Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport is set to receive much-needed upgrades and improvements after receiving more than $4.1 million in Airport Infrastructure Grant and Airport Improvement Program funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The grants, announced this week by Sen. Roger Wicker, are part of a larger $21 million award for infrastructure improvements for airports across the state.
“Upgrading local air travel is an investment in the future of Mississippi. This funding will bring necessary advancements to our airport systems and provide more business opportunities for Mississippians. I look forward to these improvements being made to spur economic development in our great state,” Wicker said in the announcement.
Last week, U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., announced some of the federal grants, including $158,334 for Hawkins Field, the smaller joint civil-military public airport under the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority and located in northwest Jackson.
The Jackson airport also received an $8 million Airport Terminal Program grant from the FAA last year, Wicker announced in February of 2024. That money was slated for terminal rehabilitation, including placing escalators, elevators, HVAC systems, generators, passenger boarding bridges and baggage belts.
In previous legislative sessions, Rep. Earle Banks, D-Jackson, has authored legislation requesting millions of dollars for upgrades to the Jackson International airport, though the bills died in committee. The legislation that he introduced, he said, was for urgent repairs to the airport’s elevators, escalators and cooling towers.
“Parts are not easy to find for that. That system for the escalators is about 50 years old, and they aren’t easily available,” Banks said. “That’s why for the elevators at the airports, we cannot get those parts. Some of those parts are not readily available.”
Banks said that the airport is a major driver for Mississippi’s economy, and it’s important to invest into the services that keep travellers moving forward.
“One of the things you have to realize Mississippi, about the Jackson Airport, known as Medgar Evers, is we have got to have an airport that is first class to bring in first class businesses and first class tourism. We’ve got to keep our airport up,” he said.
Banks points to the state’s attempts to gain control of the airport as one reason why the legislation failed. In 2016, then-Governor Phil Bryant signed Senate Bill 2162, which aimed to wrest control from the five member Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, which is appointed by Jackson’s mayor, to a nine member board appointed by the state.
The fight over the airport has been wrapped up in legal proceedings since then, with the city of Jackson alleging that this law is racially discriminatory and violates the Mississippi and the U.S. Constitution. In May of this year, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves denied the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
“JMAA might in fact continue to operate the airport for years to come. That is becauseafter the case wraps up here, there will likely be another appeal to the Fifth Circuit and perhaps a petition for U.S. Supreme Court review,” Reeves said in the decision. “And if all that litigation ends with a victory for the defendants, there will be an administrative process in Washington, D.C., in which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decides whether to approve a transfer from JMAA to the new, state-controlled authority. … For now, though, the status quo has been maintained.”
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