Magic Airport Disappears After Only ONE WEEK of Operation

No runway? No problem! Like the event itself, the temporary airport that serves the annual Burning Man festival is a complete one-off.

Every August, thousands of revelers descend into Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for the Burning Man festival. While some battle to the remote site by car, others opt to fly, arriving into an airport that is as unique as the annual festival itself.

While the nearest commercial airport – Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) – is still a two-hour drive from the festival, the much smaller Black Rock City Municipal Airport is Burning Man’s on-site passenger facility. It isn’t much more than a two-mile long airstrip roughly outlined in the desert sand, but it does carry an official airport designation code of 88NV.

Used for just one week at the end of every summer, 88NV is a non-permanent structure and, in keeping with Burning Man’s “Leave No Trace” policy, disappears back into the sands as soon as the party is over. Because this airport lacks air traffic control towers, pilots flying into 88NV must communicate their landing pattern details and safety information via a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency.

When the airport was first registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1997, only a handful of pilots initially dared to fly into 88NV. Despite two crashes back in 2013, this airstrip has seen a steady increase in passenger traffic.

Organizers for this year’s event say they are expecting several hundred aircraft to land at 88NV between August 30 and September 7. Additionally, this year also sees the debut of Burner Air, which operates private flights to and from festivals like Burning Man with a three-plane fleet comprised of a Cessna, a Pilatus and Beechking.

[Photo: EcoLogic Design Lab]