Perry-Houston County airport parking project gets funding for expansion

PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Perry-Houston County airport will soon have enough space to meet its growing airplane parking needs.

Every five years, the airport submits a property layout plan to the Georgia Department of Transportation. Airport management says that expanding the apron where planes park tops their priorities.

Friday, the GDOT awarded $12.6 million in grants to five Georgia airports. Perry-Houston County airport will receive $2 million of that money.

Increased landings

Currently, the airport averages around 60 plane landings daily. That number is up from 45 planes per day, just three years ago.

Airport Manager James Marquardt says that number continues to grow.

“We’re getting a lot more corporate traffic. We’re getting more and more individuals flying here in small private airplanes, as well, flying through going north to south and east to west,” Marquardt said. “This last week, Verizon had a major exercise at the Guardians Center and of course, that increased our traffic exponentially, here. We had a lot of traffic in here as a result of that.”

Other airports receiving grant funds include Cartersville, Columbus, Hazlehurst, and Kaolin Field.