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PAINESVILLE - Lost Nation Airport has a new name created to attract business.

Lake County Executive Airport is the new title given the facility July 24 by the Lake County Ohio Port and Economic Development Authority.
“What we’re trying to do is use it as an economic development tool, emphasizing the fact that it is a business-friendly airport,” said Mark Rantala, executive director of the Port Authority. “This is important to people who are considering using it either to take off, to land or to base their aircraft at.”
Changing the name of the airport to make it an executive airport “tells the pilots who are coming into northeastern Ohio that, if this is closer to where they are going, we can certainly handle what you need to have done without going to another airport like Burke Lakefront or the nearby Cuyahoga County Airport,” he said.
Pending approval by the Federal Aviation Administration, the new name will be more inviting to business aircraft than Lost Nation Airport, the title the facility has had for at least the last 50 years or more. Furthermore, improvements to safety, and modern aeronautical equipment most pilots depend on, make it more of a business than a general aviation airport, he added.
Pilots and companies with corporate aircraft that do their homework about the airport will discover it has two runways, one which is 5,013 feet long and another that is 4,835 feet long, which is long enough to handle corporate jets, Rantala said.
The Ohio Department of Transportation found that Lost Nation Airport has an economic impact of about $9.4 million to Lake County. This means it is of significant economic importance to the county, its industries and businesses. Therefore, it needs another name to help attract more business, he said.
Lost Nation Airport, started out as a dairy farm in 1929 that eventually became a small, private airport. Since then it has become a 400-acre aircraft facility with two runways. With its growth has come many changes over the last 20 years, including several important FAA grants and transfer of ownership to Lake County from the City of Willoughby because the city could no longer afford to finance the airport’s ongoing operation.
A new master plan recently approved by the Port Authority calls for future development that includes reconstruction of several T-hangers to house more private aircraft, as well as up to 20 corporate jets or turboprop aircraft.
In addition, Airport Manager Patty Fulop envisions the airport possibly becoming a hub for drones, although this means working with the FAA and private companies to determine the feasibility and safety. The inclusion of safety measures needed to prevent drones from colliding with aircraft will be a must, she said.
He admits the name change is partially a marketing effort to facilitate future economic growth in the county.
“Businesses, particularly along the Route 2 corridor, that may be part of a larger corporate entity that has plants throughout the country can have corporate executives fly into the airport rather than go to Cleveland Hopkins, Burke Lakefront or Cuyahoga County (airports),” Rantala said. “This is why having a business-friendly airport with an attractive name is important.”
Lost Nation Airport doesn’t convey the image of an airport that welcomes corporate decision makers who might see the county as a sight for future economic development. Instead it sounds as if it were an airport in the Bermuda Triangle, he added.
Approval of the name change could take as long as a year to be approved by the FAA, although it already has been OK’d by the Lake County Board of Commissioners, he said.
The long-standing name is tied to Lost Nation Road on which the airport is located. That name is connected to local Native American lore. One theory is the road is named in memory of the Erie Indians. That tribe, which was considered an Indian nation, mysteriously vanished about 1650 after a war with Iroquois Indians, who hunted in the area, according to local historians.
Officially, the airport’s name is Willoughby Lost Nation Municipal Airport, although it has been called just Lost Nation Airport for many years. The city, however, has not owned it since 2014 when it was officially transferred to the Lake County Board of Commissioners and the responsibility for its administration assigned to the Port Authority. The new name also reflects the county’s ownership, Rantala said.