Jackson-Evers International Airport

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For an airport in Papua New Guinea, see Jacksons International Airport.

Jackson-Evers International Airport

IATA: JAN - ICAO: KJAN
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Jackson Metropolitan Airport Authority
Serves		Jackson, Mississippi
Elevation AMSL		346 ft (105.5 m)
Coordinates		32°18′40.2″N, 90°04′33.2″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
16L/34R	8,500	2,591	Asphalt
16R/34L	8,500	2,591	Asphalt

Jackson-Evers International Airport (IATA: JAN, ICAO: KJAN) is a public airport located just east of Jackson, Mississippi, (United States), across the Pearl River in Rankin County. It services commercial, private, and military aviation. It is named after Medgar Evers, the former Mississippi Field Secretary for the NAACP, and is administered by the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority (JMAA), which also oversees aviation activity at Hawkins Field in northwest Jackson.

1 History
2 Airlines and destinations
- 2.1 East Concourse
- 2.2 West Concourse
3 External links

[edit] History

The land that is now Jackson-Evers International Airport was first dedicated in 1963 as a new commercial and military air facility to replace Hawkins Field, which had served as Jackson's first airport and been operating since 1928. Delta Air Lines's inaugural flight, from Dallas-Love Field, landed at Hawkins Field in 1929. The new 1963 facility was named Allen C. Thompson Field (after the Mayor of Jackson at the time, who was presumably instrumental in obtaining the land for the airfield), which remains the name for the land on which the airport is built. The airport was designated "Jackson Municipal Airport."

In the early 1990s, the airport's name was changed to "Jackson International Airport," to reflect the fact that it has the facilities to serve international flights, even though the airport does not currently do so. The airport does contain an office for U.S. Customs to service international arrivals and has established a Foreign Trade Zone.

Recent improvements to the facilities include a new covered garage for long-term parking. In 1997 Southwest Airlines began service to Jackson from Chicago, Baltimore, Houston, and Orlando. Currently, the airport services approximately 247 aircraft per day. Following a decision made by the Jackson City Council in December 2004, on 22 January 2005 the airport name was officially changed to Jackson-Evers International Airport. In 2006, the airport authority received a federal grant (Small Community Air Service Development) to recruit non-stop flight service to New York/Newark.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Jackson-Evers International Airport in July 2005. View from the West Concourse looking east across the tarmac. The plane in the foreground is a Canadair Regional Jet operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, soon to depart for Washington-Reagan National Airport. Behind it is one of Delta Air Lines' numerous McDonnell-Douglas MD-88s, about to depart for Atlanta.