KABQ - 17/35???

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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When the heck did KABQ shut down and demolish 17/35? I was just looking at a sectional and noticed that the airport diagram looked weird.

So I went to the satellite photos and sure enough - gone.

Any story there?
 
Looking at it, I'm guessing it didn't have proper clearance and object free areas from the taxiways and buildings around the north end. May have also been a funding issue, the FAA may not have funded the airport to rehab it.

Or they may have just wanted the land along the north end for expansion.
 
Its been gone for a few years now.

I was given 17 a number of times in the air ambulance. It would get me on the ground quicker instead of falling in behind a line much larger aircraft, but taxiing to the fbo (Cutter) would take a little longer.

One of the reasons it was closed was because it was hardly ever used. They did put out a public notice accepting comments on whether it should be closed or not. They received very little comments at all.
 
Not sure when, but yeah, it's been awhile.

I remember playing golf at the course just to the north and sometimes you'd have planes taking off overhead. Always a fun show.
 
When I lived in ABQ in the 80's, there were always a lot of complaints from neighbors to the north when 17/35 was used.
 
Ryanb said:
Pretty sure it's been gone for a few years. It wasn't there when I was in town back in early May.

EDIT: according to this Wiki page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_International_Sunport

It was removed in 2012 due to 17/35 crossing all three of the other runways, potentially being succeptible to an incursion.
Click to expand...

That is a BS excuse.
It was closed because of the Demo-shills that moved north of Gibson and didn't like their beauty rest disturbed
(The Don Shrader types)
 
I think there was a GA hanger that was near 17/35, but I believe it was moved to another part of the airport, or torn down after some new hangers were built. Once that happened, the runway was hardly used at all. I used it about 10 times in 7 years. I only saw or heard maybe another dozen other planes use it during that time.
 
It seems kinda odd to hear that 17/35 wasn't used much; back in the mid-90s flying Beech 1900s for Mesa we used that runway all day every day. It was the shortest taxi to/from parking; but, things change. 1900 commuters outta ABQ are long gone...
 
In addition to all the safety and noise abatement reasons, SkyPort planned to build a terminal for the Southwest on the northern segment of 17/35. However, before they got around to it, some kind of law has expired, I think it Texas, which required Southwest to make stops in neighbouring states. The traffic declined and the plan of a dedicated terminal for them was canceled.

I only landed on 35 once.

BTW, the traffic at KABQ was in decline for years. As late as in 2011, GA students went to Double Eagle to make T&Gs. The KABQ was too busy. But with airlines stopping less and with the F-16s leaving to Holloman, ATC now practically begs people to make patterns.
 
I just looked at my logbook - I can't believe it, but the last time I landed at KABQ was on 6/23/2009. Over 7 years ago. Holy smokes...

When I last landed there, KAEG was still non-towered, but was just about to have a tower opened. KABQ was stupid expensive, and while ATC would let GA come in happily, you had to dodge the wake turbulence all the way down to 8, which had an insane displaced threshold.

Also, I landed a ton on 17/35, and also on 3/21. But 8/26 was almost always the go-to runway.

7 years? Good lord I'm getting old. That doesn't seem right.
 
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