Lakehurst Maxfield Field Airport

Lakehurst Maxfield Field Airport (KNEL) is a medium airport in Lakehurst, NJ. Pilots and dispatchers reference it by ICAO code KNEL or IATA code NEL. It sits in North America.

Lakehurst Maxfield Field Airport is a regional airport primarily serving general aviation, charter, and corporate flight departments. The 5,002-foot runway means it is well-suited as a dedicated bizjet field, free from airline scheduling pressure.

The longest runway measures 5,002 ft (1,525 m), a light-jet-class field. Representative aircraft that operate comfortably here include the Phenom 300, Citation CJ4, and Learjet 75. In practice this limits operations to light jets, turboprops, and short-field-capable aircraft.

Lakehurst Maxfield Field Airport sits near sea level at 101 ft.

Local operations run on America/New_York. 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 KNEL 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 KNEL 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.

Lakehurst Maxfield Field, formerly known as Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, is the naval component of Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst, a United States Air Force-managed joint base. The airfield is approximately 25 mi east-southeast of Trenton in Manchester Township and Jackson Township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. It is primarily the home to Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst, although the airfield supports several other flying and non-flying units as well. Its name is an amalgamation of its location and the last name of Commander Louis H. Maxfield, who lost his life when the R-38/USN ZR-2 airship crashed during flight on 24 August 1921 near Hull, England.