Origins In 1923, a landing field was established east of Central Avenue ( west of the current airport) on land leased from the
Union Pacific Railroad. The airfield was named
Latimer Field after an orange-packing company next to the airstrip. An airport was built there by one of the first flying clubs in Southern California, the Friends of Ontario Airport. In 1929, the city of Ontario purchased , now in the southwest corner of the airport, for , and established the
Ontario Municipal Airport. In 1941, the city bought around the airport and approved construction of new runways, which were completed by 1942, with funds from the
Works Progress Administration. The east–west runway and the northeast–southwest runway cost . On 27 February 1942, an
Army Air Corps plane made the first landing at the new airport. By 1943, the airport was an Army Air Corps
Lockheed P-38 Lightning training base and
North American P-51 Mustang operating base. After the war, it was one of the five large storage, sales, and scrapping centers for
United States Army Air Forces aircraft established by the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation; others were at
Albuquerque AAF,
New Mexico;
Altus AAF,
Oklahoma;
Kingman AAF,
Arizona; and
Walnut Ridge AAF,
Arkansas.
Ontario International Airport In 1946, Ontario Municipal Airport was renamed "Ontario International Airport" because of the trans-Pacific cargo flights originating there. On 17 May 1946, two Army surplus steel hangars arrived at the airport, which the Ontario city council had authorized the $50,000 purchase of just the previous week. City officials were pleased to have secured a bargain. Thought to be the only pair available in the U.S., City Manager Harold J. Martin observed that even if they could be acquired at a later date, the cost would be several times that afforded by prompt action. A
Pacific Overseas Airlines flight from
Shanghai arrived at Ontario on 18 May 1946, "which inaugurated regular round-trip air passenger service between the United States and the Orient." In 1949,
Western Airlines began scheduled flights; in 1955,
Bonanza Air Lines flights started. Western and Bonanza nonstops did not reach beyond
Las Vegas. In 1962, Western began nonstop flights to
San Francisco (one
Electra daily). In 1967, Bonanza began nonstop
F27 flights to
Phoenix. Ontario and Los Angeles entered into a joint-powers agreement, making Ontario International Airport part of the Los Angeles regional airports system in 1967. In 1968, the airport had its first scheduled jet flights. In 1969,
Continental Airlines started
Boeing 720B nonstops to
Denver and Chicago;
Air California started
Boeing 737 flights to
San Jose;
Pacific Southwest Airlines started San Francisco flights; and Western began 737 nonstops to
Sacramento and
Salt Lake City. In 1970,
United Airlines started a nonstop to Chicago and
American started flights to
Dallas (and Chicago, for a short time). In September 1986, Ontario hosted the
Concorde supersonic airliner during a promotional round-the-world flight. In 1981, a second east–west runway, 26L/8R, was built, necessitating the removal of the old NE-SW runway 3/21. Remnants of the 3/21 runway are visible in the present-day taxiways. With the completion of the new runway, the existing runway 25/7 became 26R/8L. In 1985, the city of Los Angeles acquired Ontario International Airport outright from the city of Ontario. In 1987, Runway 26R/8L was extended to the east to bring the two runway thresholds side by side, so aircraft would be higher over neighborhoods. 26R/8L became the main departing runway and 26L/8R the main arrival runway. For a number of years, the airport operated alongside
Ontario Air National Guard Station, which was closed as a result of the
1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. In 1998, the new and larger
airport terminal opened, designed by
DMJM Aviation. Two older terminals, west of the current terminal, the main terminal and a small terminal were discontinued when the new Terminal 2 and Terminal 4 facilities were opened. The old terminals currently house the administration and the USO. In 2005 and 2006, runway 26R/8L was repaved and strengthened, and received storm drains and better runway lighting, and additional improvements to taxiway intersections were made. In 2006, Ontario International Airport became
LA/Ontario International Airport. The "LA" portion was added to remind fliers of Greater Los Angeles and to avoid confusion with the
province of Ontario in Canada. The airport's traffic peaked in 2005 with 7.2 million passengers, and remained steady through 2007. Around the time of the
2008 financial crisis,
JetBlue suspended service to ONT, and major legacy carriers significantly decreased their passenger volume at the airport.
Southwest Airlines transferred a significant portion of its Ontario capacity to
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), making LAX fares more competitive with ONT, while being coupled with more attractive frequencies and a wider range of destinations. The surrounding
Inland Empire region was heavily affected by the
2008 financial crisis, with the nearby city of
San Bernardino declaring bankruptcy. The airport suffered a 40% decline in traffic between 2007 and 2012, during which time traffic at LAX recovered to surpass prerecession levels. A group of local government officials, led by Ontario city council member Alan Wapner, began a campaign to transfer control of the airport away from
Los Angeles World Airports. Wapner argued that the City of Los Angeles had no interest in maintaining service at an airport well beyond its borders. Local groups then sued the city of Los Angeles, a suit that was temporarily suspended when both sides agreed to attempt to work together. In 2015, Los Angeles World Airports agreed to turn over ownership of Ontario Airport to the city of Ontario. LAWA was "to be reimbursed for its investments in the facility, job protection for the facility's 182 employees and the settlement of a lawsuit in which Ontario sought to regain control of the airport. Upon transfer of ownership, the airport would be operated by the Ontario International Airport Authority, formed under a
joint-powers agreement between the city of Ontario and San Bernardino County". The
Ontario International Airport Authority took over control of operations in November 2016, and the airport's operating name was reverted to Ontario International Airport, since the City of Los Angeles no longer oversaw operations of the airport. The airport's continuing traffic decline reversed in early 2017, when the airport experienced faster growth than LAX for the first time since 2007. On September 30, 2017, it was announced that
China Airlines would begin nonstop flights from Ontario to Taipei, which started in spring 2018. On July 14, 2023,
New Pacific Airlines (formerly known as Northern Pacific Airways) commenced operations and made its first flight to
Harry Reid International Airport in
Las Vegas,
Nevada, and started flights to
Reno–Tahoe International Airport, also in Nevada, and
Nashville International Airport in
Tennessee. Also on that day, Volaris added flights to El Salvador. On January 1, 2024, New Pacific Airlines ended flights to Las Vegas and subsequently discontinued all scheduled service altogether. ==Facilities==