NATCHEZ — The first of three airport improvement projects began last week at the Hardy-Anders Field Natchez-Adams County Airport, and the second is set to start Monday.

The first — the relocation of NavSat equipment — will bring the airfield up to current Federal Aviation Authority safety standards, while the others — construction of a new fuel storage and distribution terminal and a new T-hangar — will bring the airport more up-to-date in accommodating the needs of today’s fliers.

The relocation of the safety equipment was initiated by and is being paid for by the FAA. The equipment in question is associated with the precision approach path indicator (PAPI).

“The PAPI is basically a visual landing tool where, when a pilot is coming in to land, these four sets of red and white lights tells them if they are too high or too low,” Airport Manager Bob Hawk said.

The equipment is being moved farther away from the runway’s safety zone. The work requires trenching, running conduit and installing new electrical connections.

“If an airplane comes in and is crashing, (this equipment) won’t be in the way of the airplane,” said Larry Gist, the FAA supervisor of the work onsite.

The second project, the construction of a new T-hangar, is funded by more than $555,000 in federal funds through the federal Airport Improvement Program and $36,000 in matching funds from the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

The construction of the hangar has been awarded to Barnard & Sons Construction. The contractors have set a start date of Monday for the first phase of the project, which will include site preparation, movement of dirt and setting up a staging area.

Hawk said that even though construction has not started on the new hangars, they “are already full.”

“The guys who are in our old hangars want to transition to the new one, the guys who are in our big open hangar want to transition to the old ones and we have people who want to move into the big hangar,” Hawk said. “They will be full up before I ever get started.”

The work to replace the fuel terminal — colloquially referred to as the “fuel farm” by those who use the airport — should begin in October.

The approximately $300,000 project, which is being funded by a multi-modal grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, will replace the current vertical tanks and aging pipes and filters with a system that is better suited for current aviation needs, including a self-service system for pilots who wish to fuel their own planes.

The project was awarded to Twin-L Construction. Hawk said the airport is waiting for the construction of the tanks before the project begins.

While the work is going on, Hawk said he is in the early stages of determining if the airport can support having a charter airline operate in it. Starting in the 1950s, the airport had some airline operations, but — with the exception of a brief period in the 1990s — has not had any since the 1980s.

The new group, if the deal materializes, is a charter company based in Memphis that already has a presence in Oxford and Meridian, Hawk said.

Instead of having regularly scheduled flights in and out of the area, the company would include the Natchez airport in its list of locations it would take passengers to and from.

“We are getting the numbers together right now to see if — and I hope I can — we should pursue them,” Hawk said.

“Because we are such a tourist destination itself, I hope to get Natchez on the radar. We are not big enough to support a full-fledged airline, but we are big enough that we could support (a charter airline).”

In the period from April through August, the airport had 1,304 total aircraft traffic, which included 152 jets.

During that time, the airport sold 10,001 gallons of aviation gas and 38,415 gallons of jet fuel.

In addition to the construction projects this fall, Hawk said he plans to replace the old commercial airline terminal fixed seating in the airport’s office building with more comfortable furniture suited to the airport’s current customer base.

“I’m also going to take the upstairs and turn that into a pilot’s lounge,” he said. “Currently, the airport doesn’t have a designated quiet area for the pilots to go since they don’t typically go into town with the executives who fly in. This way they’ll have a place to go and maybe catch some sleep or do some work.”

The county airport was first constructed in the 1940s with military style runways, and the terminal building was completed in 1959. It operates as an uncontrolled airfield.