McCook Ben Nelson Regional Airport is two miles east of McCook, in Red Willow County, Nebraska. It was formerly McCook Municipal Airport and McCook Regional Airport. It sees one airline, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 1,848 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 1,677 in 2009 and 1,993 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a general aviation airport (the commercial service category requires 2,500 enplanements per year).The airport is named after McCook-born Ben Nelson, a United States Senator and the 37th Governor of Nebraska.HistoryDuring World War II a larger training airfield was built some eight miles north of McCook Regional to train heavy bomber crews. Known, somewhat confusingly, as McCook Army Airfield the base closed in 1945 and was transferred to state control and renamed McCook State Airfield. It closed for good in 1969 and since has largely reverted to farmland, but the five massive World War II-era hangars are still visible from the air.
