page_title: Manhattan Regional Airport
section_title: Service history
hierarchical_section_title: Manhattan Regional Airport / History / Service history
caption_attribution_description: English: Great Lakes Airlines Beechcraft B-1900D turboprop at Manhattan Regional Airport in Manhattan, KS
context_page_description: Manhattan Regional Airport in Riley County, Kansas is the second-busiest commercial airport in Kansas. It is owned by the city of Manhattan, Kansas, and is about five miles southwest of downtown Manhattan. American Airlines serves the airport with five daily flights to Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The airport is also used for general aviation and for planes chartered by the military and college sports teams.
  The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2013–2017 categorized it as a primary commercial service airport.
  Traffic at the airport multiplied after American Eagle began its service in August 2009. Between 2008 and 2012, Federal Aviation Administration records show that annual passenger boardings at the airport grew from 16,489 to more than 69,000. The most recent statistics show 70,705 enplanements in 2018.
context_section_description: Continental Airlines
  The first scheduled airline at Manhattan was Continental Airlines, which began DC-3 flights to Wichita in April 1953.  Continental pulled out in 1961, replaced by Central.
  Capital Air Service
  Capital Air Service, Inc. (ICAO airline designator CPX), was headquartered in Manhattan from the 1960s until the company ceased flights in 1989, after having twice been grounded by the FAA for multiple safety and records keeping violations.  Capital Air provided point-to-point air service to cities throughout northeastern Kansas.
  In the 1970s Capital Air, an air taxi service, suffered two crashes, one with fatalities. In the 1980s one of its aircraft was tipped over by a gust of wind while waiting for take off clearance, and another aircraft, a Twin Otter, clipped the side of a terminal building, both incidents occurring at Kansas City International Airport.
  At its height Capital Air served Manhattan; Salina, KS (SLN); Topeka, KS (FOE); Lawrence, KS (LWC); and Kansas City, MO (MCI) using two 20-passenger de Havilland Canada Twin Otters and smaller piston-engine aircraft.
  Frontier Airlines
  Starting when it merged with Central Airlines in 1967, the original Frontier Airlines flew from Manhattan to Salina; Topeka (FOE); Wichita (ICT); and Kansas City on 44-seat Convair CV580s. By the early 1980s Frontier's Convairs were gone, replaced with a single daily non-stop Boeing 737 to Denver (DEN) that ended in at the beginning of 1983.
  Air Midwest
  From the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, before its sale to Mesa Air Group in 1991, Wichita-based Air Midwest flew Manhattan to Salina and Kansas City on 19-passenger Fairchild Metroliner IIIs.
  For several years in the mid-1980s Air Midwest was an Eastern Air Lines affiliate and flew 30-passenger Saab 340As in Eastern paint to Kansas City.
  When Eastern closed its hub at Kansas City, Air Midwest sold their Saabs and signed a new codeshare agreement with the second incarnation of Braniff Airlines, which had started a small hub at MCI, and began flights to Kansas City on Fairchild Metroliner IIIs.
  Mesa Air Group
  In 1991 Air Midwest was sold to the Mesa Air Group of Nevada.  Subsequently, Air Midwest (a Mesa Air Group subsidiary), acting under a codeshare agreement with U.S. Airways and operating as US Airways Express, served Kansas City, Missouri from Manhattan, Kansas with three daily flights using 19-passenger Beechcraft 1900D turboprop aircraft. The service ended with Air Midwest's bankruptcy in 2008, when all Essential Air Service contracts and flights operated by Mesa were closed.
  Great Lakes Airlines
  Great Lakes Airlines flew to Manhattan between March 30, 2008, and April 7, 2010, taking over after Mesa left and ending service after American Eagle announced additional expansion. There were three daily flights, most days to Kansas City, and initially two daily flights (with one stop) to Denver. The flights to Denver were later cut back to once daily. Great Lakes used Beech 1900Ds.
  Allegiant Air
  Allegiant Air operated a short-lived service of twice-weekly flights between Manhattan and Phoenix–Mesa Gateway Airport from November 7, 2013, to February 23, 2014.
  American Eagle
  American Eagle flies to ORD and DFW. Flights to DFW are on Skywest Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 series and by Envoy Air on Embraer ERJ-140s. Flights to ORD are on Envoy Air ERJ-140s.
caption: A Great Lakes Airlines Beechcraft 1900D at Manhattan Regional in 2009
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