What Airports are There in West Virginia?
There are in total over 37 airports in West Virginia, including all public-use and military ones. The state has no international ones; all of them fall into the small or non-hub category, and they handle only domestic or regional flights to and from other U.S. cities.
There are seven major airports in West Virginia. The biggest one handles over 200,000 passenger enplanements per year, while for the smallest one, this number is below 10,000. Yeager Airport (CRW), located near the regional capital, is considered the most occupied and offers the cheapest flights.
The total number of travelers from West Virginia is 374,922. This, in turn, accounts for 0.04373% of all United States air traffic.
5 Major Airports in West Virginia
Out of seven big airports in West Virginia, two are much smaller and have fewer flights than the rest, so here are the five to consider.
Most Popular Airlines
American Airlines is one of the leading carriers that has flights to airports in West Virginia. Every month, it makes over 140 rounds to the central gateway of the state, Yeager Airport (CRW).
Delta, United Airlines, Spirit, and WestJet are the other popular airlines that frequently fly to airports on the West Virginia map.
Destinations
3.96 million visitors came to West Virginia in 2018 through the eight welcome centers managed by the Tourism Office. In 2020, West Virginia’s state parks and forests alone welcomed more than 4.3 million people.
Thanks to multiple West Virginia airports, the state is a connection point between busy metropolises, such as Pittsburg, Cleveland, Charlotte, and Washington.
The most popular destination in the state is Charleston; it takes 69% of total queries. It is followed by Huntington—14%, Lewisburg—14%, while Clarksburg takes 6% of the share and Beckley—1%.
West Virginia First Steps of Aviation
The state has been involved with aviation since the early 20th century. Paul Peck and Charles “Chuck” Yeager, both from West Virginia, were early aviation pioneers.
Col. Paul Peck was born in Ansted in 1889 and started flying only seven years after the Wright brothers made their first flight. It’s said that he set a world flight record just two weeks after learning to fly. Many people recognize Paul Peck as the first pilot in West Virginia, and he was the person who “bridged the gap” between the Wright brothers’ flight and the aviation breakthrough of World War I.
Charles “Chuck” Yeager is another pilot from West Virginian and a much more famous one. He was born in Myra in 1923 and began his career as a Private in the United States Air Force. In 1947, he made a name for himself by breaking the sound speed barrier in a Bell X-1 rocket engine-powered aircraft at 700 miles per hour. Then in 1953, he achieved two-and-a-half times the speed of sound in a Bell X-1A.
Charles Yeager was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1966, the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973, and was awarded the Silver Medal in 1975.
The biggest and busiest of the West Virginia airports, Yeager Airport and the capital of West Virginia, Charleston, are named after him.
