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

(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

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