Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
McGhee Tyson Airport lies at Alcoa, Tennessee, just south of Knoxville, and combines scheduled airline and cargo operations with a US Air National Guard presence. For the visiting simulator pilot it offers a single long hard-surfaced runway with an ILS approach, controlled airspace, and a busy mix of civil and military traffic typical of a regional US airport.
McGhee Tyson Airport (KTYS) serves Knoxville, Tennessee, from a site in the city of Alcoa some twelve miles south of downtown Knoxville. It is a joint-use public and military field, owned by the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and home to McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, which houses the 134th Air Refueling Wing of the Tennessee Air National Guard. For a visiting pilot it is of interest as a Class C airport with airline, cargo and military movements, lying within easy reach of the Great Smoky Mountains.
The airport sits in Blount County, Tennessee, about twelve miles south of downtown Knoxville, in the city of Alcoa. It is tagged as Class C airspace with customs and landing-rights facilities, reflecting its status as a regional airline gateway. Traffic is worked by Knoxville Approach/Departure and Knoxville Tower, with ground movements handled by Knoxville Ground; a separate Nashville Radio frequency is also listed for flight service use in the area.
The field has a single physical runway, aligned 05R/23L, of hard surface construction and lit for night operations. Landing distance from the 05R threshold is 9,012 feet, while the 23L threshold offers 8,612 feet; the 23L end is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
Knoxville Approach/Departure is available on 36.08 MHz and on 118 MHz. The ATIS broadcasts on 128.35 MHz. Knoxville Tower operates on 121.2 MHz, with Knoxville Ground on 121.9 MHz. Clearance delivery is on 121.65 MHz, and a pre-taxi/PTD frequency of 30.3 MHz is also published. Unicom is available on 122.95 MHz, and Nashville Radio can be reached on 122.2 MHz. A military/Army National Guard operations frequency of 41.5 MHz is listed. Runway 23L is served by an ILS.
The original McGhee Tyson airport opened on 1 August 1930 on a 60-acre site in West Knoxville, named for United States Navy pilot Charles McGhee Tyson, who was killed in the First World War. In 1935 the city of Knoxville purchased 351 acres in Blount County for the present airport, and on 29 July 1937 an American Airlines Stinson Trimotor made the first airline landing there. Early directories from 1938 and 1939 show short crossing runways of only a few thousand feet. A control tower was built in 1941, and in 1951 the United States Air Force developed facilities on the field together with a 7,500-foot runway 5L, which the Tennessee Air National Guard helped finance to a 9,000-foot extension in 1961. The Federal Aviation Administration added an instrument landing system to the runways in 1959. The first scheduled jet airline service, by Delta DC-9s, began in December 1965. A new cargo facility was built in 1968 and a new passenger terminal opened in 1974, a few years after the airport's former runway 18/36 was closed. The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority was formed in 1978, and in 1990 runway 5R/23L was rebuilt to 9,000 feet. Further cargo facilities were added in 1992 for FedEx, UPS and Airborne Express, and in 2002 an aircraft maintenance facility was built for Northwest Airlines as a CRJ maintenance base. A multi-year, FAA-grant-funded lengthening of the north runway to 10,000 feet culminated in the reopening of the rebuilt runway 5L/23R on 17 December 2021.
McGhee Tyson today handles scheduled airline service, air cargo and general aviation alongside the McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base and its Air Refueling Wing. The fixed-base operator on the field is Signature Aviation, which took over the former TAC Air operation in 2022; TAC Air itself had earlier combined the airport's two long-standing FBOs, Knox-Air and Cherokee Aviation. The airport continues to see investment, including the recent completion of the extended 5L/23R runway and, from March 2026, the start of Southwest Airlines service alongside existing carriers.
