnati Lunken, though scheduled service has generally proved short-lived (sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Burke_Lakefront_Airport; case.edu/ech/articles/b/burke-lakefront-airport; clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/889).
Burke Lakefront continues to serve as a general aviation reliever airport for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and hosts a significant volume of business and charter traffic, including sports-team charters and Cleveland Clinic's air ambulance fleet. Annual operations have declined markedly from around 100,000 in 2000 to roughly 40,000 by 2019, though they rose noticeably between 2018 and 2019. The airport remains the site of the annual Cleveland National Air Show each Labor Day weekend. Its long-term future has been under review by the City of Cleveland, which in 2024 released studies examining the feasibility and impact of potentially closing the airport as part of wider lakefront redevelopment plans, a proposal opposed by aviation advocacy groups such as AOPA (sources: clevelandohio.gov/news/city-cleveland-releases-key-studies-future-burke-lakefront-airport; aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2024/october/15/burke-lakefront-airport-threatened-with-closure).
