Panethos

America’s smallest MAJOR airports by acreage – 2026 REWRITE

Orange County (John Wayne) Airport – Source: smarttravel.com

The following is a list of the 41 smallest major airports in the USA (including territories) ranked by their total land area. A minimum of 1,000,000 passengers (enplanements + deplanements) and 1,500 acres or less was the criteria used in this list. As can be seen, some very busy and important airports are identified in the list. Passenger data is now from calendar year 2025.

Seven of the airports listed are in California, six of which are in the southern part of the state (Orange County, Burbank, San Diego, Palm Springs, Long Beach, and Santa Barbara) and San Jose in the north. Six airports are from New York. Three are downstate (La Guardia, White Plains, and Islip) and three are upstate (Albany, Greater Rochester, and Buffalo).

San Diego (Lindbergh) Airport – Source: torreypinestowncar.com

As is evident from the aerial photos included with the post, most of these airports have been surrounded by development, which limits their long-term growth potential and ability to adapt to new aircraft. It also can lead to friction between the airport authority and neighbors due to aircraft noise, traffic, and hours of operation. This can lead to costly litigation, noise abatement, or land acquisition.

New York (La Guardia) Airport – Source the realdeal.com San Jose (Mineta) Airport – Source: flickr.com

While not every city has massive amounts of land available to construct a new airport (i.e. Denver or Dallas-Fort Worth), early and proactive regional planning efforts to properly channel and regulate development surrounding the airport in a manner which allows for increased aviation traffic is paramount to the long-term viability of the facility. Granted, in most of the cases listed in this post, hindsight is 20/20. Environmental, aviation, and land use restrictions can and will negatively the potential for future passenger and cargo growth. In some cases this limits the facility to serve only domestic flights, limited-distance flights, or in multiple airport metropolitan regions as a reliever or secondary airport.

Many thanks to Gary for providing the updated 2025 data and list for this post. His help is greatly appreciated.

Peace!

*FYI: If two airports cover the same amounts of acreage, the number of passengers was used to determine the order in which they are listed.

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~ means approximate

  • Charlotte Amalie (Cyril E. King)-St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands: 280 acres ~1,574,000 passengers
  • Key West, Florida: 334 acres = 1,477,226 passengers
  • McAllen, Texas: 370 acres = 1,142,842 passengers
  • New Haven (Tweed-Haven), Connecticut: 394 acres ~1,467,000 passengers
  • Orange County (John Wayne), California: 504 acres = 11,369,865 passengers 
  • Jackson Hole, Wyoming: 533 acres = 1,161,320 passengers
  • Burbank (Bob Hope), California: 555 acres = 6,219,479 passengers
  • Chicago (Midway), Illinois: 650 acres = 19,379,940 passengers
  • San Diego (Lindbergh), California: 663 acres = 25,320,556 passengers – busiest single-runway airport in the United States
  • New York City (La Guardia), New York: 680 acres = 32,791,050 passengers
  • Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: 680 acres = 1,623,324 passengers
  • White Plains (Westchester County), New York: 702 acres ~2,313,000 passengers
  • Portland (Jetport), Maine: 726 acres = 2,593,067 passengers
  • Washington (Reagan National), DC: 861 acres = 24,889,473 passengers
  • Asheville, North Carolina: 900 acres = 2,240,877 passengers 
  • Lexington (Blue Grass), Kentucky: 911 acres = 1,614,053 passengers
  • Lihue, Hawaii: 915 acres = 3,754,658 passengers
  • Medford (Rogue Valley), Oregon: 938 acres = 1,100,027 passengers
  • Palm Springs, California: 940 acres = 3,307,140 passengers
  • Burlington, Vermont: 942 acres = 1,431,834 passengers
  • Santa Barbara, California: 948 acres = 1,481,605 passengers
  • Chattanooga, Tennessee: 950 acres = 1,265,736 passengers
  • Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York: 1,000 acres ~5,017,000 passengers
  • Albany, New York: 1,000 acres ~3,143,000 passengers
  • Hilo, Hawaii: 1,007 acres = 1,474,487 passengers
  • San Jose (Mineta), California: 1,050 acres = 10,675,167 passengers
  • Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida: 1,102 acres = 4,514,781 passengers
  • Providence (T.F. Green), Rhode Island: 1,111 acres = 4,281,388 passengers
  • Greater Rochester, New York: 1,136 acres ~2,761,000 passengers
  • Long Beach, California: 1,166 acres = 3,818,155 passengers
  • Louisville (Muhammad Ali), Kentucky: 1,200 acres = 4,594,949 passengers
  • Pensacola, Florida: 1,211 acres ~3,041,000 passengers
  • Dallas (Love Field), Texas: 1,300 acres = 16,899,203 passengers
  • Norfolk, Virginia: 1,300 acres = 4,892,594 passengers
  • Houston (Hobby), Texas: 1,304 acres = 13,943,759 passengers
  • Islip (Long Island MacArthur), New York: 1,311 acres ~1,580,000 passengers
  • Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Florida: 1,380 acres = 32,208,419 passengers
  • Kahului, Hawaii: 1,391 acres = 7,127,946 passengers
  • Reno-Tahoe, Nevada: 1,450 acres = 4,912,900 passengers
  • New Orleans (Louis Armstrong), Louisiana: 1,500 acres = 12,434,800 passengers
  • Manchester-Boston, New Hampshire: 1,500 acres = 1,381,518 passengers
    • Chicago (Midway) Airport – Source: flickr.com

    Sources:

    #airTravel #airportPlanning #airports #aviation #cities #geography #history #infrastructure #landUse #planning #tourism #transportation #travel
    Mar 19 at 1:00pmWeb