IATA: ABE
ICAO: KABE
FAA LID: ABE

Lehigh Valley International Airport 

airport serving Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, USA  image   logo image   detail map
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Instance of	international airport airport commercial traffic aerodrome
Named after	Lehigh Valley
Location	Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Street address	3311 Airport Road, Allentown, PA 18109
Elevation above sea level	116 m
IATA airport code	ABE
ICAO airport code	KABE
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40° 39′ 09.11″ N, 75° 26′ 07.94″ W
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Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) opened in 1927 as simply "Allentown Airport" when the U.S. Department of Commerce rented 50 acres of farmland as an emergency landing airstrip for airmail pilots. A steel tower topped by a rotating beacon was erected and a small frame building constructed for an attendant. This wooden structure eventually became the first terminal for the Allentown Airport Corporation.

In 1930, it became "Allentown-Bethlehem Airport". Scheduled passenger airline flights began on September 16, 1935, by United Airlines Boeing 247s. Initially, the airport hangar served as the passenger terminal; the first terminal building at the airport was built in 1938, a Works Projects Administration project.

During World War II the U. S. Navy V-5 flight training program was conducted at the airport in conjunction with ground training held at Muhlenberg College. About 1,000 Naval Aviation Cadets were trained in 1943, and civil and military air traffic had increased. In August 1943, the V-5 flight training program ended when the Navy decided to move all flight training to naval air bases under Navy pilots.

In addition to the Naval aviation training, Headquarters of Group 312 of the Civil Air Patrol was at Allentown–Bethlehem Airport. One of its activities was to provide a courier service for cargo defense plants. Allentown CAP pilots also patrolled the Atlantic coastline and were active in recruiting young men for the air cadet program of the Army Air Forces.

When World War II ended, in April 1946 the Lehigh Airport Authority was created to own and manage the airport and a new passenger terminal began construction in 1948 and was finished in 1950. Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton (ABE) Airport, as it was now called, had flights on United, Trans World Airlines since 1947, and Colonial Airlines since 1949–50. DC-4s and DC-6s appeared after runway 6 was extended to 5,000 ft. ABE joined the jet age in 1966 with the first United Airlines jet passenger service to Chicago.

TWA left in 1967, replaced by Allegheny; Colonial's successor Eastern remained until 1991. Republic DC-9 offered nonstop flights to Detroit and continued by Northwest Airlines after the acquisition. Northwest also offered one-stop flights to Detroit with a stop in Harrisburg. Regional partners replaced successor Northwest around 2003. Continental Airlines, which later merged into United, operated flights from Allentown to Newark but switched to a bus service in 1995 Delta started nonstop flights to Atlanta and Harrisburg in 1991 and later added flights to Cincinnati, initially operated by Delta until changing to Delta Connection carrier Comair.

In 1960 Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy made campaign stops at ABE. South Dakota Senator George McGovern stopped in 1972, and President George Bush visited ABE in 1992.

Construction began on the present terminal in 1973 and the project was completed in 1976. The airport took on its current name, Lehigh Valley International Airport, in August 1994. The current terminal at ABE has been expanded several times since. Today, LVIA is the fourth busiest airport in the state, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg.