East Texas Regional Airport is an airport located in

Gregg County, Texas Gregg County is a county located in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 124,239. Its county seat is Longview. The county is named after John Gregg, a Confederate general killed in action duri ...

. The airport is just South of the city of Lakeport, and is south of Longview. Its IATA identifier GGG comes from its prior name, Gregg County Airport. The airport is used for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

and military training; it has scheduled flights to Dallas/Fort Worth on

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

American Eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

records say the airport had 24,835 passenger boardings (enplanements) in

calendar year Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. A year can also be measured by starting on any o ...

2008, 24,944 in 2009 and 21,830 in 2010. The

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2011–2015 categorized it as a ''primary commercial service'' airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year). East Texas Regional is home to

LeTourneau University LeTourneau University (LETU) is a private, interdenominational evangelical Christian university in Longview, Texas. Founded as LeTourneau Technical Institute in February 1946 by R. G. LeTourneau with his wife, Evelyn, the school initially educate ...

'
School of Aeronautical Science
LeTourneau constitutes a very large portion of the airport's traffic and has a fleet of airplanes ranging from

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.

s to Citabrias and Piper PA-44 Seminoles. Most LeTourneau aircraft have tail numbers ending in "LU". All use the call sign "Jacket" (three letter- JKA). Each summer the airport hosts the Great Texas Balloon Race, a volunteer-run weekend event held annually since 1980.

History

Construction of the Gregg County Airport and terminal was completed and the airport opened on 15 July 1947. Once open, Mid-Continent and Delta Airlines serviced the airport with commercial flights. Many improvements happened over the years, including runway lights, approach lights, and an instrument landing system. Big changes came in 1970, when the paved runway 13/31 was completed, and in 1976 when a new air traffic control tower was built. In 2002, the airport was renamed the East Texas Regional Airport. In 2007 the airport was awarded a $6.5 million

Airport Improvement Program The Airport Improvement Program is a United States federal grant program that provides funds to public use airports to help improve safety and efficiency. Improvement projects relate to runways, taxiways, ramps, lighting, signage, weather stations, ...

grant to accomplish major updates to the facility. Included among the projects were the resurfacing of Runway 13/31, as well as the relocation of the ILS glideslope and

MALSR An approach lighting system (ALS) is a lighting system installed on the approach end of an airport runway and consisting of a series of lightbars, strobe lights, or a combination of the two that extends outward from the runway end. ALS usually ...

due to the creation of an 800'

displaced threshold A displaced threshold or DTHR is a runway threshold located at a point other than the physical beginning or end of the runway. The portion of the runway behind a displaced threshold may be used for takeoff in either direction and landings from the ...

on Runway 13 to comply with FAA

runway safety area A runway safety area (RSA) or runway end safety area (RESA) is defined as "the surface surrounding the runway prepared or suitable for reducing the risk of damage to airplanes in the event of an undershoot, overshoot, or excursion from the runway. ...

standards. Former taxiway H (at the intersection of 18/36 and 13/31) was demolished after being identified as a potential hot spot for runway incursions. The improvements were completed in 2009. On 8 October 1992, the airport was the first of two stops for Ferry Flight 58 of

Space Shuttle Atlantis Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' (Orbiter Vehicle designation: OV‑104) is a Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. ''Atlantis'' was manufactured by the Rockwell Inte ...

between the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

and

Palmdale, California Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On Aug ...

, where Atlantis was sent for orbiter maintenance. Runway 13/31 was a stand-by recovery point for the Space Shuttle Program.

Facilities

East Texas Regional Airport covers at an elevation of . It has two asphalt runways: In the year ending June 30, 2011, the airport had 74,950 aircraft operations, average 205 per day: 91%

, 6% military, 2%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) an ...

, and 1% airline. 99 aircraft were then based at this airport: 58% single-engine, 23% multi-engine, 18% jet, and 1%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. Two

fixed-base operator A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, ...

s (FBOs) are on the field
Stebbins Aviation
an
KRS Jet Center

Airline and destination

References

External links

*
East Texas Regional (GGG)
at

Texas DOT The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT ) is a government agency in the American state of Texas. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with the construction and maintenance of the state's immense state highway system ...

Airport Directory
LeTourneau University School of Aeronautical Science

Great Texas Balloon Race

Aerial image as of March 1995
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...

'' * * * {{Authority control Airports in Texas Transportation in Gregg County, Texas Buildings and structures in Gregg County, Texas LeTourneau University