New Hangar Opens at Stennis Airport

Stennis International Airport (HSA) in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, recently completed the construction of two hangars and purchased an existing hangar. The three hangars total nearly 50,000 SF including 2,500 SF of offices and are fully leased. One of the new hangars is 24,000 SF and the other is a 10,000 SF corporate hangar. The owner Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission paid $2.5 million and $1.5 million, respectively, to build them. A portion of the cost of the larger hangar known as the RESTORE hangar, $1.85 million, came from the RESTORE Act, which was a settlement between the state of Mississippi and British Petroleum Corporation over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The Mississippi Department of Transportation contributed $325,000 to the construction of the smaller hangar and the Port and Harbor Commission invested $4.9 million of its own funds to cover the rest of the cost of the two hangars. The hangars are adjacent to the field, and the project also included the construction of a new ramp area between them. The corporate hangar has 2,500 SF of offices that are built-to-suit so they are customizable to the tenant’s needs.

Bill Cotter, CEO of the Port and Harbor Commission, says even with the new facilities in service the demand for corporate hangars remains high, which he attributes to an increase in the number of Department of Defense contracts in the region. In addition to some corporate traffic the airport services mostly military aircraft, about 64% of all flight operations according to airnav.com. These include aircraft from Columbus Air Force Base and Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi, Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans, and other military facilities. Cotter said he is seeking to attract more business aircraft to the airport.