Golden Triangle Regional Airport

Golden Triangle Regional Airport is a public use airport in Lowndes County, Mississippi, United States. The airport is located midway between the cities of Columbus, Starkville, and West Point, Mississippi, and serves the area known as the Golden Triangle and the surrounding region of Mississippi. GTR is mostly used for general and military aviation and for charter aircraft for college athletic teams visiting Mississippi State University, but is also served by a commercial airline, operating as Delta Connection.As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 35,669 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 36,275 enplanements in 2009, and 36,329 in 2010. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).GTR is the nucleus of a new industrial complex in northeast Mississippi. American Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS North America, moved into an 85000sqft helicopter production plant built by the airport and leased to the company on airport property in 2004. In 2007 American Eurocopter finished the second phase of the project, a 220000sqft facility built primarily to manufacture and assemble the new U.S. Army UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopter. Severstal North America opened a steel mini-mill in an adjacent site in October 2007 and immediately began construction on phase II, bringing total investment in the plant to $1.8 billion. PACCAR, parent company of Peterbilt, Kenworth and DAF (Dutch) trucks is constructing a truck engine plant adjacent to the airport to the north that is expected to open in 2009. Other industry, many with international roots, continues to locate at the industrial park adjacent to the airport. The area has two "Megasites" adjacent to the airport that were certified under the Tennessee Valley Authority's Certified Megasite program. In addition, two aerospace companies, Aurora Flight Sciences and Stark Aerospace, built facilities on airport property and primarily manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles. Stark Aerospace is the newly formed subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries.