A New Horizon Over The Gulf Coast is Emerging
By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media
April 24, 2025
GULF SHORES Ala.
For years, passenger jets have streamed across the Alabama Gulf Coast at about 30,000 feet up, out of view and unheard, as they traveled east to west or south to north.
For the most part, they were invisible and not part of the normal daily sightings in the skies over Baldwin County.
Of course, we do see those relentless banner planes during the tourist months, smaller general aviation planes flying through the airspace heading to or from one of our small airports in the area.
Over the Gulf waters, we also often see US Coast Guard helicopters, an occasional Navy plane or two flying to or from their base in Florida, and of course, the Blue Angeles practicing across our skies.
To our west sits the Mobile Regional Airport, a public/military airport that sits about thirteen miles outside of the city limits, and most of their patterns fly east to west or north to south and we seldom see any airline traffic over the beachfront from the mobile Airport but that’s all about to change.
In August 2020 it was announced that the Mobile Airport Authority would shift commercial airline flights to the more convenient Mobile Downtown Airport, now renamed Mobile International Airport located at 2455 Michigan Avenue, near the Port of Alabama and just blocks away from the heart of Mobile and is expected to open before the end of this year.
The new airport will expand to 12 gates, which means more flights, day and night, crisscrossing our skies.
Depending on flight patterns, runway logistics, and weather, planes flying into and out of the Mobile International Airport could be routed over Baldwin County and even along the beaches daily or just every once in a while.
And let’s not forget about the Pensacola International Airport which has also ramped up flight offerings and jets flying in and out of that airport which is just fifty miles away, can also at times be seen flying across the Baldwin County airspace.
For many, including myself, having commercial airports within a short driving distance is more than a convenience, it’s a necessity for work travel.
However, now that three International airports will be positioned at the west, east, and center of Baldwin County, one must consider the drawbacks that these airports will bring.
Besides air and noise pollution, the aesthetics could be a drawback. Not every person relaxing on the beaches will be overjoyed to see jet planes streaking across the skies every few minutes or even every few hours.
If their flight patterns take them over Baldwin County routinely, in some areas it could decrease property values and cause people to move out of the area and even out of the county.
In areas like Nashville, Charlotte, and Atlanta, expansions of airports or the building of additional runways have caused property values to decrease by 15-30 percent, and in some cases, houses had to be sold to the airport authority for demolition.
In part three, we have more on planned air traffic patterns and the emergencies that occur in the sky and on the ground.
