KMER is the ICAO code for Castle Airport (IATA MER), located in Merced, CA.
Castle Airport (KMER) is a medium airport in Merced, CA. Pilots and dispatchers reference it by ICAO code KMER or IATA code MER. It sits in North America.
Castle Airport is a regional airport primarily serving general aviation, charter, and corporate flight departments. The 11,802-foot runway means it is well-suited as a dedicated bizjet field, free from airline scheduling pressure.
The longest runway measures 11,802 ft (3,597 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.
Castle Airport sits near sea level at 191 ft.
Local operations run on America/Los_Angeles. 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 currently tracks 286 departing and 284 arriving private-jet legs at KMER across the next six months of operator inventory. 9 charter operators have run trips through this field in our recent inventory window.
Regional fields like KMER 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.