Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Pontotoc County Airport (22M), Mississippi: Aiming to receive larger grants



 
PONTOTOC COUNTY, Miss. (WTVA) — With more than 20 tenant aircraft, all is quiet at the Pontotoc County Airport, but if plans come to fruition, there may soon be more planes there.

It's seeking more money to pay for enhancements that would boost the number of arrivals and departures.

"More aircraft based here, the better your chances are of receiving grants from the government and the higher the grants can be," said Ted McVay, secretary/treasuer of the airport board.

Through larger grants, old hangars could be replaced with state of art hangars.

Not only would the airport benefit. So would the county with more business.

A key asset that board members of the Pontotoc County Airport feel that they have in their favor is a new fueling system.

Pilots of piston engine aircraft can come in and fuel up the plane and take off, and that time is around 30 minutes as opposed to going to a larger airport where commercial aviation pilots may encounter delays after refueling their plane.

"Here, there is no wait for fuel unless there is somebody in line ahead of you," said Michael Tallant, airport board member. "Basically, just pull up, swipe your credit card and do the transaction and get your fuel."

The airport also features a maintenance facility on the field that services and repairs aircraft, which would be appealing to some pilots.

"There are a lot of private pilots that don't like to go in the higher traffic area airports with towers that they're just not comfortable with," said Tallant. "So we hope to get some of that traffic in here."

The airport recently got a grant that paid for the new fueling system, overlay work at each end of the runway and a new security gate around sections of the airport.

Story, photo and video:   http://www.wtva.com

No comments:

Post a Comment