Dubuque Regional Airport
Dubuque Regional Airport
Dubuque Regional Airport (IATA: DBQ, ICAO: KDBQ, FAA LID: DBQ) is a regional airport located eight miles south of Dubuque, in Dubuque County, Iowa. On U.S. Highway 61, the airport is owned by the city of Dubuque and is operated as a department of the city government. The city council appoints people for four-year terms to the Airport Commission board, which oversees the airport. For day-to-day operations, the commission hires an airport manager. The airport is used for general aviation and sees one airline. A charter service is run by Sun Country Airlines. The airport offers maintenance and refueling services, including service for jets. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 categorized it as a primary commercial service facility. Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 42,870 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 39,359 in 2009, and 33,861 in 2010.
Location
42.402°N, 90.710°O · 328 m s. n. m. (1.077 ft)
General data
Runways · 2
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 5 Official publication
Tower
Ground
ATIS (automatic information)
Approach
UNICOM
Frequencies from the official publication: FAA NASR, AIRAC 01 OCT 2026, checked on Oct 16, 2026. They change with each amendment: not for navigation without checking the current AIP. See the official publication In MHz.
History
An airport on Chaplain Schmitt Island was constructed in 1934, but was abandoned due to flooding.
The first airline flights at Dubuque were Mid-Continent DC-3s in 1950. In 1955 successor Braniff was replaced by Ozark, which pulled out its D-C9s and FH-227s in 1981.
Northwest Airlines announced on February 7, 2008, that its regional partner Mesaba Airlines (Northwest Airlink) would return to Dubuque with twice daily Saab 340s to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. These flights began on June 20, 2008. On July 2, 2009, the merged Delta/Northwest Airlines announced it would end service to Dubuque, leaving DBQ with one airline.
The 2013 Federal sequester would have resulted in the closure of the airport's control tower, but the Federal Aviation Administration ultimately reversed its decision.
As late as early 2020, American Eagle ERJ-145s flew to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago three times a day, yet reduced their schedule to one daily flight due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 6, 2022, American Eagle ended its last daily flight to the airport.
On November 3, 2022, Avelo Airlines and the Dubuque Regional Airport announced airline service to Orlando, Florida, using Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The flights started on March 22, 2023. Further, on September 13, they added a flight to Las Vegas. On November 1, 2023, Avelo Airlines and the airport announced that air service to Las Vegas, would be discontinued beginning January 6, 2024, as part of a national network reevaluation. On January 10, 2024, the Dubuque Regional Airport announced that Avelo Airlines will pause regular air service to Orlando and convert to seasonal air service as part of a company wide transition. In July 2024, Avelo announced they would not return to Dubuque citing aircraft availability and costs at Orlando.
On August 27, 2024, the airport announced the return of daily service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport with Denver Air Connection, starting November 4, 2024.
On December 15, 2025, the Dubuque City Council voted to direct the airport commission to end the service agreement with Denver Air, effective January 15, 2026.
What flies here
From our own logbook: 31 aircraft documented between 2006 and 2022.
Types seen here
Airlines with documented aircraft
Busiest routes from here
A count of our own aircraft profiles, year by year, from the public United States flight records: it reflects what we have documented, not the airport’s total traffic.
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 16, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 16). Dubuque Regional Airport (DBQ). Retrieved October 19, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/DBQ
MLA
“Dubuque Regional Airport (DBQ).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 16 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/DBQ. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Dubuque Regional Airport (DBQ).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/DBQ.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Dubuque Regional Airport (DBQ). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/DBQ (Accessed: 19 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_dbq,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Dubuque Regional Airport (DBQ)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/DBQ},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/DBQ}},
urldate = {2026-10-19},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-19}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/DBQ |title=Dubuque Regional Airport (DBQ) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-16 |access-date=2026-10-19 |language=en}}