Kearney Regional Airport is in Buffalo County, Nebraska, five miles northeast of Kearney, which owns it. It was at one point subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 11,956 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 10,113 in 2009 and 9,530 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a primary commercial service airport based on enplanements over 10,000 in 2008, but is non-primary commercial service based on enplanements in 2010.HistoryIn 1940 Kearney had a population of 9,643. In the early 1940s, three Nebraska cities, Kearney, Grand Island and Hastings joined to form the Central Nebraska Defense Council when it was learned that the United States Army Air Forces was considering the site for a military airfield. The group attempted to convince Washington that central Nebraska was suitable. Kearney and Grand Island effectively competed as locations for defense airports which would serve as storage for aircraft made at Offutt Field and the Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant near Omaha.As early as 1941 the City of Kearney voted on a $60,000 bond to finance a new airport. Kearney Regional Airport began as Keens Municipal Airport. The cost was more than $360,000, with the balance funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Construction began at the site on Highway 30 on October 21, 1941, and was dedicated as Keens Airport on August 23, 1942, with asphalt runways and one hangar. A handful of buildings from the military era remain at Kearney Airport, the predominant one being Hangar #385.
