In 1927, the Greater Muskegon Chamber of Commerce began a campaign to establish the Muskegon County Airport. The Muskegon County Board of Commissioners approved the construction of the airport's first terminal in 1931. The
Works Progress Administration (WPA) project cost the county $12,000.
Capital Airlines was serving Muskegon by 1949 with nonstop
Douglas DC-3 flights to
Chicago,
Milwaukee and
Grand Rapids, Michigan, with direct, no-change-of-plane DC-3 service to
Detroit,
Lansing and
Flint, Michigan. By the spring of 1961, Capital was serving the airport with
Vickers Viscount turboprop aircraft with nonstop and direct one stop flights to
Chicago O'Hare Airport as well as nonstop flights to Milwaukee with direct, no change of plane Viscount flights from both
New York Newark Airport and
Washington, D.C. National Airport via Detroit. At this same time, Capital was also operating
Douglas DC-4 propliner service on an eastbound routing of Chicago O'Hare - Muskegon - Lansing - Detroit -
Cleveland -
Pittsburgh -
Baltimore - Washington D.C. National Airport and a westbound routing of Washington D.C National Airport - Baltimore - Pittsburgh - Cleveland - Detroit - Grand Rapids - Muskegon - Chicago O'Hare. The airport even had international service of a sort at this time as North Central was operating a daily southbound DC-3 flight from
Port Arthur, Ontario/
Fort William, Ontario (now
Thunder Bay) in
Canada with stops being made in
Houghton, Michigan,
Iron Mountain, Michigan, and Green Bay en route to Muskegon with this flight then continuing on to Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit. According to the August 1963 United system timetable, the airline was serving the airport with Vickers Viscount turboprops as well as
Douglas DC-6B prop aircraft with Viscount service including a westbound flight operating a routing of Washington D.C. National Airport - Detroit
Willow Run Airport - Lansing - Grand Rapids - Muskegon - Chicago O'Hare Airport and an eastbound Viscount flight operating a routing of Chicago O'Hare - Muskegon -
Saginaw, MI - Flint - Detroit Willow Run Airport -
Cleveland -
Pittsburgh. United Douglas DC-6B service at this time in 1963 included a westbound flight operating a routing of Detroit Willow Run - Flint - Saginaw - Muskegon - Chicago O'Hare -
Moline, IL -
Cedar Rapids -
Des Moines -
Omaha and an eastbound flight operating a routing of Cedar Rapids - Chicago O'Hare - Muskegon - Saginaw - Flint - Detroit Willow Run -
Akron, OH -
Youngstown, OH - Pittsburgh. Also in 1969,
North Central Airlines was operating eight daily
Convair 580 turboprop flights from the airport with nonstop service to Grand Rapids, Lansing and Milwaukee as well as direct one stop service to Chicago O'Hare and also direct one or two stop service to Detroit. According to the
Official Airline Guide (OAG), United was continuing to serve the airport in 1975 with three daily flights operated with Boeing 737-200 jets with one service operating an eastbound routing of Chicago
O'Hare Airport - Muskegon -
Flint, MI -
Cleveland -
Baltimore with another service operating a westbound routing of
Boston - Cleveland - Flint - Muskegon - Chicago O'Hare Airport with a third flight operating an additional nonstop service to Chicago O'Hare. Another airline operating jet service into the airport in 1975 was North Central operating
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 service with one daily flight operated on an eastbound routing of Chicago O'Hare Airport -
Milwaukee - Muskegon -
Lansing -
Detroit - Cleveland although most of the service operated by North Central from the airport at this time was flown with Convair 580 turboprops with four daily direct one stop flights to Chicago O'Hare via Milwaukee, three daily direct one stop flights to Detroit via Lansing and two daily direct flights to Cleveland via stops in Lansing and Detroit. According to the OAG, United was still operating its mainline 737 jet service from
Chicago (ORD) at the end of 1979 with only one daily nonstop flight; however, United then ceased serving Muskegon shortly thereafter. In the spring of 1981,
Midstate Airlines, an independent commuter air carrier, was operating seven nonstop flights every weekday to Chicago O'Hare from Muskegon flown with
Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner commuter propjets. By early 1985, three independent airlines were flying nonstop service from Chicago O'Hare to the airport including
Air Wisconsin operating four flights every weekday with
de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprops, Midstate Airlines operating six flights every weekday with Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners and
Simmons Airlines operating four flights every weekday with
NAMC YS-11 and
Short 360 turboprops for a combined total of fourteen flights from O'Hare every weekday. At this same time in 1985, Air Wisconsin was operating nonstop DHC-7 Dash 7 service from
Battle Creek, Michigan, while Midstate was operating nonstop Metroliner service from Milwaukee and
Traverse City with Simmons Airlines operating nonstop and direct
Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante turboprop flights from Detroit as well as nonstop NAMC YS-11 and Short 360 service from Traverse City in addition to nonstop Embraer EMB-110 or Short 360 flights from Flint, Grand Rapids and
