Onawa Municipal Airport

The airport was not simply closed, but officially relocated. The primary reason for the relocation was that the original site was situated in a floodplain near the Missouri River, making it susceptible to frequent flooding and limiting its potential for future expansion. A new, more modern airport (the current Onawa Municipal Airport, ICAO: K36) was constructed with state and federal funding at a higher, safer elevation to better serve the community.

The site of the former airport has been completely redeveloped for industrial use. The property is now the headquarters and main manufacturing plant for Westendorf Manufacturing Co., Inc., a company that produces front-end loaders and other attachments for agricultural tractors. The main factory buildings are located on the former apron and hangar area. On current satellite imagery, the faint outline of the former north-south runway is still partially visible in the agricultural fields directly north and south of the Westendorf facility.

The original Onawa Municipal Airport, which used the FAA identifier K66 (the ICAO code US-11529 is a non-standard identifier from a third-party database), was a key general aviation facility for the city of Onawa and surrounding Monona County for many decades. Its operations were typical for a small rural airport, primarily supporting private aviation, business travel, and extensive agricultural aviation services like crop dusting, which is vital to the local economy. Archival data indicates it featured a single paved north-south runway (17/35) that was approximately 2,600 feet long. It served as the community's main air access point until it was replaced by the new facility.

There are zero prospects for reopening this airport. It was permanently and officially replaced by the new Onawa Municipal Airport (ICAO: K36, FAA: 36), which is fully operational approximately 3.5 miles northeast of the old location. The land of the original airport has been sold, rezoned, and is now occupied by a large industrial complex, making any return to aviation use impossible.