Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. Airport is a city owned, public use airport located five nautical miles (6 mi, 9 km) south of the central business district of Tulsa, a city in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility and reliever airport for Tulsa International Airport.Jones Airport is one of the busiest in the United States. In 2005, it had 347,000 operations, enough to rank it fourth among general aviation (GA) airports and thirtieth among all airports, according to a 2007 FAA report. It also was the busiest in Oklahoma, outranking both Will Rogers World Airport and Tulsa International.HistoryIn the 1950s, the city of Tulsa decided to build a second airport to alleviate congestion around Tulsa International Airport. A consulting group hired by the city performed a site selection study. In February, 1955, the group recommended a site on the west side of the Arkansas River, just north of Jenks, Oklahoma. The proposed facility was called Riverside Airport. Construction began in 1957.The airport was renamed in 1978 for Richard Lloyd Jones Jr., late publisher of the Tulsa Tribune.
