Sunburst Airport

The specific reason for closure is not officially documented, which is common for small, rural airfields. However, the closure was almost certainly due to economic factors. These likely included: declining use by general aviation pilots, high costs of maintenance for a small community, and the land being more valuable for agricultural purposes. The town of Sunburst has a very small population, making a public-use airport economically unsustainable over the long term without significant subsidies or traffic, which it lacked.

The airport site has been completely decommissioned and fully converted back to agricultural use. Satellite imagery of the coordinates shows the land is now actively farmed, with crops planted over the former airfield. Faint outlines of the old runways can sometimes be discerned as crop marks or variations in soil color, but no airport infrastructure such as hangars, buildings, or paved surfaces remains. The land is indistinguishable from the surrounding farmland.

Sunburst Airport was a small, public-use general aviation airfield. Its primary role was to serve the local community of Sunburst, Montana, located very close to the US-Canada border. Historical records from the 1950s indicate it had at least one unpaved runway approximately 2,600 feet long. Operations would have consisted of light private aircraft (like Cessnas and Pipers) for personal and business travel, and potentially agricultural aircraft (crop dusters) supporting the surrounding farms. Its significance was purely local, providing basic air access to a remote rural town before it was eventually deemed obsolete or uneconomical.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Sunburst Airport. The site has been reclaimed for agriculture for over 50 years. Furthermore, the aviation needs of the region are adequately served by the Cut Bank International Airport (KCTB), a more capable, publicly-owned airport with paved runways located approximately 25 miles south of Sunburst. Given the lack of economic drivers and the existence of a superior nearby facility, there is no practical or financial case for re-establishing an airport at this location.