Scottsdale Airport

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Scottsdale Airport is nine miles north of downtown Scottsdale, in Maricopa County, Arizona. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, but Scottsdale Airport is SDL to the FAA and SCF to the IATA .Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 444,798 passenger boardings in calendar year 2005 and 266 enplanements in 2006. The FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2007–2011 called Scottsdale a reliever airport.It is one of the busiest single-runway facilities in the nation, with about 202,000 operations in 2004. The airport averages about 10,000 passengers a year. The airport offers clearance, ground and tower services from 1300Z to 0400Z daily.Neighbors’ complaints about aircraft noise around the airport increased beginning in 2004, peaking in 2005 with over 15,000 complaints being logged. It is unlikely that the airport would close, due to federal grant assurances, and its tremendous economic impact.HistoryDuring World War II the airfield was used by the United States Army Air Forces Army Air Forces Training Command as "Thunderbird Field #2" on June 22, 1942, as a primary flight training school for aviation cadets. Since its inception, Thunderbird #2 graduated more than 5,500 students, a total three times greater than the entire total contemplated by the AAF's original expansion program. In addition, Thunderbird #2 pilots flew nearly 26,500,000 miles, more than 3,000 times around the world at the equator. The school was deactivated on October 16, 1944.