Waukegan National Airport is a public airport in Waukegan, in Lake County, Illinois. The airport is 40 mi north of Chicago. It was originally Waukegan Memorial Airport. It has been operated by the Waukegan Port District since 1956. In January 2014 under a FAA reclassification of many small airports, the airport was renamed Waukegan National Airport The FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2009–2013, categorized it as a reliever airport for Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Runway upgrades began in 2022. During the 2020 Kenosha unrest, US President Donald Trump flew into Waukegan on his way to assess the damage in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Facilities

Waukegan National Airport covers 600 acre at an elevation of 727 ft. Its two runways are asphalt surfaces over concrete pavements: runway 5/23 is 6,000 feet long and 150 feet wide (1,829 x 46 m) and runway 14/32 is 3,751 feet long and 75 feet wide (1,143 x 23 m). In 2021, the airport announced a proposal to purchase 52 acres of land from the Lake County Forest Preserves to build a longer, extended runway parallel to runway 5/23. Though nothing would have been built on the land, the airport would have needed to remove some trees and swamp from the area for federally-mandated safety buffers. An environmental assessment and public hearings must be completed before the plan can move forward. Plans to build the runway are stalled as of 2024, and the required public hearings have yet to be scheduled. As of July 2018, there are 123 flights per day at UGN: 47% transient general aviation, 43% local general aviation, 8% air taxi, 2% military, and <1% commercial. There are 114 aircraft based at the field, including 74 single engine airplanes, 29 jets, 10 multiengine airplanes, and 1 helicopter.

Incidents and accidents

Ground transportation

While no public transit service is provided directly to the airport, Pace provides bus service nearby.