Transform Your Flight Sim Experience
with In-Depth Tracking & Analysis
Track every flight, analyse your performance,
and master your flying skills with My FS Flights
Get 10 flights free every month!
Tracked and analysed flights over miles
Johnson County Executive Airport (KOJC) is a busy towered general aviation field in Olathe, Kansas, built as a naval auxiliary airfield during the Second World War and now one of the busiest general aviation airports in the state. It offers a single long, lit concrete runway with an ILS approach, making it a practical and well-equipped destination for VFR training and touring flights around the Kansas City area.
Johnson County Executive Airport, known locally simply as Executive Airport, is a public general aviation field owned by Johnson County and operated by the Johnson County Airport Commission. It sits in the heart of the county's economic corridor between Olathe and Overland Park, Kansas, and has historically ranked as the third or fourth busiest towered airport in the state by aircraft movements. For a simulator pilot, it offers an interesting mix of a genuine ATC environment, a WWII naval-airfield pedigree, and a healthy population of based light aircraft and corporate traffic.
The airport lies at 151st Street and Pflumm Road, between the cities of Olathe and Overland Park, Kansas, about four miles southeast of Olathe's central business district. Kansas City Approach/Departure provides the surrounding terminal radar service, reached on 118.9 MHz, with the airport's own tower handling local traffic.
The airport has a single physical runway, 18/36, 4,097 feet long with a hard (concrete) surface. It is lit and equipped with an ILS approach, allowing operations in reduced visibility as well as straightforward night VFR arrivals.
Executive Tower operates on 126 MHz, which also serves as the CTAF, with ground control on 121.6 MHz. The ATIS broadcasts on 119.35 MHz, and UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. Kansas City Approach/Departure works arriving and departing traffic on 118.9 MHz, and a remote radio outlet for Columbia Radio is listed on 122.15 MHz. The field is served by an ILS to runway 18/36 for instrument approaches.
As a towered airport, all traffic should establish contact with Executive Tower on 126 MHz before entering the airspace or joining the pattern, with ground movements coordinated on 121.6 MHz. Pilots should obtain the current ATIS on 119.35 MHz prior to arrival or departure for wind, altimeter and active runway information.
The airport is a useful landmark itself, sited between the built-up areas of Olathe and Overland Park along 151st Street and Pflumm Road, with the New Century AirCenter (the former Olathe Naval Air Station) lying to the southwest as a related aviation landmark in the area.
Johnson County Executive Airport began life as Morse Field, built in the early 1940s as a naval auxiliary airfield supporting the Olathe Naval Air Station during the Second World War; that parent station is now known as New Century AirCenter. The field passed from naval to civilian hands, being deeded to the City of Olathe in 1951 and then to Johnson County in 1967, at which point the county created the Johnson County Airport Commission to manage it. Commercial airline service was operated by Air Midwest from 1973 to 1977 and again briefly in 1984, with Beechcraft 99 and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner II aircraft flying nonstop to Kansas City International Airport and Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, and in 1984 also to St Louis Downtown Airport. In March 2017 a severe storm with straight-line winds of 80 to 85 mph damaged several hangars and aircraft at the field. In February 2022 a Piper PA-46 crashed shortly after takeoff, killing the pilot, who was a former mayor of Laguna Niguel, California.
The airport today handles well over 30,000 aircraft operations a year and is home to a substantial general aviation fleet, historically cited at around 120 based aircraft, spanning single and multi-engine piston types, business aircraft and at least one helicopter. It hosts three full-service fixed base operators, including Kansas City Aviation Center, an authorised Pilatus and Piper dealership and service centre, and Air Associates of Kansas, a Cessna Service Center and Cessna Pilot Center offering flight training, charter, maintenance, fuel, hangarage and tiedowns. Flight training is also available through Flex Air, based on the field. The airport participates in a Fly Quiet program encouraging noise-conscious operations in the surrounding community.
