Gwinnett County Airport at Briscoe Field is a municipal

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located about two miles (3 km) northeast of

Lawrenceville, Georgia Lawrenceville is a city in and the county seat of Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a suburb of Atlanta, located approximately northeast of downtown. As of the 2020 census, the population of Lawrenceville was 30,629. In 2019, the ...

, in the United States. It is owned and operated by the

Gwinnett County Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It forms part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the second-most populous county in Georgia (after Fulton C ...

, in northeastern

metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

. It has a

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

, and is

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

(AMSL). Student training is conducted at the airport by several different flight schools, including

ATP Flight School ATP Flight School, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is the largest flight training company in the United States. The privately held company was founded in 1984 in Atlanta, GA by its current management, a small group of airline pilots. ATP� ...

. 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), Landmark (north ramp) and Aircraft Specialists (south ramp), serve the field with facilities, passenger lounges, and fuel.
Georgia Jet
operates the largest air charter fleet in the Atlanta area from Briscoe Field, transporting passengers nationally and internationally, more than 10 million passenger miles per year.

ImagineAir ImagineAir was an air taxi service headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia. With a service area that covered a majority of the southeastern US, the company operated an average of 5000 flights annually. ImagineAir was often noted for its young mana ...

, an

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 ...

company, is based at the airport
Medway Air Ambulance
an
Critical Care Medflight
operate medical transport services. Its Airport Minimum Standards for Operation were rewritten in 2006.

Facilities and aircraft

Gwinnett County–Briscoe Field covers an area of which contains one

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

-paved runway designated 7/25 which measures . For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2018, the airport had 82,895 aircraft operations, an average of 227 per day: 98%

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 1% military. There were 80 aircraft based at the time at this airport: 58 single-engine, 11 multi-engine, 7 jet and 4 helicopter. There is currently no commercial service out of LZU. The closest airport offering passenger flights would be ATL located 42 miles to the southwest of LZU.

Privatization

In May 2010 the FAA gave preliminary approval to a plan to privatize the airport. This allowed Gwinnett County to further study plans on a possible sale of the airport to private investors. New York-based Propeller Investments offered to buy Briscoe Field and upgrade it with a ten-

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devic ...

to attract more scheduled airline services and build a

capable of accommodating planes as large as

737 737 most commonly refers to: * Boeing 737, an American narrow-body passenger airplane ** Boeing 737 Classic ** Boeing 737 MAX ** Boeing 737 Next Generation * AD 737, a year in the common era * 737 BC, a year * 737 (number), a number 737 may als ...

s. Atlanta's dominant airline,

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

lobbied In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

against the proposal due to its reluctance to split operations between Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Briscoe Field, even though two US carriers, Allegiant and

Sun Country Airlines Sun Country Airlines is an American ultra-low-cost passenger and cargo airline, and the eleventh largest in the US by passengers carried. Based at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport with headquarters on airport property, Sun Coun ...

, do not yet offer service to Atlanta. In June 2012, the county's Board of Commissioners canceled the privatization plan, amid local opposition to initiating commercial passenger service from the airport. The Board claims that it would not have been a suitable location for an airport due to the already widespread development around Briscoe, which would also have limited future expansion plans. They also raised the issue of distance, claiming that it was "too far away from metro Atlanta’s main population base", citing industry experts who said "most travelers would continue to utilize Hartsfield-Jackson over Briscoe because it would offer more flights, more destinations, and better ticket pricing". They also characterized Propeller Investments as a

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

without airport operations experience.

References

External links

Gwinnett County Airport
official site
{{Atlanta airports Airports in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Gwinnett County, Georgia Transportation in Gwinnett County, Georgia