Boise Airport Parking (BOI)

History

Boise's first municipal airport was built in 1926 on a grave bed beside the Boise River where State University is located today.

On April 6, 1926, Varney Airlines flew the first commercial airmail in the U.S. from Pasco to Boise to Elko. Varney later joined others to form United Airlines. United Airlines, which traces its beginnings to Boise, inaugurated jet service to the city on October 26, 1964. It is the only airline to have served Boise continuously since 1933.

A great moment in local air history came on September 4, 1927 when Charles A. Lindbergh landed his "Spirit of St. Louis" in Boise.

Boise bought and leased land for the present airport in 1936-38. Its 8,800 foot runway was the nation's longest at that time.

Varney's 1931 steel hangar from the old field was moved to the present one in 1939. When planes got too big for it, it was closed in as part of the terminal building. It is still inside today's modern terminal.

The Army Air Corps leased Boise's field and built a major training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. More than 6,000 men were stationed there for most of the war years.

When the war was over Gowen Field was returned to Boise City, then leased to the Idaho National Guard, which still uses it.

By 1952 Boise's little airport consisted of the old Varney hangar, now closed in for a terminal building, and a new air traffic control tower, dedicated on July 13th.

Boise Airport Facts

Airports have a 3-letter abbreviation. Boise Airport is BOI.

Boise Airport has two parallel runways.
North runway (10L/28R): 10,000 ft. long and 150 ft. wide
South runway (10R/28L): 9,763 ft. long and 150 ft. wide

BOI is a division of the City of Boise Department of Aviation and Public Transportation, and is overseen by a seven member Airport Commission.

BOI has over 50 vehicles including: tractors, loaders, snow brooms, snow blowers, sweepers, dump trucks, deicing trucks, and fog dispersal trucks to keep the runways open and operational no matter what the weather. Normally, it takes about 30 minutes to plow 1 inch deep snow to the edges of the runways, which leaves a windrow 10 feet wide and 20 inches deep. It then takes another 20 minutes to blow the big windrow of snow from the edge to the infield between the runways. Our fog dispersal system is used when the temperature is 27 degrees or less. Carbon dioxide is released in the air which "freezes" the fog, and it falls as precipitation.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is located at BOI. During the summer, they use aircraft as fire bombers, guides for fire bombers, and  cargo aircraft to drop firefighters and supplies during the forest fire season.