Athens–Ben Epps Airport is a county-owned, public-use

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

located three

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...

s (6 km) east of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, a city in

Clarke County, Georgia Clarke County is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 128,671. Its county seat is Athens, with which it is a consolidated city-county. Clarke County is included in the Athens ...

, United States. The airport is named after Ben T. Epps, the first aviator in the state of Georgia, who opened the airport in 1917. 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 except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

, though it has seen airline service throughout its history.

History

Until May 23, 2008, Athens–Ben Epps Airport was served by twice-daily flights to Charlotte on

Air Midwest Air Midwest, Inc., was a Federal Aviation Administration Part 121 certificated air carrier that operated under air carrier certificate number AMWA510A issued on May 15, 1965. It was headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, Wichita, Kansas, United Sta ...

operating as

US Airways Express US Airways Express was the brand name for the regional affiliate of US Airways, under which a number of individually owned commuter air carriers and regional airlines operate short and medium haul routes. This code sharing service was previously ...

SeaPort Airlines SeaPort Airlines is an American airline with daily commuter flights between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle. The airline, which is a sister company of regional airline Alaska Seaplanes, is a division of Kalinin Holdings, Inc., a closely held famil ...

was the last airline providing scheduled service to the airport, with daily flights to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. On September 28, 2012, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) awarded

with daily flights to

replacing

GeorgiaSkies GeorgiaSkies was an American commuter airline brand founded by Pacific Air Holdings to operate flights in Georgia after the airline was awarded an Essential Air Service contract to serve Athens and Macon, Georgia. The airline started flights o ...

. As per

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

records, the airport had 3,449 passenger boardings (enplanements) in

calendar year 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. The Gregorian calendar year, which is in use as civil calendar in ...

2008, 5,335 enplanements in 2009, and 5,751 in 2010. It is included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. With the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of September 3, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was required to develop a ...

for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a ''non-primary commercial service'' airport (between 2,500 and 10,000 enplanements per year). In September 2015, a 600-foot, $17 million runway extension project was completed at the airport to accept larger planes, primarily for use by the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. The airport received a $750,000 grant from the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

in 2020 to provide incentives for a commercial airliner to begin services to Athens. After receiving the grant, a local official stated that the airport was negotiating with

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

to begin services to Athens.

Facilities and aircraft

Athens–Ben Epps Airport covers an area of 425

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s (172 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of 812 feet (248 m) above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has two

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

paved

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s: 2/20 is 3,995 by 100 feet (1,218 x 30 m) and 9/27 is 6,122 by 100 feet (1,866 by 30 meters). For the 12-month period ending April 30, 2023, the airport had 39,471 aircraft operations, an average of 108 per day: 92%

, 6%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

, 2%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

, and <1% scheduled commercial, At that time there were 82 aircraft based at this airport: 71 single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

, 8 multi-engine, 1 jet, 1 helicopter, and 1 glider. Th
University of Georgia Aviation club (Aviation Club at UGA)
is based at the airport. Th
University of Georgia Athletics Association
specifically the football, basketball, baseball and softball teams, use the airport as the primary hub for transporting players, coaches, and staff to and from distant away games.

Airlines and destinations

There are no airlines serving Athens at this time.

Statistics

References

Other sources

Essential Air Service Essential Air Service (EAS) is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which had been served by certificated airlines prior to deregulation in 1978, maintain commercial service. Its aim is ...

documents
Docket DOT-OST-2002-11348
from the

U.S. Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

: *
Notice (January 11, 2002)
from CCAIR Inc., a Mesa Air Group subsidiary, of intent to discontinue scheduled non-subsidized Essential Air Service between Athens, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina, effective April 14, 2002. *
Order 2002-2-14 (February 15, 2002)
prohibiting CCAIR, Inc. from terminating its unsubsidized services at Athens, Georgia; and requiring the carrier to maintain service between the community and Charlotte, North Carolina, for an initial 30-day period following the end of the notice period; and requesting proposals from carriers interested in providing replacement service at the community. *
Order 2004-3-25 (March 23, 2004)
selecting Air Midwest, Inc., d/b/a US Airways Express, to provide Essential Air Service (EAS) at Athens, Georgia, for a two-year period at an annual subsidy rate of $392,108, and setting final rates for Air Midwest hold-in service at the community retroactive to June 14, 2003, and ending with the beginning of the two-year rate term. *
Order 2006-3-19 (March 22, 2006)
re-selecting Air Midwest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidy of Mesa Air Group, Inc., d/b/a US Airways Express, to provide Essential Air Service (EAS) at Athens, Georgia, for the two-year period beginning June 1, 2006. *
Order 2007-7-21 (July 26, 2007)
selecting Gulfstream International Airlines, Inc. to provide subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) at DuBois and Franklin/Oil City, Pennsylvania, Greenbrier/White Sulphur Springs/Lewisburg, West Virginia, and Athens, Georgia, at a total annual subsidy rate of $4,077,792 ($1,159,229 for DuBois, $763,741 for Franklin/Oil City, $1,329,477 for Greenbrier/White Sulphur Springs/Lewisburg, and $825,345 for Athens) for the two-year period beginning when Gulfstream inaugurates service through the end of the 24th month thereafter. *
Order 2008-5-43 (May 29, 2008)
selecting Pacific Wings, L.L.C. d/b/a Georgia Skies, to provide subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) at Athens and Macon, with 9-seat Cessna Grand Caravan C 208B turboprop aircraft, for the two-year period beginning when the carrier inaugurates full EAS at both communities, at an annual subsidy of $2,437,692. *
Order 2010-10-5 (October 7, 2010)
selecting Pacific Wings, L.L.C. d/b/a Georgia Skies, to continue providing subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) at Athens, Georgia, for the two-year period beginning October 1, 2010, at the annual subsidy rate of $1,051,386; and requesting proposals from carriers interested in providing EAS at Macon, Georgia, with or without subsidy, for a new two-year period. *
Order 2012-9-27 (September 28, 2012)
selecting SeaPort Airlines, Inc., to provide subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) at Athens, Georgia, at annual subsidies of $1,553,093 from October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013; and $1,630,410 from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014. *
Order 2014-4-26 (April 24, 2014)
directing interested persons to show cause as to why the Department should not terminate the eligibility ... under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program based on criteria passed by Congress in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (Public Law No. 112-95). We find that Athens is within 175 miles of a large or medium hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), a large hub, and, thus, is subject to the 10-enplanement statutory criterion. We also find that during fiscal year 2013, Athens generated a total of 3,681 passengers (inbound plus outbound). Consistent with the methodology described above, that results in an average of 5.9 enplanements per day, below the 10-enplanement statutory criterion necessary to remain eligible in the EAS program.

External links

*
Aerial image as of January 2000
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a Collaboration, 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 eff ...

'' * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Athens-Ben Epps Airport Airports in Georgia (U.S. state) Former Essential Air Service airports Buildings and structures in Athens, Georgia Transportation in Athens, Georgia