Dan Duston, the fixed-base operator for the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport, stands next to a panel inside a building, pushes a button and raises a 80-foot wide metal front door.
Inside, the brightly lit hangar is empty with no planes in sight, but Duston isn’t worried by the lack of aircraft. In fact, he’s excited.
He has a list of potential airplane owners looking to rent spots in the hangar once it officially opens within the next few weeks.
“I attended (the Louisville-Winston County Airport) air show in the fall and saw that hangar, and I said, ‘That’s really what our airport needs if we want to help increase jet traffic,’” Duston told The Dispatch on Tuesday.
The 9,600-square-foot box hangar is the centerpiece of $3 million worth of projects that wrapped up earlier this year, which also included repaving the airport’s 4,503-foot runway. Over the next two years, the airport is continuing its expansion with an estimated $1.2 million in additional projects.
Construction of the new hangar finished in April, County Engineer Zach Foster told The Dispatch. A Mississippi Department of Transportation multimodal grant funded $600,000 of the $1.2 million project.
Duston said he hopes the hangar will attract flyers looking to rent a permanent enclosed space for their aircraft.
“We’ve had a demand off and on for jets that’s passing through … and a lot of these people don’t want their multi-million dollar aircraft sitting out on a ramp in a hail storm, and so we can put it in there (and) keep it safe,” Duston said.
The runway was already at the end of its 20-year life cycle in October 2024, when the repaving began. It was completed in March.
The runway update cost about $1.8 million, with FAA funds covering 90% of the project.
The airport is currently pre-applying for grants to cover an estimated $1.2 million in additional projects over the next two years, including an Automated Weather Observing System tower and a new open hangar.
Currently, the airport relies on Golden Triangle Regional Airport’s weather system to give readings for pilots arriving and leaving from CLCA, which isn’t as accurate as having its own on site, Duston said.
“The weather station is going to be a great tool,” he said. “… If (pilots are) in the air and they need to divert … they can pull up our airport’s weather from the cockpit and see it in real time.”
Phase one of adding the new weather system includes the removal of a 500-foot radius of trees on the west side of the airport’s runway. Phase two will involve the actual construction and implementation of the tower.
Both phases are projected to cost about $450,000, Foster said. The airport already has $154,000 in FAA and MDOT grants, which will cover the costs of phase one and part of phase two. Both are projected to be finished by the end of 2026, he said.
Expected to be completed by spring 2027, the new freestanding, open hangar is estimated to cost more than $700,000, which is expected to be covered mostly by FAA and MDOT grants with the city and county splitting roughly $170,000 for the project.
Preparing for ‘take off’
Duston said the support the county and city have shown the airport in the four years he’s been managing CLCA has made him optimistic about its future.
“We’ve come such a long way in four years,” he said. “We’ve had things happen, like I didn’t anticipate an AWOS and that hangar within five years. I never saw that coming.”
Over the course of the next five to 10 years, some other improvements that the airport is considering include adding new LED lights on the runway for increased visibility, expanding the runway and obtaining rehabilitation grants on the remaining older open hangars, Duston said.
“There’s an old saying that you build a mile highway and it takes you a mile, but you build a mile runway, and it takes you to the world,” Duston said. “… It’s a tool. It’s infrastructure. It’s transportation. … There is a positive economic impact that comes from having this airport.”
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene, who is on the CLCA board, said that the funding for these projects comes from a shared understanding between the city and county on the airport’s importance and hopes the support continues.
“It’s just a mutual understanding that we’re in this as a partnership,” Greene said. “… It’s been a good working relationship.”
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors Trip Hairston, who is also a CLCA board member, said the airport is a great way to showcase unity between the city and county and the importance of the airport as an economic asset.
“Our hope is that we will continue to see a community airport that’s growing and even more utilized,” he said. “… It’s a really neat project that we’re doing, and we’ve seen a lot of good (benefits) to the community.”
While the process to get the improvements has been incremental, Duston said he is hopeful they’ll begin to add up and help the airport really “take off.”
“I think the city leaders, (and) county leaders are recognizing the benefits of having all these amenities to offer,” Duston said. “… The whole idea is to make the airport an asset to the community and not a burden.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
