Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO, KGSO), United States of America

Piedmont Triad International Airport (name changed in 1987) is a medium-sized airport situated seven miles west of Greensboro in North Carolina (originally opened in 1927). The airport is operated by Piedmont Triad Airport Authority in conjunction with the state of North Carolina.

Piedmont Triad International Airport has undergone significant modernisation since 1978 and a new concourse complex was opened in 1982. The airport is situated on a 4,000-acre site and as such has a number of supporting businesses which means that it is also a useful hub for cargo and maintenance facilities. Comair built a maintenance hangar at the airport in 2005 but some other operators such as Continental Airlines, Sky Bus and Eastwind Airlines closed their bases at the airport for various reasons.

The airport served nearly 2.2m passengers in 2007 and handled around 13m lb of cargo.

PTI facilities

The airport terminal has 25 passenger gates – 11 on the south concourse and 14 on the north concourse. The north concourse was recently expanded to the same size as the south concourse. In addition the TSA security screening for baggage is now located in purpose-designed areas at each end of the main terminal and a new bag belt system carries luggage from the upper to the lower level. These renovations have added a further 40,000ft² (3,700m²) to the terminal and cost around $5m.

New Piedmont Triad airport hub

In 1998 FedEx decided to use Piedmont Triad for a new mid-Atlantic hub (the fifth for the company). The lease was signed in 2001 and the hub was opened in June 2009; the building at the end of 2008 is nearly complete. To support the hub a parallel third runway 5/23 was constructed.

Protests were made about the hub because the majority of the flights operate at night and homeowners around the airport are concerned about the possible noise pollution (AS Harris has been asked to make a study into the noise problem).

A further boost to the airport is the Honda Aircraft Company locating a research and development facility at the airport in 2000. This has been a success and the company decided in 2007 to relocate its HQ to the airport and also develop a new manufacturing centre at the airport site, that is expected to be completed early in 2011.

Runways

The airport has two runways, 5/23 measuring 10,001ft×150ft (3,048m×46m) and 14/32 (crosswind runway) measuring 6,380ft×150ft (1,945m×46m). The third runway (5L/23R) of 9,000ft long was opened in January 2010. It is used to serve the new FedEx hub at the airport.

The $140m third runway project included 9,000ft of asphalt-paved airstrip, two parallel taxiways and a four-mile perimeter access road (Baker and Associates was the engineer).

The project required 5.5m yd³ of earthwork, 380,000yd³ of pavement and 3,000ft of box culverts. The runway also required relocation of major utilities and services.

The contract for the taxiway project was being out by Mainline Contracting for a cost of $4.3m. The architect and civil engineer for the new runway was LPA Group.

Air traffic controllers at the airport have flagged a possible problem that the current air traffic control tower is too short to see the new runway and a new one should be constructed (the FAA have promised to cut down some trees obscuring the view). Plans of a new tower is expected to be finalised by late 2010. FAA will fund the construction of the new tower.

PTI finance

Piedmont Triad International Airport has received a major amount of funds from the FAA to finance the various projects at the airport. A $6.5m grant from the federal government was provided to move ahead with the construction of the second taxiway.

The FedEx cargo hub project has received more than $11.5m in federal payments.