Talk:Essex County Airport

Airport Location? Caldwell or Fairfield

My copy of the Airport and Facility Directory is in my plane right now, but as far as I remember, the FAA lists the airport as "Caldwell/Essex County" rather than just "Essex County". There's been a lot of back and forth about this for airports in general on Wikipedia -- some people prefer the shorter names, while others (like me) prefer the longer names from official aviation publications, because they're easier for readers to understand (i.e. "Toronto/Lester B. Pearson" is a lot easier to figure out than just "Lester B. Pearson"). I've been there only twice, but doesn't some of the airport property run into Caldwell? David 02:17, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

If you look in the Verizon Suburban Essex phone book or on Verizon's online Superpages.com website you will see that the physical address for the airport and even two of its tenants including Caldwell Air Service and the Caldwell Flight Academy is located on Wright Way and/or Passaic Avenue in Fairfield not in Caldwell. Also I think people call it Caldwell because its easier then having to pronounce the entire name of the airport which officially is Essex County Airport. Another good example is residents of Los Angeles don't use the entire name for Los Angeles International Airport most if not all usually just refer to it as LAX. Same with Newark Liberty International, It is usually refered to simply as Newark or EWR. It's just a matter of convenience but the article should go by the airport's official name. Misterrick 12:00, 06 October 2005 (UTC)

The general practice is to associate an airport after the nearest city or community of note: the FAA must have decided that Caldwell was more noteworthy than Fairfield. This is a separate issue from using nicknames like "LAX" or "JFK". David 18:45, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Back in the late 1800's/early 1900's Fairfield's name was changed to Caldwell Township not to be confused with Caldwell Borough and eventually it was changed back to Fairfield. I hope this answers your question 198.31.188.82 21:12, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for that extra information, but I think it's too long ago to have affected the naming of the airport. AirNav.com uses the (freely available) FAA database, and that database explicitly lists Caldwell, NJ as the municipality associated with the airport [1]; of course, the FAA/IATA identifier is also an abbreviation of "Caldwell. I'm not sure why — Caldwell has about the same population as Fairfield, and more of the airport is in Fairfield — but there you have it: as far as the FAA is concerned, the airport is in Caldwell, and (from memory) is listed in the Airport and Facilities Directory as "Caldwell/Essex Co." or something similar. David 22:56, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

In my humble opinion, It's probably just a matter of logistics, The FAA or Essex County Airport probably never changed it's information following the name change as User:198.31.188.82 has indicated. But I can tell you that I've been to Essex County Airport and it is in Fairfield Township there is no doubt about that. Misterrick 05:40, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

I understand that this is a sensitive issue for people who live there, but a county name at the turn of the century doesn't seem likely to have affected the airport name, and it's also unlikely simply to have been a mistake (I removed that speculation from the article). I don't know the history of northern NJ, but I do know that Caldwell has a long history as a town. Perhaps when the airport was built, Fairfield was mostly farms, so the airport (as is the convention) was named after the nearest town of note. After all, Washington/Dulles is not in Washington, and Toronto/Pearson is (mostly) not in Toronto. With suburban sprawl, of course, Fairfield now has the same population as Caldwell. In any case, the airport (rightly or wrongly) remains "Caldwell/Essex County" until the FAA changes it. So, in the article, I agree that we should state that (most of) the airport is located in Fairfield, but at the same time, we shouldn't just dismiss the official FAA location as a mistake. David 13:48, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Just because the F.A.A. lists it in Caldwell doesn't mean its true. You have to remember who were dealing with a bunch of Washington bureaucrats who don't know their head from their asses (Excuse my language). I am a life-long resident of Essex County, I've been to Essex County Airport, I know pilots who use Essex County Airport who refer to it as Essex County Airport not Caldwell Airport and when asked where its location is they all reply that it is in Fairfield Township not Caldwell. As User:198.31.188.82 has pointed out the town of Fairfield had briefly changed its name to Caldwell Township and you have to remember that although Caldwell Township and Caldwell Borough shared a similar name they were in no way part of each other. Misterrick 06:03, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

I think people might be confusing two questions here. The first question is "where's the airport?", and the answer to that is "Fairfield" — no one has disagreed with that in the whole discussion. The second question is "What community does the FAA associate the airport with", and the answer to that is "Caldwell". Every airport is officially associated with a community, and that's not always the community where it's physically located. Whether you agree or disagree with the FAA that Caldwell is more noteworthy than Fairfield, we should still record the simple fact that the FAA makes the association (and that it appears in all aeronautical publications). David 18:12, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

