Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
North Central West Virginia Airport (KCKB) lies a mile northeast of Bridgeport and six miles east of Clarksburg, West Virginia, offering a single long, hard-surfaced runway with full ILS and control tower services. It combines scheduled airline service, an Army National Guard fixed-wing training unit and a university flight school, making it an interesting and well-equipped destination for the visiting VFR or IFR pilot.
North Central West Virginia Airport, known locally as CKB, is a public airport owned and operated by the Benedum Airport Authority, serving the Clarksburg and Fairmont areas of West Virginia. It handles scheduled airline traffic alongside military flight training and general aviation, and its single long runway with an ILS approach makes it a capable and interesting field for simulator pilots flying in the region.
The airport sits about a mile northeast of Bridgeport and roughly six miles east of Clarksburg, in Harrison County, West Virginia. It is served by Clarksburg Approach and Departure Control on 119.6 MHz and by Clarksburg Tower, indicating that the airfield operates within controlled airspace when the tower is active.
The airport has a single physical runway, 03/21, oriented on a roughly north-east/south-west axis. Runway 21 is 7,805 feet long, hard-surfaced, lit and served by an ILS approach. Runway 03 is 7,131 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 1,201 feet.
Clarksburg Approach/Departure is available on 119.6 MHz. The ATIS broadcasts on 127.825 MHz. Clarksburg Tower and the CTAF share 126.7 MHz, with Ground on 121.9 MHz. UNICOM is on 123.0 MHz. Army National Guard operations use 139.05 MHz, and an Elkins radio outlet is listed on 112.6 MHz. Runway 21 is equipped with an ILS.
The airport opened in 1935 as the Tri-County Airport, a joint venture of Harrison, Marion and Taylor counties operating from a leased grass airstrip. Marion and Taylor counties withdrew from the project in 1937, and in 1938 Harrison County purchased land to expand the field. It was renamed Benedum Airport in 1944 in honour of Michael L. Benedum. Through the 1950s the airport had a 3,719-foot runway 5 and a 2,978-foot runway 16; these were replaced around 1964 by a 5,200-foot runway 3 and a 2,500-foot runway 13. Scheduled airline service began with Capital Airlines DC-3s in 1949, followed by Lake Central and later Allegheny, whose last Convair service ended around 1977. The runway was extended to 7,000 feet in 1999, and the current airport authority was established in 1960.
Today the airport is home to the Army National Guard's Fixed Wing Army Aviation Training Site, which trains aviators from all three components on the C-12 and C-26 aircraft. Fairmont State University also operates a flight school on the east side of the runway, flying Cessna 172s and a Piper PA-23. The field sees scheduled airline operations, most recently including Allegiant Air and United Express, with Contour Airlines taking over Essential Air Service flights in 2022. A new terminal building and taxiway improvements have been under construction as part of a wider airport expansion programme.
