Departure
92%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Manistee County Blacker Airport is a public general-aviation and regional airline field on the shore of Lake Michigan, three nautical miles northeast of downtown Manistee, Michigan. It offers a long lit hard-surface runway with an ILS approach alongside a shorter crosswind strip, and combines scheduled Contour Airlines service to Chicago O'Hare with flight training, aircraft rental and sight-seeing operations.
Manistee County Blacker Airport (KMBL) is a publicly owned airfield serving Manistee, Michigan, and the surrounding Ludington area, operated by the Manistee County-Blacker Airport Authority. It functions as a small but well-equipped regional field, mixing general aviation traffic with subsidised scheduled airline service, and is of interest to visiting VFR pilots for its long, lit main runway with an ILS and its position on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
The airport lies about three nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Manistee, a city in Manistee County in northwest lower Michigan. It is a general aviation field that also hosts scheduled commercial service, situated close to the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Manistee County Blacker has two paved, lit runways. Runway 10/28 is the primary strip at 5,487 feet, hard-surfaced, lit, with an ILS serving Runway 28. Runway 01/19 is the secondary crosswind runway at 2,720 feet, also hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 617 feet.
An AWOS-3 automated weather observing system is available on 111.4 MHz. CTAF/UNICOM is on 122.8 MHz. A remote communications outlet linked to Lansing Radio also operates on 111.4 MHz. Runway 28 is served by an ILS approach.
The airport's scheduled airline history dates back to April 1, 1961, when North Central Airlines' inaugural Flight 914, a Convair 340 piloted by Captain Leslie C. Raatz, was reported by the Manistee News-Advocate. Over subsequent decades the Essential Air Service route was flown by a succession of carriers: Great Lakes Airlines, then Frontier Airlines to Milwaukee until March 2012, followed by Public Charters Inc. operating Embraer regional jets from Chicago Midway from May 2012. Aerodynamics Inc. and later Contour Airlines operated the Public Charters flights, with Contour offering Jetstream 31/41 turboprop service under the North Country Sky name from March 2018. Ultimate Air Shuttle took over in 2019 with the Dornier 328JET, before Cape Air assumed the EAS contract in summer 2020, a selection that proved contentious amid accusations involving American Airlines' backing of its codeshare partner. Cape Air renewed its contract in 2022. In late 2022 the airport began a PFAS contamination investigation linked to a former landfill site after its energy company flagged liability for exceeding contamination levels. In September 2024, Contour Airlines took over the EAS route from Cape Air, shifting service to Chicago O'Hare from October 1, 2024.
Manistee County Blacker Airport today offers daily scheduled jet service to Chicago O'Hare via Contour Airlines, alongside general aviation activity including flight instruction, aircraft rental and sight-seeing flights along the Lake Michigan shoreline. In-terminal car rental is available through Enterprise or National.
