Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
La Junta Municipal Airport is a city-owned general aviation field three miles north of La Junta in Otero County, Colorado, built originally as a Civil Aeronautics Authority field in 1935 and later expanded into a major World War II advanced flying training base. Today it is an uncontrolled airfield supporting local flight training, aerial application and air ambulance operations on its two hard-surfaced runways.
La Junta Municipal Airport lies on the high plains of southeastern Colorado, three miles north of the town of La Junta in Otero County. It is a city-owned, public-use general aviation airport with a distinctive history as a World War II Army Air Forces training base, and it remains active today with local flight training, aerial application and air ambulance work. For a simulator pilot, the field offers a straightforward high-plains VFR destination with a genuine wartime pedigree still visible in its layout.
The airport sits in Otero County, Colorado, roughly three nautical miles north of the centre of La Junta. It is an uncontrolled aerodrome; en-route traffic in the area is worked by Denver Center, and Denver Radio provides flight service on the ground frequency. Airport elevation is 4,180 feet.
The airport has two paved runways. Runway 08/26 is 6,810 feet long with a hard surface and is lit. Runway 12/30 is a hard-surfaced runway of approximately 5,800 to 5,900 feet in length (5,896 feet on the 12 threshold, 5,787 feet on the 30 threshold), unlit. There is no ILS at the field.
Pilots can obtain automated weather from the ASOS on 135.525 MHz. The airfield is uncontrolled and uses 123.0 MHz as its CTAF/UNICOM frequency. Denver Center can be reached on 133.4 MHz for en-route services, and Denver Radio operates on 122.6 MHz for flight service calls. No instrument landing system is installed.
Development of the airfield began in 1935 under the Civil Aeronautics Authority. In 1940 the War Department leased the site for civil pilot training of Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force crews on four-engine aircraft, and in 1942 the United States Army Air Forces took over the field, assigning it to the Western Flying Training Command. The base was expanded with three 8,000 by 150 foot asphalt runways laid out in a triangle, together with a large parking apron, taxiways, landing aids and hangars, and four auxiliary fields were built nearby at Rocky Ford, Las Animas, La Junta and Arlington to support training flights and emergency landings. La Junta Army Airfield was activated on 2 November 1942 as an advanced twin-engine flying school under the 83d Flying Training Wing, operating B-25 Mitchell bombers alongside AT-9, AT-17, BT-13 and BT-15 trainers. In March 1944 the unit was redesignated the 402d Army Air Force Base Unit, and in March 1945 it became the 249th Army Air Forces Base Unit under Second Air Force, with its mission shifting to training replacement heavy bomber pilots in Flying Fortress trainers. The 50th and 358th Fighter Groups were briefly assigned to the field in late 1945 for inactivation, and the airfield itself was inactivated on 28 February 1946 before being returned to local civil control. Continental Airlines served La Junta with Douglas DC-3 aircraft from 1944 to 1957, on a route linking Denver and Tulsa via Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Wichita. The airfield was also used as a filming location for Terrence Malick's 1973 film Badlands.
La Junta Municipal Airport remains a working general aviation field, with over 15 single-engine aircraft based there, including local aerial application aircraft, an air ambulance operator and flight trainers. In 2024 the airport recorded more than 17,000 aircraft operations, averaging around 18 per day, with the traffic mix roughly 98 percent general aviation, 1 percent air ambulance and 1 percent military.
