Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (KSRQ) sits on Florida's Gulf Coast between Sarasota and Bradenton, a busy Class C field with a pair of hard-surfaced runways and full ILS coverage on its longer runway. It traces its roots to a 1940 airfield built with WPA and CCC support, saw wartime service as an Army Air Corps training base, and today combines scheduled airline traffic with general aviation and customs-handling capability for a sim pilot flying into the Tampa Bay area.
Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, known by its ICAO code KSRQ, lies on Florida's central Gulf Coast between the cities of Sarasota and Bradenton. It is owned and operated by the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority and serves as an operating base for Allegiant Air. For a VFR or IFR pilot in the simulator, SRQ offers a genuine slice of Florida flying: a Class C tower environment, a long ILS-equipped runway suitable for airliners and business jets, and a shorter crosswind runway, all set against the backdrop of Sarasota Bay and the barrier islands of the Gulf coast.
SRQ is surrounded by Class C controlled airspace, with Tampa Approach/Departure providing radar service on 119.65 MHz. The airport lies within Sarasota County and the city limits of Sarasota, as well as Manatee County and the city limits of Bradenton, situated about three miles north of Downtown Sarasota and six miles south of Bradenton in the Tampa Bay Area.
SRQ has two physical runways. Runway 14/32 is the primary hard-surfaced, lit runway, with the 32 threshold measuring 8,338 ft and the 14 threshold 8,146 ft; both ends are served by ILS approaches. Runway 04/22 is a shorter hard-surfaced, lit crosswind runway, with the 04 threshold measuring 5,000 ft and the 22 threshold 4,999 ft. Field elevation is 23 ft.
SRQ operates as a towered airport. The tower and CTAF frequency is 120.1 MHz, with ground control on 121.9 MHz. Clearance delivery is available on 118.25 MHz, and ATIS/ASOS weather information is broadcast on 134.15 MHz. UNICOM is on 122.95 MHz. Tampa Approach/Departure works arrivals and departures on 119.65 MHz, and a St Petersburg radio facility operates on 115.2 MHz. The airport is equipped with ILS approaches to its main runway.
Before Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport was built, the area was served by two separate fields: Bradenton Airport, established between 1935 and 1937 near what is now LECOM Park, and Lowe Field, Sarasota's first municipal airport, dedicated in January 1929 on land west of what is now Beneva Road. National Airlines began flying from Lowe Field in August 1937 but left later that year after the city could not fund concrete runways, and the strip continued in light civilian and Civil Air Patrol use through the Second World War before closing in 1961. Construction of the present airport began in 1939 and it opened the following year at a cost of one million dollars, built with assistance from the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration; the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority was created in May 1941. In 1942 the airport was leased to the Army Air Corps and became Sarasota Army Airfield. The 97th Bombardment Group arrived from MacDill Field to train with B-17 Flying Fortresses, followed by the 92nd Bombardment Group, before the base was redesignated for fighter training because its runways could not support heavy bombers; the 69th Fighter Squadron then trained there with P-39 Airacobras, supported by satellite and auxiliary fields across west-central Florida. On 25 July 1945 a Douglas TC-47B that departed Sarasota on a navigation training flight crashed north of Tampa after encountering a thunderstorm, killing all thirteen aboard. The base closed in 1947 and reverted to civilian use, though the field deteriorated until the 1955 Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Act strengthened its governing framework. National Airlines returned as the airport's first civilian carrier, and the field was renamed Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in 1956. A new terminal designed by architect Paul Rudolph, working with local architect John Cromwell, broke ground in 1958 and opened in 1959.
SRQ today functions as a public international airport handling scheduled airline services, with Allegiant Air maintaining an operating base there, alongside general aviation traffic. The airport falls within Class C airspace and has US Customs and Border Protection facilities for general aviation aircraft arriving from or departing to international destinations, with CBP procedures applying to such flights.