Jackson, Michigan. According to the OAG, these four air carriers were operating a combined total of 35 flights every weekday into the airport at this time in 1985. Airline service to Chicago then ended in 2002. North Central Airlines subsequently merged with
Southern Airways to form
Republic Airlines which in 1979 was continuing to serve the airport with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets as well as
Douglas DC-9-10 jets and
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 jets in addition to Convair 580 turboprops with direct, no change of plane DC-9-30 service from
Atlanta, direct one stop DC-9 and Convair 580 service from Chicago O'Hare via Milwaukee, and direct one stop DC-9 and Convair 580 service from Detroit via either Grand Rapids, Michigan, or Lansing. However, Republic was no longer serving the airport by the spring of 1984. According to the OAG, four airlines were serving Muskegon in late 1989 including
American Eagle operating five daily nonstops from Chicago O'Hare with
Short 360 turboprops on behalf of
American Airlines via a
code sharing agreement, Midwest Express Connection operated by
Skyway Airlines with service on behalf of
Midwest Express (which subsequently changed its name to
Midwest Airlines) with four nonstops every weekday from Milwaukee flown with
Beechcraft 1900 commuter propjets,
Midway Connection operating on behalf of
Midway Airlines (1976–1991) with five nonstops every weekday from Chicago
Midway Airport flown with
Dornier 228 commuter turboprops, and
Northwest Airlink operated by
Mesaba Airlines on behalf of
Northwest Airlines via a code sharing agreement with three nonstops every weekday from Detroit flown with
Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner commuter turboprops. By the spring of 1995, three airlines were serving the airport including American Eagle operating four daily nonstops from Chicago O'Hare with
Saab 340 turboprops, Midwest Express Connection flying Beechcraft 1900s with three nonstops operated every weekday from Milwaukee plus one nonstop flown every weekday from both Flint and Lansing, and Northwest Airlink operated by Mesaba Airlines with five nonstops every weekday from Detroit flown with Metroliners. In 2005, Northwest Airlink operated by Mesaba was operating three daily nonstop flights to Detroit with Saab 340s while
Midwest Connect (which was formerly Midwest Express Connection) operated by Skyway Airlines was flying four nonstops every weekday to Milwaukee with Beechcraft 1900s. Muskegon County Airport was the recipient of both the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009
Balchen/Post Awards for outstanding achievement in snow and ice control in the small commercial service airport category.
Midwest Connect, operating
code sharing service on behalf of
Midwest Airlines, discontinued service to
Milwaukee (MKE), effective September 2008. Also in September, the airport was awarded a $650,000 federal Small Community Air Service grant to restore nonstop flights to Chicago O'Hare International Airport. On July 15, 2009,
Mesaba Airlines petitioned the
DOT for federal
Essential Air Service (EAS) subsidies to continue operating scheduled passenger service into Muskegon as well as seven other communities. Per DOT procedure, bids were opened for proposals for passenger service to these cities by all interested air carriers. For Muskegon,
SkyWest Airlines submitted a bid to provide service to Chicago which required less than half the annual subsidy that Mesaba had proposed in order to continue its service to Detroit. SkyWest was selected in November 2009, and began service on February 12, 2010, replacing Mesaba. SkyWest initially operated under a two-year contract for the service and was operating flights to Chicago O'Hare with
Canadair CRJ200 regional jets operating as
United Express on behalf of
United Airlines via a
code sharing agreement; however, SkyWest then ended all United Express service to Muskegon. The airport hosted an
air show called the Muskegon Air Fair until 2006. Due to budget deficits, the air fair was placed on hiatus for the summer of 2007, but had been reinstated during Muskegon's Summer Celebration. However, , the air show was then indefinitely canceled due to additional financial losses. In 2023, a new air show, Wings Over Muskegon, was presented by Yankee Air Museum and hosted by the airport. It was significantly smaller than previous shows.
Delta Connection, operated by
Mesaba Airlines with
code sharing service on behalf of
Delta Air Lines, flew nonstop to
Detroit until
United Express began flights to
Chicago with passenger counts to Detroit then decreasing resulting in Delta Connection ceasing all service to Muskegon. In March of 2022, SkyWest announced that it would soon be ending service to Muskegon. On October 1, 2022,
Southern Airways Express announced service between Muskegon and Chicago O'Hare. Southern Airlines was operating the
Cessna 208 Caravan turboprop on this route and proposed offering more flights out of Muskegon; however, this airline no longer serves the airport. On October 1, 2024, Muskegon County Airport announced that
Denver Air Connection would be taking over the
Essential Air Service (EAS) contract to Muskegon effective November 1, 2024. Denver Air Connection announced it would operate 24 weekly departures to and from Chicago O'Hare (ORD) with
Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet aircraft. ==Facilities and aircraft==