Middle Georgia Regional Airport
Middle Georgia Regional Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located nine nautical miles south of the central business district of Macon, a city in Bibb County, Georgia, United States. It is mostly used for general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline.
As per the Federal Aviation Administration, this airport had 10,029 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 1,866 in 2009, and 1,296 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a primary commercial service airport based on enplanements in 2008.
Facilities and aircraft
Middle Georgia Regional Airport covers an area of 1,149 acres at an elevation of 354 feet above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 5/23 is 6,500 by 150 feet and 13/31 is 5,000 by 150 feet.For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2017, the airport had 18,693 aircraft operations, an average of 51 per day: 70% general aviation, 23% military, 6% air taxi, and 1% scheduled commercial. At that time 94 aircraft based were at this airport: 55 single-engine, 30 multi-engine and 9 jet.
History
Early in 1940, Macon's Chamber of Commerce began a campaign to bring war industries and defense installations to the city. Negotiations with the Army Air Corps resulted in a tract of land in a highly developed agricultural area nine miles south of the City known as Avondale being selected by the Air Corps.The City of Macon and Bibb County obtained options on the desired tracts of land. Once the Army Air Corps finally decided to build an airbase at the site, it required the base be built as soon as possible. An informal agreement with the Army stipulated that when the War Department had no further use for the property, the deed would revert to the City and the County.
On August 17, 1941 the first class of British Royal Air Force cadets arrived at Cochran Field under the Arnold Scheme. Until June 1942, Cochran was used exclusively for British training. With the last British class graduating in early 1943, the War Department constituted and activated the 27th Flying Training Wing at Cochran and assigned it to the AAF Eastern Flying Training Command as a flying training unit. Peak training took place during 1943. From the beginning of 1944 flight training steadily diminished. The Air Force inactivated the base on 15 December 1945.
Following the war, Cochran was utilized for various purposes. Smart Field remained as Macon's municipal airport until 1947. After a tornado swept Smart Field, the airlines moved their operations to Cochran where they remain to this day. The passenger terminal was built in 1959 and extensively renovated in 2003.
The two Army built hangars still exist along with a few old warehouses. The Air Force at one time had a presence at the airport, hosting the 202d Engineering Installation Squadron, a non-flying engineering unit of the Georgia Air National Guard. However, this unit was relocated to nearby Robins AFB at the end of Fiscal Year 2011 pursuant to BRAC action.
In June 2019, Brazilian regional jet manufacturer Embraer announced it would open a repair and maintenance facility for its ERJ and E-Jet commercial aircraft at the airport, in a hangar previously occupied by HAECO.
Middle Georgia Regional Airport has also previously been known as Lewis B. Wilson Municipal Airport, Macon Municipal Airport, and Cochran Field.
History of commercial service
Commercial airlines historically serving the airport included Eastern Airlines and Delta Connection operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines. After ASA stopped serving the airport in 2008, GeorgiaSkies served Macon with flights to Atlanta until April 2013 under an Essential Air Service contract, when Silver Airways took over before discontinuing service in late 2014; under both GeorgiaSkies and Silver Airways, passenger traffic dropped precipitously due to the loss of the seamless connections ASA offered with Delta's flights from its Atlanta hub.More recently, Contour Airlines has offered daily flights to and from Baltimore using 30-passenger ERJ-135 aircraft under an Alternative Essential Air Service contract since August 12, 2017, resulting in a substantial recovery in passenger numbers from the GeorgiaSkies and Silver days. Contour also briefly offered flights to and from Tampa between December 2018 and February 2019, with less success than its Baltimore route. In addition to these scheduled flights, a number of irregular casino charters have been offered in recent years.
Airlines and destinations
Statistics
| Rank | Destination | Airport | Passengers |
| 1 | Baltimore, MD | Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International | 7,230 |
| 2 | Tampa, FL | Tampa International | 200 |