Help is on the way for two local airports after Monday’s meeting of the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors.
The board approved applying for a $1 million loan from the Mississippi Development Authority on behalf of Golden Triangle Regional Airport and also approved going after Federal Aviation Administration funds for the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport.
The loan will go toward covering soft costs associated with a planned terminal expansion project, according to GTRA Executive Director Matt Dowell.
“We’re in the process of designing a terminal expansion that is going to add about 2,800 square feet to our existing building, on the second floor, as well as a jet bridge to utilize for boarding,” he said.
The addition will be built on top of the concrete roof lining extending out from the terminal. The roof was built in 2009 with the intention of eventually becoming the floor for this new project.
The project is estimated to cost about $12 million, Dowell said, and the airport is seeking a $1 million loan from MDA to cover engineering and design costs. The airport needs the county to pass a resolution supporting the request.
“MDA offers an airport grant of up to $1 million at 1 percent (interest),” Dowell told The Dispatch after the meeting. “As part of that the supervisors have to sign off on it. If there are any issues (with repayment) they have the ability to tax. We go through them because the land is in Lowndes County.”
Lowndes County is not putting any of its own money into the project, explained Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston.
“They needed a signature on the loan along with the airport’s,” Hairston said. “We owe nothing on that loan. It’s just a pass-through.”
Dowell said the airport has already gotten an $11.3 million grant through the FAA’s Airport Terminals Program, which is funded by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
The expansion will add terminal space on the second floor of the existing building. Dowell said it will add about 75 additional seats, raising the total terminal capacity to about 175.
The Transportation Security Administration checkpoint will still be downstairs, Dowell said. After going through security, passengers will go up an escalator to the new terminal area and will board through a jetway.
“Delta Airlines serves us now with a 50-seat aircraft, but those 50-seaters are going away,” he said. “The jet bridge will help service those larger aircraft. … The jet bridge also allows us to be able to serve customers without them getting exposed to the elements.”
If another airline begins serving GTRA, the lower terminal area can be used for those operations, he said.
Delta is the only commercial airline flying through GTRA now, offering service to Atlanta.
Dowell said bids will be opened in March of next year.
The airport’s request was unanimously approved.
New taxiway at city/county airport
The board also approved a request by the Columbus-Lowndes Airport Board to use Airport Improvement Program money to repave about 4,000 feet of taxiway.
The low bid for the work was from APAC, and came in at about $542,000, said Neel-Schaffer Engineer Zach Foster, and the airport only has about $420,000 on hand.
“We got $399,000 in the spring from the FAA,” he said. “We got a matching grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation for $22,000. What we would be needing to do is ask for the (FAA Airport Improvement Program) funding for next year to cover the balance.”
The city and county would have to float a total of about $160,000 until the FAA grant money gets here next year to reimburse them, he said.
The supervisors unanimously approved the request.
Airport Fixed Base Operator Dan Duston told The Dispatch the taxiway is about 18 years old and starting to crack and crumble.
“It has a lot of block cracking going on,” he said. “… The top layer is starting to crumble, and there’s a lot of loose aggregate on it. It’s beginning to pose a risk to airplane propellers.”
Foster said he hopes work resurfacing the taxiway can begin in late November or early December. Temperatures have to be at least 45 degrees for the paving to take place, he said.
Once work is underway it should take a week or two, he said.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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