What H.A. Clark Memorial Field Is
H.A. Clark Memorial Field, identified by the codes KCMR (ICAO) and CMR (FAA), is a public-use airport located a few miles north of downtown Williams. It's an uncontrolled general-aviation field, meaning there's no control tower directing traffic — pilots coordinate their own arrivals and departures using standard uncontrolled-airport procedures. The airport sits on several hundred acres at a high elevation, consistent with the rest of the Williams area's mountain setting, and has a single paved runway long enough to accommodate a range of general-aviation and business aircraft.
Traffic at the field is overwhelmingly general aviation — private aircraft, flight training, and some air taxi and charter activity — rather than any form of scheduled commercial service. There are no airline gates, no ticket counters, and no scheduled flights in or out.
Why Most Visitors Don't Fly Directly Into Williams
If you're planning a typical Grand Canyon or Route 66 trip and searching for flights, you won't find commercial service into Williams — the town simply isn't served by any airline. The practical airports for visitors are Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, a major hub with extensive domestic and international service, or Flagstaff Pulliam Airport, a smaller regional airport with limited commercial routes but a much shorter drive to Williams.
Most travelers fly into one of those two airports and then drive the rest of the way, either in a rental car or via a shuttle service. It's a normal, expected part of planning a Williams or Grand Canyon trip rather than an inconvenience unique to this destination — plenty of small mountain towns near major natural attractions work the same way.
Getting to Williams From Flagstaff Pulliam Airport
Flagstaff Pulliam is the closer of the two options, generally cited at around 35 miles from Williams — roughly a half-hour drive along I-40. Flagstaff's commercial service is more limited than Phoenix's, typically running through a smaller set of connecting routes, so it's worth checking which cities have direct service before assuming it's the easiest option for your specific itinerary.
For travelers who are already routing through Flagstaff for other reasons — visiting the city itself, or connecting to other parts of northern Arizona — flying into Pulliam and driving the rest of the way to Williams is usually the shorter, simpler option of the two.
Getting to Williams From Phoenix Sky Harbor
Phoenix Sky Harbor is the larger and far more heavily served airport, with nonstop flights from across the country and internationally. The tradeoff is distance: Williams is roughly 165 to 170 miles north of Phoenix, which typically works out to a drive of around three hours or a bit more, depending on traffic through the Phoenix metro area and conditions along the route.
Despite the longer drive, Sky Harbor is the airport most out-of-state visitors actually use, simply because it has so many more flight options. Renting a car at Sky Harbor and driving north is the standard approach, and the drive itself passes through a noticeable shift in scenery and elevation as you climb out of the desert toward Williams' pine forest setting.
Information for Private Pilots
For pilots flying themselves in, KCMR is a legitimate option for reaching the Williams and western Grand Canyon area directly, cutting out the drive that commercial travelers have to make. As with any uncontrolled field, standard practice applies: check current NOTAMs, fuel availability, and any seasonal weather considerations before planning your flight, since conditions at this elevation can include winter snow and ice that don't affect lower-elevation Arizona airports the same way.
Ground transportation from the airport into Williams — rental car availability, shuttle service, or arranged transport — is worth confirming ahead of time, since options at a small general-aviation field are more limited than at a full-service commercial airport.
A Field With Some History
Published aviation-history accounts describe the field operating under an earlier name starting in the 1920s, before later development and a renaming in memory of a local aviator killed in a plane crash. That backstory isn't documented on the airport's own site or in FAA records, so treat the specifics as historical color rather than an official chronicle. What is clear from the airport's current records is that it's a longstanding general-aviation field, not a recent addition, even though its role today is limited to general aviation rather than passenger service.