As Macon-Bibb County takes over more responsibilities at Middle Georgia Regional Airport, county officials announced Monday plans to build a new terminal building that will pay homage to the city’s musical history.
The county, doing business as HighNote Aviation, is the airport’s new “fixed-base operator” (FBO) after a sixth-month transition from previous FBO Lowe Aviation. That means Macon-Bibb County will now provide services such as fueling, hangaring and ground transportation while connecting customers with local organizations.
“I can tell you that Macon is about to soar to new heights,” Mayor Lester Miller said. “The rest of the state of Georgia and the southeast United States is gonna take notice of it. We’re gonna do something big and something bold and something that no one has ever done before.”
The airport currently has two terminals: a commercial service terminal and a general aviation terminal, used by private, corporate and military flights. The new terminal will replace the current general aviation terminal, county aviation director Doug Faour said.
The new terminal, which will cost an estimated $11-12 million, will welcome pilots and passengers to the airport and provide quality technology and support services to pilots and planes, according to a county press release.
“The FBO is more than just the business piece of it... when entities are traveling to Macon to visit as a prospect for doing business, it’s the gateway to the community, and it’s the first building that many people see when they arrive in Macon so it’s a great opportunity for us to capture the narrative of our community and tell that story, and also have a state of the art facility that meets all of their aviation needs,” Faour said.
Depending on the angle, the new terminal building will look like a piano or a guitar, said Andrew Holesko, CEO of Passero Associates.
The building will have a second floor restaurant and balcony overlooking the airfield as well as a conference room and a special event space outside. The inside of the building will feature a lot of wood, which Holesko said they would try to source as much as possible from the Middle Georgia area. Construction will begin in 2024.
“There’s no airport terminal like this anywhere else in the world,” he said. “We loved the fact that we could do this for a very similar budget as the other buildings, and we could really make this happen.”
Macon-Bibb County started construction to extend the runway at the airport in January 2023. The extension project, which was first proposed in 2013, is intended to bring more flights and jobs to the Middle Georgia area.
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Telegraph.
