Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Syracuse Hancock International Airport is a joint civil-military field five miles northeast of downtown Syracuse, New York, sharing its runways with the Hancock Field Air National Guard Base. Its long, ILS-equipped runway and Class C airspace make it a useful destination for simulator pilots wanting a busy regional airline and military mix in Upstate New York.
Syracuse Hancock International Airport serves as the principal commercial gateway for Central New York and operates as a joint civil-military facility, sharing its infrastructure with the co-located Hancock Field Air National Guard Base. It is operated by the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority and handles scheduled airline traffic alongside Air National Guard operations, giving the field a varied traffic mix of interest to a visiting simulator pilot, from regional jets to military airlift types.
The airport lies within Class C airspace and sits astride the boundary of the towns of DeWitt, Salina and Cicero in Onondaga County, New York, about five miles northeast of downtown Syracuse. It is located just off Interstate 81 near the suburb of Mattydale, with the main terminal complex situated at the east end of Colonel Eileen Collins Boulevard.
The airport has two physical runways. Runway 10/28 is 8,989 feet long with a hard surface, lit, and equipped with an ILS. Runway 15/33 is 7,492 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit, but without an instrument landing system.
Pilots can expect the following frequencies at Syracuse Hancock: ATIS on 132.05 MHz, Clearance Delivery/Ground on 121.7 MHz, Tower on 120.3 MHz, a combined Approach/Departure and general Air/Ground frequency on 126.125 MHz, a further control frequency (CLD) on 125.05 MHz, UNICOM on 122.95 MHz, and an Air National Guard operations frequency on 139.625 MHz. The field's ILS serves runway 10/28.
The airport's origins trace to 1927, when Syracuse mayor Charles Hanna sought to establish a municipal airport for the city; land was purchased in the Amboy section of the town of Camillus, and the resulting Syracuse City Airport at Amboy began handling airmail by 1928. With the outbreak of the Second World War the Amboy field became a flight training centre for the Army Air Forces, but by 1942 it had proved too small for military needs, prompting the AAF to open the Syracuse Army Air Base in the suburb of Mattydale. At the war's end the AAF leased the base back to the city, and on September 17, 1949, it reopened to the public as the Clarence E. Hancock Airport, named for the area's congressman, using a converted machine shop as its terminal. It initially had three concrete runways 5,500 feet long and 300 feet wide, and its first carriers were American, Buffalo, Colonial and Robinson Airlines. Traffic grew steadily through the postwar decades, with Mohawk Airlines and its successor Allegheny dominating operations by the mid-1970s, and the airport becoming the second-largest in Upstate New York by passenger volume and the busiest by number of flights, at one point handling 3.17 million passengers a year. Utica-based Empire Airlines briefly rivalled Allegheny's successor USAir in the early 1980s before being absorbed into Piedmont Airlines in 1986, which went on to establish a hub at Syracuse; USAir inherited this hub after acquiring Piedmont in 1989 but dismantled it during the 1990s. Notable historic movements include a scheduled landing by a British Airways Concorde on September 27, 1986, and a cargo flight by an Antonov Airlines An-124, the largest aircraft ever to visit the airport, in 1996.
Syracuse Hancock continues to operate as a joint civil-military airport, with the Hancock Field Air National Guard Base sharing the site and its fire department providing rescue and fire-fighting cover for both military and civilian operations. General aviation activity includes the Syracuse Flight School, formerly Waypoint Flight School, and the Syracuse Flying Club, which is based at the MillionAir FBO and offers flight training.