Business Blog

  Aviation business professionals say it was glaringly obvious what the Federal Aviation Administration was up to with its initiative to cut off funding to “contract” air traffic control towers. If you want to get a politician’s attention, promise to whack contract towers at around 150 regional airports and shut down another 30 or so [...]

Mississippi is among 37 states vying to be one of six sites selected by the Federal Aviation Administration for testing of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The testing is a prelude to integrating the remotely controlled aircraft into the nation’s general aviation system. If testing proves successful, the next step will be wide commercial use of the [...]

Mississippi airports preparing for a shutdown of control tower operations April 7 received a reprieve to June 15, a move the Federal Aviation Administration made in order to give localities time to determine if they can pay to keep the towers open. The shutdowns are a consequence of the federal budget sequester and affect 149 [...]

Jackson’s Hawkins Field air traffic control tower and six other control towers in Mississippi are among 173 scheduled to be closed nationwide in early April, as the Federal Aviation Administration shuts off funding for those services to accommodate the fiscal sequester of $86 billion for the remainder of 2013. In addition to Hawkins (HKS), Mississippi [...]

That worrisome federal budget sequester – the latest fiscal drama brought to us by a White House and Congress that can’t play nice in the same sandbox – has not yet hurt operations at Jackson’s Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport. Passengers are nonetheless advised to show up early for their flights, say airport officials, citing [...]

The refusal of Congress to go beyond short-hop funding for the Federal Aviation Administration has made uncertainty just another work challenge that the heads of Mississippi’s two major commercial airports must overcome. As one funding lapse ends another one appears on the horizon for Dirk Vanderleest at Jackson-Evers International Airport and Bruce Frallic at Gulfport-Biloxi [...]