Kinston Regional Jetport , also known as Stallings Field, is a public
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 three miles (5 km) northwest of the
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
of
Kinston, a city in
Lenoir County
Lenoir County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 55,122. Its county seat is Kinston, located on the Neuse River, across which the county has its territory.
Lenoir County comprises the K ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
. The airport has a single runway that is one of the longest in the southeastern United States. It is mostly 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 ...
.
The Kinston Regional Jetport features free parking as well as free wireless Internet access in its terminal. The terminal also houses several businesses, including Philbros Gift and Coffee Shop as well as Robert Franchise Transportation, a commercial transportation service. Rental car agencies are located in the terminal.
One of the central features of the Kinston Regional Jetport is the
Global TransPark
The North Carolina Global TransPark (GTP) is a 2,500 acre, Multimodal transport, multi-modal industrial/airport site in Eastern North Carolina. As an agency of the State of North Carolina, the GTP is considered a key engine for driving the economy ...
(GTP), an industrial park adjoining the airport. It was built to bring high-tech industry and economic development to eastern North Carolina.
Spirit AeroSystems manufactures parts of the
Airbus A350 at its Kinston facility at GTP.
History
Kinston Jetport originally was built in 1944 by the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. It opened in October as a
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
flying training airfield known as Marine Corps Auxiliary Airfield Kinston, being an auxiliary to
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point or MCAS Cherry Point (*) is a United States Marine Corps airfield located in Havelock, North Carolina, United States, in the eastern part of the state. It was built in 1941, and was commissioned in 1942 and ...
. Naval Aviation Cadets received V-5 flight training along with basic flying indoctrination at the airfield until the facility was closed on 31 October 1945.
As a result of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
and the expansion of the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
, Kinston Air Base* was reopened on 17 October 1950 by the USAF
Air Training Command
Air Training Command (ATC) is a former United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command designation. It was headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, but was initially formed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was re-designated as Ai ...
, as a contract flying training school with
T-34 Mentor,
T-6 Texan and
T-28 Trojan aircraft. In May 1952, the Air Force renamed Kinston Airfield as Stallings Air Base in memory of Kinston natives Lt Bruce Stallings, a
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James ...
pilot killed in March 1945, and his brother, Lt Harry Stallings, a
B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...
navigator killed in April 1945.
In April 1957, ATC proposed that the contract training program at Stallings AB be closed. The recommendation was approved in September and on 1 October, flying training ended at Stallings. The base was formally inactivated on 27 November 1957.
The present air terminal opened in July 1978. The airport served as a regional facility for eastern North Carolina and was listed in timetables for
Piedmont Airlines as Kinston/Goldsboro/Greenville/Camp LeJeune, NC. As the nearby cities of Greenville, New Bern and Jacksonville, NC built up their own service in the 1980s and 1990s, passenger traffic at Kinston declined until all airline service was discontinued by the beginning of 2000. Later attempts were made to revive commercial air service but were unsuccessful.
Historical airline service
Piedmont Airlines provided service from Kinston to various destinations in North Carolina and Virginia from the early 1950s. By the early 1980s, Piedmont operated scheduled routes connecting Kinston to
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, New York
LaGuardia Airport,
Richmond, VA,
Washington National
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , sometimes referred to colloquially as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport, DCA, Reagan, or simply National, is an international airport in Arlington County, Virginia, across ...
, and
Wilmington, NC
Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.
With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is th ...
using a combination of
Boeing 727-200, and
Boeing 737-200 jets as well as
YS-11
The NAMC YS-11 is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), a Japanese consortium. It was the only post-war airliner to be wholly designed and manufactured in Japan until the development of t ...
and
F-27 prop aircraft. Nonstop flights to
Charlotte Douglas International Airport
Charlotte Douglas International Airport ( IATA: CLT, ICAO: KCLT, FAA LID: CLT), typically referred to as Charlotte Douglas, Douglas Airport, or simply CLT, is an international airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, located roughly six miles we ...
were added in 1981 and to
Baltimore/Washington International Airport
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport , commonly referred to as BWI or BWI Marshall, is an international airport in the Eastern United States serving mainly Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. With Dulles Internatio ...
in 1984. Charlotte and Baltimore would become major hubs for Piedmont.