I need to add to this as I was born in Fairfield and have family that was active politically. Fairfield was originally part of the old Caldwell Township; this township included modern-day Fairfield, Caldwell, West Caldwell, North Caldwell, Essex Fells, Verona, Cedar Grove, Roseland, and Livingston, and part of West Orange. These towns pulled out individually until modern-day Fairfield was all that was left. The township changed names to Fairfield circa 1963 -- hardly turn of the century. The airport was in planning for 40 years by this time. It used to be a dairy farm. The old Curtiss-Wright corporation had facilities there and was one of the main airport users originally. So I think part of the confusion is that Caldwell was more significant when it was Greater Caldwell. Fairfield has far more business than Caldwell does, although the Caldwell Borough downtown was one of the main downtowns back when. Caldwell is significantly smaller than Fairfield in area; Fairfield is nearly 10 times larger, but they have almost the exact same population. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.99.36.37 (talk) 15:28, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Mass transit link to Essex County Airport dubious

The last sentence of the history section of the article mentions that "A direct link to transit makes it the perfect choice for jets traveling to the New York City area..."

Have closely investigated the possibility of taking flight lessons at Essex while living in NYC, I eventually came to learn that the mass transit link cited only on Century Air's website (the only reference I can find to the airport's transit link) is hardly useful. The site doesn't point out which busline provides the service, but 20 minutes spent tracing both buslines' exact routes will eventually show you that one line does indeed pass directly along the backside of the airport. Unfortunately, route 46 takes you to Fairfield and Hollywood Aves. which is a solid 30 minute walk (1.5 miles) to the airport terminals and flight school on the other side.

Sorry to the VLJ operator who probably wants to promote this airport, but this hardly counts as the perfect choice for VLJ aircraft on account of a transit link that involves a 30 minute walk. Maybe via cab, but that's a different story. - —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cdwops (talk • contribs)

Answer to all your Questions

The green FAA book that you are speaking of might list Caldwell/Essex Co. Airport. Offically today it is called the Essex County Airport and not Caldwell Airport, however pilots calling into the airport refer to it as "Caldwell Tower, or Caldwell Ground" this has been in affect since the 1970s. To many years have gone by without some sort of correction from Caldwell to Essex County Tower or Ground, and I doubt it will ever change..Also its in Fairfield but like the FAA says its Caldwell, its a larger town with a larger history.

Direct transit link to NYC. I was not refering to mass transit at all, I just mean its a great local runway to get to New York City. Yes mass transit to NYC is available however you would need to contact Airport Operations at (973)227-4567 or Unicom 122.95 to get a ride to the bus stop its about 10 minutes walking or 2 minutes in a car. One day in the future the airport might make it easier and allow NJ Transit stop at the access road and allow a smoother line of transportation to New York City.

Rob Gomez Airport Operations —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cdwops (talk • contribs) 01:59, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

History section

The rather long and detailed airport history section is totally unsourced and looks far too much like original research. I can't find a source for this - does anyone else have one? - Ahunt (talk) 14:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

This section has been tagged as unref for quite a while, with the tags being removed by IP editors a number of times, but no refs provided. Normally either refs are found or the text is removed, however one of the IP editors has indicated here that there are no refs available, that the history text is all original research and furthermore that those contributing are in a conflict of interest in using this article to promote their business. As per the original research policy Wikipedia does not publish original research, mostly because it lacks verifiability, therefore it must be removed and I have done so. Any portions of this can be reinserted if reliable refs can be found. - Ahunt (talk) 14:29, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Once again I have moved a bunch of text inserted by User:Gomez2k02, which is the same text that User:69.125.154.118 reinserted and indicated is original research. The refs added by User:Gomez2k02 not only broke the page templates, but also don't support the text inserted. This issue has really started to become little more than POV/COI vandalism. Please discuss here prior to re-adding this. User:69.125.154.118 has made it clear he or she doesn't want the text tagged as unreferenced and that means it has to be properly referenced or removed. Furthermore since both these editors are associated with the subject of this article as User:69.125.154.118 explained, please read WP:COI and stop trying to use Wikipedia to further your own aims in promoting your airport. - Ahunt (talk) 19:16, 8 March 2010 (UTC)