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Lawrence Municipal Airport (KLWM) is a general aviation reliever field for Boston Logan, lying two miles east of Lawrence in North Andover, Massachusetts. It offers a control tower, an ILS-equipped main runway and a busy mix of business, training and personal flying, making it a useful and well-equipped destination for the visiting VFR pilot.
Lawrence Municipal Airport, known to controllers as Lawrence and identified as KLWM, serves the Merrimack Valley of northeastern Massachusetts as a general aviation reliever airport for Boston Logan International. Owned by the City of Lawrence but physically situated in North Andover, it supports a wide range of traffic from light singles to small jets and helicopters, with over 200 aircraft based there. Its combination of a lit, ILS-equipped main runway, an operating tower and several fixed-base operators makes it a practical and interesting stop for simulator pilots exploring the Boston area.
The airport lies about two miles east of Lawrence, Massachusetts, within Essex County, close to the Ward Hill and Lawrence Industrial Parks. It falls under Boston Center for en-route control, with Boston Approach and Departure handling arrivals and departures on 124.4 MHz. Lawrence is one of Massachusetts' reliever airports for Boston Logan International, and its tower-controlled airspace operates during published hours, reverting to non-towered CTAF procedures overnight.
Lawrence has two paved, lit runways. The main runway, 05/23, is 4,978 feet long and served by an instrument landing system on runway 05. The secondary runway, 14/32, is a hard-surfaced strip with the 14 threshold offering 3,893 feet of landing distance and the 32 threshold 3,703 feet. Both runways are hard-surfaced and lit for night and low-visibility operations.
Lawrence Tower operates on 119.25 MHz, which also serves as the CTAF when the tower is closed. Ground control uses 124.3 MHz, and Boston Approach and Departure work traffic on 124.4 MHz. UNICOM is on 122.8 MHz, while the ATIS and ASOS weather broadcast share 126.75 MHz. The field is equipped with an ILS to runway 05, and the Lawrence VOR/DME (112.50 MHz) lies close to the field, providing a useful reference alongside the more distant Manchester, Boston, Pease and Concord VOR/DMEs for en-route navigation.
The tower operates between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM, with pilot-controlled lighting available outside these hours for use on the CTAF. Voluntary noise abatement procedures apply to fixed-wing traffic flying closed patterns: pilots are asked to initiate their turn-out at 700 feet AGL and to make reasonable efforts to maintain the manufacturer's best rate of climb on departure. Rotary-wing aircraft may be permitted by air traffic control to deviate from these fixed-wing departure procedures, provided noise-sensitive areas are avoided as far as possible.
The airport sits close to the Ward Hill and Lawrence Industrial Parks, which provide useful ground references when approaching from the west, with the city of Lawrence itself lying about two miles to the west of the field. Pilots inbound from the north or east will find the airport situated amid the Merrimack Valley's mixed industrial and suburban landscape, with North Andover surrounding the airport property itself.
Lawrence Municipal Airport was established in 1934 and has served the Merrimack Valley's air transport needs for over seventy years. On 2 July 1953 the airport was formally named in honour of Sergeant Richard F. Conlon, who served with Company K, 38th US Infantry, in France during the First World War, was wounded in action and later decorated with the Silver Star for gallantry. Northeast Airlines operated Douglas DC-3 services from Lawrence between 1946 and 1965, and from 1952 to 1960 the airport had nonstop scheduled flights to New York La Guardia. The airport is also home to the Essex County Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol.
Lawrence remains an active general aviation airport with over 200 based aircraft, ranging from single and multi-engine piston aircraft to light jets and helicopters. Several fixed-base operators serve the field, including Eagle East Jet Service, Falcon Air Inc., Lawrence Airmotive, Lawrence Jet Center and Four Star Aviation, the latter offering self-serve 100LL fuel around the clock. North Andover Flight Academy and MBM Helicopters, which specialises in helicopter training and maintenance, are also based at the airport. Both Jet-A and 100LL avgas are available 24 hours a day on request, and the airport has a large terminal ramp for overnight parking, with landing and parking fees applying to visiting aircraft.
