Aurora Municipal Airport

This article is about the airport in Illinois. For the airport in Nebraska, see Aurora Municipal Airport (Nebraska). For other airports, see Aurora Airport (disambiguation).

Chicago/Aurora Municipal Airport (IATA: AUZ, ICAO: KARR, FAA LID: ARR) is a public airport opened in April 1966, located in the village of Sugar Grove, Illinois, United States, 8 miles (13 km) west of the city of Aurora, both in Kane County. The airport is owned and operated by the City of Aurora. It is 50 miles (80 km) west of Chicago and is designated as a reliever airport for Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports.^[1][2]

Chicago/Aurora Municipal Airport
IATA: AUZ ICAO: KARR FAA LID: ARR
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	City of Aurora
Serves	Chicago / Aurora
Location	Sugar Grove, Illinois
Elevation AMSL	712 ft / 217 m
Coordinates	41°46′19″N 088°28′32″W / 41.77194°N 88.47556°W / 41.77194; -88.47556Coordinates: 41°46′19″N 088°28′32″W / 41.77194°N 88.47556°W / 41.77194; -88.47556
Website	Official website
Map
ARR Location of airport in Illinois Show map of Illinois ARR ARR (the United States) Show map of the United States
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 9/27 6,501 1,982 Concrete 15/33 5,503 1,677 Concrete 18/36 3,198 975 Asphalt
Statistics
Aircraft operations (2022) 76,650 Based aircraft (2022) 197
Source: FAA^[1]

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for both the FAA and IATA, Chicago/Aurora Municipal Airport is assigned ARR by the FAA and AUZ by the IATA (which assigned ARR to Alto Río Senguer Airport in Argentina). The airport's ICAO identifier is KARR.^[3][4]

The airport is home to the Air Classics museum of Aviation, which strives to preserve aviation's role throughout history.^[5]

Facilities and aircraft

Aurora Municipal Airport covers an area of 1,100 acres (450 ha), and contains three runways:^[1]

• Runway 9/27: 6,501 x 100 ft (1,982 x 30 m), surface: concrete
• Runway 15/33: 5,503 x 100 ft (1,677 x 30 m), surface: concrete
• Runway 18/36: 3,198 x 75 ft (975 x 23 m), surface: asphalt

For the 12-month period ending April 30, 2022, the airport had 76,650 aircraft operations, an average of 210 per day: 98% general aviation, 2% air taxi, <1% military, and <1% commercial. For the same time period, there are 197 aircraft based on the field: 144 single-engine and 23 multi-engine airplanes, 24 jets, 5 helicopters, and 1 glider. ^[6][7]

J.A. Air Center and Revv Aviation are the airport's two fixed-base operators (FBOs). Together, they offer services such as fuel, general maintenance, hangars, courtesy cars and shuttles, conference rooms, crew lounges, snooze rooms, and more. They also offer flight training, aircraft rentals, and charter service businesses.^{[8][9][10][11]}

The airport received money from the Rebuild Illinois program, designed in 2021 to help airports complete upgrades and stay open during the covid-19 pandemic, to rehabilitate parking lots, the entrance road, and perimeter roadways. In late 2022, the airport authority approved plans to upgrade hangars and other facilities.^[12][13]

Incidents

• On June 13, 2011, the aircraft Liberty Belle, a B-17 Flying Fortress crashed in Oswego, Illinois after taking off from Aurora. Early reports indicate that shortly after takeoff the pilot reported an engine fire, and attempted to return to the airfield. He was unable to do so, however, and chose instead to put the aircraft down in a nearby cornfield with seven people on board, all of whom were reported to be safe.^[14]

Gallery

Aurora Municipal Airport

•  

  Aurora Municipal Airport (west side)

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  Air Classics Museum building

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  Air Classics Museum display

^[15]

References

1. FAA Airport Form 5010 for ARR PDF, effective Jan 5, 2017.
2. Aurora Municipal Airport (official web site)
3. Great Circle Mapper: AUZ / KARR - Chicago/Aurora, Illinois (Aurora Municipal Airport)
4. Great Circle Mapper: ARR / SAVR - Alto Rio Senguerr, Argentina (D. Casimiro Szlapelis Airport)
5. "Learn More About The Air Classics Museum". Air Classics Inc Museum of Aviation. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
6. "AirNav: KARR – Aurora Municipal Airport". AirNav.com. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
7. "ARR – Aurora Municipal Airport". SkyVector. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
8. "J.A. Air Center". FlightAware. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
9. "revv Aviation". FlightAware. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
10. "REVV AURORA". Revv Aurora. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
11. "About JA Flight Training". JA Flight Center. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
12. "Holmes: $1.6 million in state funding coming for Aurora Municipal Airport upgrades". Illinois Senate Democrats. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
13. "Airport planning improvement projects". Aurora News-Register. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
14. Smith, Gerry; Dizikes, Cynthia. "WWII bomber crashes near Aurora, all 7 aboard said to be OK". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2011-06-13.
15. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.

External links

• Official website
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective December 29, 2022
• FAA Terminal Procedures for ARR, effective December 29, 2022
• Resources for this airport:
  • FAA airport information for ARR
  • AirNav airport information for KARR
  • ASN accident history for AUZ
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures