Gulfport–Biloxi International Airport is a joint civil–military public-use airport 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) northeast of the central business district of Gulfport, a city in

Harrison County, Mississippi Harrison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, Harrison County is the second-most populous county in Mississippi with a population of 208,621; although the most recent population estimate from 202 ...

, United States. It is owned by the Gulfport–Biloxi Regional Airport Authority and serves the Gulf Coast area. This airport 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 ''primary commercial service'' airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year). 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 487,907 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; 411,978 enplanements in 2009; and 325,437 emplacements in 2014. Despite its title, all regularly scheduled commercial passenger flights at the airport are domestic flights only. US Customs is available 24/7 if scheduled. US Customs has a fully functioning customs office to process passengers at Million Air Aviation. The GPT airport has private international and military charter international traffic throughout the year.

History

The airport was originally built in 1942 by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

as a training base for Air Corps Flying Training Command. Gulfport Army Airfield opened on July 7, and the Eastern Technical Training Command conducted technical training and basic training unit transferred to

Third Air Force The Third Air Force (Air Forces Europe) (3 AF) is a Numbered Air Force, numbered air force of the United States Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA). Its headquarters is Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It is responsible for all U ...

on March 31, 1944 with joint use by Technical Training Command for marine training of Emergency Rescue School (3d Air Rescue Group) at Keesler Army Airfield. With the end of the war and the drawdown of the military, Gulfport AAF was placed into reserve status on January 31, 1946. Gulfport Field was declared excess by the Air Force and conveyed by the

War Assets Administration The War Assets Administration (WAA) was created to dispose of United States government-owned surplus material and property from World War II. The WAA was established in the Office for Emergency Management, effective March 25, 1946, by Executive Or ...

to the City of Gulfport in 1949 for use as a civil airport. The city negotiated airline service contracts with Southern Airways and later National Airlines to provide passenger and cargo service beginning in the early 1950s. Due to the large expansion of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

as a result of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, a new lease was obtained for military use of the airport, and Gulfport Air Force Base was opened as a joint-use civil–military facility. Gulfport AFB was closed as an active Air Force installation and its military facilities were transferred to the Mississippi Air National Guard, with the airport remaining a joint-use airport and

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia (United States), militia of each U.S. ...

base. Although no military aircraft are permanently assigned, the base serves as the home of the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center. Through the late 1970s, Southern Airways continued as the primary airline, followed by successors Republic Airlines and

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines (often abbreviated as NWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 until it Delta Air Lines–Northwest Airlines merger, merged with Delta Air Lines in 2010. The merger made Delta the largest airline ...

into the 1990s.

Facilities and aircraft

Gulfport–Biloxi International Airport covers an area of 1,400 acres (567 ha) at an elevation of 28 feet (9 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

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: 14/32 is 9,002 by 150 feet (2,744 x 46 m) with an

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 ...

and concrete surface; 18/36 is 4,935 by 150 feet (1,504 x 46 m) with an asphalt surface. For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2018, the airport had 48,868 aircraft operations, an average of 134 per day: 52%

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 ...

, 26%

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 ...

, 8%

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 ...

, and 14% scheduled commercial. As in 4Q of 2023, there were 41 aircraft based at this airport: 32 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 ...

, 4 jet, 2 multi-engine, 3

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

, .

Cargo facility

A cargo facility is at Gulfport–Biloxi International Airport. It includes of chiller space; of cargo sorting and distribution space; and of office space. Airside access from the runway system has been designed with safety and efficiency in mind. The ramp can facilitate two MD11s, DC10s or B747s. The area is also expandable with reserved for air cargo on airport property.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Hurricane Katrina

The airport was closed for repairs following severe damage by

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

on August 29, 2005. On August 30, 2005, the airfield reopened to first responder flights, and on September 8 it reopened for commercial flights. The airport underwent an extensive renovation that was completed in 2007.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport Airports in Mississippi Buildings and structures in Gulfport, Mississippi Gulfport–Biloxi metropolitan area Airports established in 1942 1942 establishments in Mississippi