The skies over Golden Triangle Regional Airport will be a little busier over the next six months.
More than a dozen T-1 trainers from Columbus Air Force Base will make GTRA their temporary home while one of the CAFB runways undergoes construction work.
“We’re glad we could partner with the Air Force and give them the opportunity to keep their training tempo up during construction at the base,” GTRA Executive Director Mike Hainsey said. “The worldwide pilot shortage is hitting the Air Force especially hard, so they need to keep their pilot training on schedule.”
Hainsey said there will be about 35 training flights each day, Monday through Friday, at GTRA.
“They do have weekend flights sometimes, if they get behind, but normally it’s just the week days,” he said.
In addition to the training flights, traffic at GTRA will also increase when Delta begins its fourth regular flight out of the airport. In February, Delta Airlines announced it was adding its fourth daily round-trip flight between GTRA and Atlanta. Beginning June 8, the new flight will depart GTRA at 1:15 p.m. Other Delta flights out of GTRA take off at 6:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
“We have the infrastructure and people in place to handle all of our partners, including the Air Force,” Hainsey said. “We’ll be busy, but we’re equipped to handle all of this and still maintain the high level of safety required and expected.”
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