Pitt–Greenville Airport is a public

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 two miles (3 km) north 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 ...

Greenville, North Carolina Greenville ( ; ) is the county seat of and the most populous city in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States. It is the principal city of the Greenville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the List of municipalities in North Carolina, 12t ...

, and

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment, fourth largest university in North Carolina and the only one in the state with s ...

. The airport covers and 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. 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 ...

but is also served by

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 ...

, which operates commuter service to Charlotte. The airport manager is Kim W. Hopper.

History

The

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

constructed the Greenville Airport in 1940 on land that was jointly owned by the city of Greenville and Pitt County. A Civil Pilot Training Program operated from the airport until it was leased by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

on May 1, 1942, to be an outlying field of

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 an ...

. The field was underutilized until November 30, 1942, when it was announced that it would be upgraded by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The first

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

flying squadrons to arrive were scout bombing squadrons VMSB-343 and VMSB-344 in January 1944. July saw the arrival of fighter squadrons VMF-913 and VMF-914 and October brought the photo reconnaissance squadrons VMD-354 and VMD-954. During the war, Outlying Field Greenville was the busiest of MCAS Cherry Point's outlying fields. PGV used to service

Delta Airlines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its largest in terms of total passengers and number of depart ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

2011 Expansion

The airport officially opened the renovated air terminal on February 24, 2011. The $7.9 million expansion was funded by the federal stimulus. It took two years of planning and 18 months of construction.

Runway expansion and safety improvements

The Airport Authority decided to extend Runway 2/20 by 670 feet. It will receive $2.5 million from the FAA to help buy out the affected houses. The groundbreaking occurred in August 2013, and was completed in 2014. The lengthening will allow the current critical aircraft to operate at full payload service capabilities, including during hot weather. For years, Pitt-Greenville had been hampered by its short runways. Teams playing games against

had to fly into nearby Kinston because the runways were not long enough to handle modern charter jets. This expansion will also bring this runway up to current

runway safety area A runway safety area (RSA) or runway end safety area (RESA, if at the end of the runway) is defined as "the surface surrounding the runway prepared or suitable for reducing the risk of damage to airplanes in the event of an undershoot, overshoot, ...

standards. Also included will be the clearing of tree obstacles and the installation of a new GPS

RNAV Area navigation (RNAV, usually pronounced as ) is a method of instrument flight rules (IFR) navigation that allows aircraft to fly along a desired flight path, rather than being restricted to routes defined by ground-based navigation beacons. ...

vertically guided approach for Runway 2.

Airline and destination

Passenger

Top destinations

References

Books

External links

Pitt–Greenville Airport
official site * at

North Carolina DOT The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is responsible for building, repairing, and operating highways, bridges, and other modes of transportation, including ferries in the U.S. state of North Carolina. History The North Carolina ...

airport guide * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt-Greenville Airport Airports in North Carolina Works Progress Administration in North Carolina Transportation in Pitt County, North Carolina Buildings and structures in Pitt County, North Carolina