McComb officials lifted a weight from airport board officials, getting a check for half of the airport’s new insurance premium submitted in short order.
The airport board requested assistance from the city and Pike County after a November 2020 storm damage claim drove premiums up by a factor of four, from about $6,000 to more than $24,000.
The airport board subsequently changed insurance carriers and got a premium of about $18,000 at the deadline for policy renewal.
The airport board is still awaiting the other half of the insurance premium from the county, which has agreed to pay its portion, but had not decided whether to pay this month or to wait for the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
In other business, the board learned it needs to change how it counts takeoffs and landings.
Part of how grant funding is awarded to airports includes the number of “operations” the airport has each month.
McComb-Pike County Airport has been reporting takeoffs and landings as a single operation for each plane, but board president Bob Hensarling and fixed-base operator Rick Simpson said most airports report those as separate operations, meaning the number of operations for the airport should be double what was reported previously.
The airport can also count some near fly-bys and “touch-and-go” visits as operations.
Simpson said the airport had a traffic count of 128 for August, but should be about 256 under the new procedure.
Hensarling said increasing operations numbers further would help the airport gain funding and bunp it up in priority for projects, but raising those numbers is contingent on other improvements.
He said landings by military aircraft could be increased if the airport had a fire suppression system, and larger planes could land if the runway was extended.
Both of those upgrades, however, are expensive propositions.
