Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Harrisburg International Airport (KMDT) is a public and military-use airport in Lower Swatara Township, Pennsylvania, nine miles southeast of Harrisburg, and is the primary commercial gateway for south-central Pennsylvania. Operated by the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority, it offers a single long, ILS-equipped runway and full air traffic control, making it a useful and historically rich stop for simulator pilots flying the mid-Atlantic region.
Harrisburg International Airport, known locally as HIA, is a public airport serving the Harrisburg, Lancaster and York areas of south-central Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority (SARAA) and combines scheduled airline service with a long history as a military airfield. For a simulator pilot, the field is notable for its single very long hard runway, full ATC tower and approach control, and its proximity to the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, a distinctive visual landmark on the approach.
The airport lies in Lower Swatara Township, Pennsylvania, about nine miles southeast of the city of Harrisburg. It sits within controlled airspace served by its own air traffic control tower and an associated approach control facility staffed by the FAA, with dedicated approach/departure and ground frequencies. Aircraft arriving from the south are often routed close to the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, which lies a few miles from the field.
Harrisburg International has one physical runway, 13/31, a hard-surfaced strip with high-intensity lighting and ILS approaches serving both ends. Runway 13 is listed at 8,977 feet and Runway 31 at 8,989 feet, giving pilots a substantial length for any type likely to be flown into the field.
The airport is served by an Air/Ground frequency of 118.25 MHz, an ATIS on 118.8 MHz, Ground on 121.7 MHz, and Tower on 124.8 MHz, with an additional ANG Operations frequency of 39.51 MHz. Approach and departure control is provided in the same airspace block as the tower. The field is equipped with an Instrument Landing System, and Runway 13 supports a CAT III approach, permitting operations down to 600 feet RVR, supported by a Surface Movement Guidance Control System for reduced-visibility ground movements.
As a fully controlled field with an active tower and approach control, all traffic operates under air traffic control clearance rather than a standard uncontrolled VFR circuit. Pilots should expect to be sequenced by approach control and handed to the tower for landing, with ground control managing taxi movements, including during low-visibility SMGCS operations.
The most prominent landmark near the airport is the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, a few miles to the south, which aircraft approaching from that direction are often routed close to. The airport's long single runway and terminal complex, sited roughly parallel to it, are readily identifiable from the air against the surrounding Lower Swatara Township terrain.
The site has a flying history stretching back to the late nineteenth century, with the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed there from 1898 and the first military aeroplanes landing in 1918 at what became Olmsted Field under the fledgling U.S. Army Air Service. The Middletown Air Depot, later the Middletown Air Materiel Area, provided logistics and maintenance support for military aircraft until its closure in 1969. Airline flights transferred from Capital City Airport to the former Air Force base, then renamed Olmsted State Airport, in 1968, and the field took its current name, Harrisburg International Airport, in 1973, the same year its new terminals designed by architect William Pereira were completed. In the mid-1970s the airport became a notable centre for exporting cattle by air, with 33 flights carrying Holstein cattle abroad in 1974 aboard stretched Douglas DC-8s operated by carriers such as Flying Tiger, Seaboard World and Airlift International. Before airline deregulation, the field was served by Allegheny Airlines, Trans World Airlines and the Pennsylvania commuter carrier Altair Airlines. Ownership passed from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority in 1998, and a new 360,000-square-foot terminal, costing 120 million dollars, opened in 2004.
Harrisburg International today functions as the principal commercial airport for south-central Pennsylvania, with scheduled service from Allegiant Air, American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines; Frontier Airlines ended its service to the field in April 2026. The airfield covers 680 acres and is overseen from a 140-foot control tower with associated FAA-staffed approach control. Ground operations benefit from a Surface Movement Guidance Control System for low-visibility taxiing, and the CAT III-capable ILS on Runway 13 supports operations in poor weather.
