Page 25 - Volume 15 Number 8

zone designation. The FTZ is part of Gulfport-Biloxi’s nearby deep- water port and the airport’s air cargo handling facility, where a 400-by-400- foot ramp can hold two Boeing 747 freighters. A 52,000-square- foot receiving/processing/shipping warehouse, with chilling, irradiation and fumigation capability, moves produce and other goods to the upper middle United States. When used as a tech stop for refueling, GPT’s trade zone allows aircraft arriving internationally to upload fuel without paying Mississippi’s 5.7-cent-per gallon Jet-A tax. More importantly, outbound airplanes can refuel for an overseas flight without paying either the state tax or the 24.7-cent per gallon federal jet fuel tax, since the fuel is being exported.
Defying Mother Nature
Although our visit took place a month before the Million Air facility was set to open, excitement was building and activity was underway everywhere. A new west-side parallel taxiway is being constructed to facilitate movement to the G/A complex and a $1-million midfield access road has been built. Gulfport- Biloxi’s airport has benefited from over a quarter-billion dollars of investment since the 2005 disaster. Hurricane Katrina, like its evil older sister Camille in 1969, left a wide swath of ruin in its wake, but the resilience of the Mississippi Gulf Coast is legendary. GPT was open for business on standby power one day after Katrina moved on, and 10 days later the first airline flight landed, even though the terminal had both ends blown open.
Today’s bright-and-shiny Gulfport-Biloxi defies the description of the storm’s aftermath. Katrina came ashore with eight hours of 150-165 mph winds and a 21-foot storm surge of water that wiped out structures from the beach to a railroad berm nearly a mile inland. The airport’s elevation is 28 feet MSL, but rising water from
The damage of Hurricane Katrina prior to renovation.
Million Air’s Emily Henriksen stands in front of the new lobby entrance.
Million Air gave reporters a look at the yet-to-be finished lobby interior that will wecome visitors to the Gulfport-Biloxi area.
AUGUST 2011
TWIN & TURBINE • 23
LeRoy Cook Photo