Piedmont Commuter service operated by
CCAir
CCAir, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCAR) was a regional airline headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States."World Airline Directory". ''Flight International''. March 23, 199968 Retrieved on September 30, 2009.
Piedmont Commuter
CCAir was created ...
and
Henson Henson may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Places United States
* Henson, Colorado, a ghost town
* Henson, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Henson Creek, Colorado
* Henson Branch, Missouri, a stream
Antarctica
* Mount Henson, Ross Dependency
Other
* H ...
supplemented Piedmont's service.
Piedmont merged into
USAir
US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon b ...
on August 5, 1989 and USAir continued to serve Kinston with mainline
Fokker F28 jets until May, 1992.
USAir Express service operated by
CCAir
CCAir, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCAR) was a regional airline headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States."World Airline Directory". ''Flight International''. March 23, 199968 Retrieved on September 30, 2009.
Piedmont Commuter
CCAir was created ...
(formerly Piedmont Commuter) continued to serve Kinston until January 2, 2000; its withdrawal left Kinston without scheduled service.
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 ...
briefly served Kinston with flights to
Raleigh-Durham International Airport
The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to th ...
from May through October, 1990 by way of its
American Eagle partner,
Nashville Eagle.
Jetstream 31 commuter aircraft were flown.
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the List of airlines by foundation date, world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atla ...
began scheduled service from Kinston to Atlanta in March, 2005 by was of its
Delta Connection partner,
Atlantic Southeast Airlines
Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) was a regional U.S. airline based in the A-Tech Center in College Park, Georgia, flying to 144 destinations as a Delta Connection carrier on behalf of Delta Air Lines via a code sharing agreement and, as of ...
, using
Bombardier CRJ100/200 regional jets. Delta soon found the service consistently unprofitable, due in large part to many travelers driving to nearby
Raleigh-Durham, and terminated the service on January 5, 2007.
Allegiant Air operated a twice weekly flight to
Orlando Sanford International Airport from November 2006 to April, 2008 using
McDonnell Douglas MD-80
The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gene ...
aircraft.
Kinston was also served by other commuter airlines.
Wheeler Airlines
Wheeler Airlines was the operating name of Wheeler Flying Service (WHAA), the first black-owned airline certificated in the US by the FAA, which also helped integrate the pilots at major US air carriers by qualifying a large number of black pilots ...
served the airport briefly in 1976 and again in 1985 with flights to Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, and Washington DC.
Sunbird Airlines Sunbird Airlines was a United States airline founded by Ralph Quinlan in Denver, North Carolina on November 15, 1979.
Operating the Cessna 402, and later the Cessna 404 aircraft, the company shared equipment, operations, maintenance and facilities ...
provided service to Charlotte and Raleigh Durham from 1980 until early 1985 using
Cessna 402 and
Beechcraft Model 99
The Beechcraft Model 99 is a civilian aircraft produced by Beechcraft. It is also known as the Beech 99 Airliner and the Commuter 99. The 99 is a twin-engine, unpressurized, 15 to 17 passenger seat turboprop aircraft, derived from the earlier B ...
aircraft. The carrier returned to Kinston by August 1985 operating as
Piedmont Commuter and changed its name to
CCAir
CCAir, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCAR) was a regional airline headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States."World Airline Directory". ''Flight International''. March 23, 199968 Retrieved on September 30, 2009.
Piedmont Commuter
CCAir was created ...
in early 1986.
[Official Airline Guide]
Cargo routes
Accidents and incidents
* On November 14, 1970,
Southern Airways Flight 932
Southern Airways Flight 932 was a chartered Southern Airways Douglas DC-9 domestic United States commercial jet flight from Stallings Field (ISO) in Kinston, North Carolina, to Huntington Tri-State Airport/Milton J. Ferguson Field (HTS) near ...
crashed while carrying the
Marshall University
Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.
The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...
football team that had departed from the airport after a game against ECU. The 2006 movie ''
We Are Marshall'' focuses on the aftermath of that crash.
References
External links
North Carolina Global TransPark* at
North Carolina DOT airport guide
*
*
{{Portal bar, Aviation, North Carolina, World War II
Airports in North Carolina
Buildings and structures in Lenoir County, North Carolina
Transportation in Lenoir County, North Carolina