Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Visalia Municipal Airport (KVIS) serves the city of Visalia in California's San Joaquin Valley, five miles west of the downtown area. Once a stop for mainline and Essential Air Service carriers, it is today a general aviation field with a lit runway and an ILS approach, retaining strong historical links to its wartime service as an Army Air Field.
Visalia Municipal Airport is a city-owned general aviation field in Tulare County, California, five miles west of downtown Visalia. It was the first airport established in the county and has passed through phases as a municipal field, a wartime Army Air Field, and briefly a commercial airline destination, before settling into its present role as a base for general aviation training and private flying. For a simulator pilot, it offers a lit runway with an ILS approach and a straightforward San Joaquin Valley setting.
The airfield lies in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, five miles west of downtown Visalia, California. Fresno Approach/Departure provides the terminal radar service on 118.5 MHz.
Visalia has a single asphalt runway pair, 12/30, which is lit for night operations. The database records runway 30 as 6,557 feet long and equipped with an ILS, while runway 12 is listed at 5,640 feet. Field elevation is 292 feet, at coordinates 36.3186 N, 119.393 W.
Fresno Approach/Departure works arriving and departing traffic on 118.5 MHz. Airport weather is available on the AWOS-3 at 119.925 MHz. A radio facility identified as RANCHO RDO operates on 109.4 MHz. CTAF/Unicom for the field is 123.05 MHz. An ILS is available for runway 30.
Visalia Municipal Airport traces its origins to Putnam Field, a cow pasture owned by J.F. and Elizabeth Putnam, which the City of Visalia purchased following a bond measure approved in June 1928. The site had been used a year earlier for an emergency landing by local pilots Solomon Sweet and Edwin Deeds, after which Sweet promoted it to the Visalia Chamber of Commerce. The city officially renamed the field Visalia Municipal Airport on January 9, 1929, making it the first airport in Tulare County. The Works Progress Administration began improvement projects at the field from 1936 onward. In February 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor, the War Department took control of the airport and it became Visalia Army Air Field. The 47th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) flew anti-submarine patrols from the field using Lockheed A-29 Hudson and later B-25 Mitchell aircraft. From June 1942 the field operated as a sub-installation of the newly built Hammer Field in Fresno, training light, medium and heavy bomber crews, with Consolidated B-24 Liberators, North American B-25 Mitchells, Martin B-26 Marauders and A-29s all operating from the site. From January 1944 it served as a satellite site for the Army Air Force School of Applied Tactics' night fighter training program, with Douglas P-70 Nighthawks and Northrop P-61 Black Widows based there; the 425th Night Fighter Squadron trained at Visalia from February to May 1944 before deploying to RAF Charmy Down in England. The War Assets Administration terminated wartime leases in 1946, and the land reverted to the City of Visalia by 1947. United Airlines began mainline service in 1946, continuing until November 1979. Following airline deregulation in 1978 the airport became eligible for the Essential Air Service program, and was served over the years by Air Midwest, Great Lakes Airlines, Scenic Airlines, SeaPort Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, Swift Aire Lines and Wings West Airlines, none of which sustained service long-term. SeaPort Airlines was the last carrier, flying to Burbank and Sacramento from February 2015 until it suspended service without notice in January 2016.
Following the loss of scheduled airline service in 2016, the city declined subsequent Essential Air Service proposals and instead enrolled in the Essential Air Service Community Flexibility Pilot Program in January 2017, the first community to do so. In March 2017 this brought a grant of $3,703,368 for construction of two 10-unit tee hangars for small single-engine aircraft and a corporate hangar for business jets and larger aircraft, in exchange for forgoing EAS subsidy eligibility until April 30, 2026. The airport had 161 based aircraft and around 32,500 aircraft operations in the year ending March 2022, reflecting an active general aviation base rather than any scheduled commercial traffic.