Lake City Gateway Airport is a city owned, public use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Lake City, in Columbia County, Florida, United States. Formerly known as Lake City Municipal Airport, it is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.HistoryNAS Lake CityThe airport was originally built by the U.S. Navy during World War II to facilitate pilot training and named Naval Air Station Lake City. Commissioned in December 1942, NAS Lake City was located on the site of the Lake City Flying Club air field east of town. Established as one of several support facilities to NAS Jacksonville, NAS Lake City was used to train U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps pilots in land-based PV-1 Venturas and PV-2 Harpoons. Maximum complement at the air station reached 290 officers and 1,150 enlisted personnel. As many as 200 additional officer and enlisted WAVES were stationed at NAS Lake City later in the war and served in air traffic control, meteorological services, administrative support, and aircraft maintenance. The airfield southeast of Lake Butler served as an outlying field (OLF) and Cedar Key, Alachua and Gainesville provided auxiliary fields. Regular military operations terminated in March 1946 and NAS Lake City was decommissioned as an active naval air station.
