Ellsworth Air Force Base

Ellsworth Air Force Base (KRCA) is a medium airport in Rapid City, SD. Pilots and dispatchers reference it by ICAO code KRCA or IATA code RCA. It sits in North America.

Ellsworth Air Force Base is a regional airport primarily serving general aviation, charter, and corporate flight departments. The 13,497-foot runway means it is well-suited as a dedicated bizjet field, free from airline scheduling pressure.

The longest runway measures 13,497 ft (4,114 m), a ultra-long-range-class field. Representative aircraft that operate comfortably here include the Gulfstream G650, Bombardier Global 7500, and Dassault Falcon 8X. In practice this transcontinental and transoceanic operations without performance penalties.

Ellsworth Air Force Base lies at 3,276 ft elevation.

Local operations run on America/Denver. Without scheduled airline traffic, the field tends to be quieter and more flexible for charter and corporate operations — a useful characteristic for early morning, late night, or short-notice flights that would be impractical at a hub.

SkyAccess inventory for KRCA updates continuously as operators publish new empty legs and one-way repositioning trips. Pricing on each leg is available with a free account, and an inventory alert will email you the moment a leg appears on the route you care about.

Regional fields like KRCA are a meaningful share of US private aviation — closer to the trip's actual origin or destination than the nearest major hub, with shorter ramp-to-cabin times that are the main reason owners and brokers prefer them.

Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Rapid City, South Dakota, just north of the town of Box Elder.