Columbus-Lowndes County Airport soaring to new heights

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The City of Columbus was awarded a $600,000 grant for a project aimed at constructing a new hangar at the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport.

Dan Duston, the fixed base operator of the county airport, said the money was long overdue for updates.

“The recently awarded multimodal grant can be used in collaboration with federal BIO funds that are available,” said Dustin. “The airport has one hangar that needs tearing down and replacing. The others need renovation. The current wish list is to use the funds to serve those needs as well to construct a new corporate hangar, which I believe we could fill in just a week if we had it.”

Jackson Thomas, a southern-based entrepreneur, said without small airports like the Columbus Lowndes County Airport, he wouldn’t be able to complete his day-to-day business.

“I was able to be in Louisiana in the morning,” Thomas said. “I was able to travel all the way here over 300 miles in an hour and a half. He has a car. He’ll let me borrow a car. I’ll go do my meetings so I save on having to rent a car. I don’t have to worry about whether or not it’s available. I’ll go to make my meeting. I’ll be able to report back to my customer today that everything’s ready to go. I’ll be able to get back here. Dan’s going to have me fueled up and then I’ll head out and head to Atlanta.”

Duston said the new changes will take the airport to new heights.

“With the industry growth in this area, not necessarily just speaking of East Columbus but the Golden Triangle in general,” Duston said. “There’s an increased need for a corporate-type aircraft hangar in this area. There’s going to be continued growth in this area that will need to use their aircraft as a tool as a means of transportation of getting around and this project will allow us to serve those needs of those customers.”

A start date for the construction has not been announced yet.

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