Hattiesburg Bobby L . Chain Municipal Airport Hattiesburg Bobby L . Chain Municipal Airport is a public use airport in Forrest County , Mississippi , United States . It is owned by the City of Hattiesburg and located four nautical miles ( 5 mile , 7 km ) southeast of its central business district . This airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011 – 2015 , which categorized it as a " general aviation " facility . There is no scheduled commercial airline service . History . Since 1930 , the Hattiesburg - Bobby L . Chain Municipal Airport has provided air service to the greater Hattiesburg area . It provided commercial airline service to the area beginning in the mid - 1930s . However , alarmed by the fall of France in 1940 , Congress funded an increase in the strength of the United States Army Air Corps from 29 to 54 combat groups . The quickest way for the Air Corps to obtain additional bases was to utilize existing civil airports . The Air Corps signed an agreement to lease Hattiesburg Airport , but because of technicalities in the land transfer , construction did not begin until March 1941 . Once begun , a large construction program was needed to turn the civil airport into a military airfield . Construction involved runways and airplane hangars , with three concrete runways , several taxiways and a large parking apron and a control tower . Several large hangars were also constructed . Buildings were ultimately utilitarian and quickly assembled . Most base buildings , not meant for long - term use , were constructed of temporary or semi - permanent materials . Although some hangars had steel frames and the occasional brick or tile brick building could be seen , most support buildings sat on concrete foundations but were of frame construction clad in little more than plywood and tarpaper . On 8 December 1941 , Hattiesburg Army Airfield was opened and assigned to the Third Air Force . The first mission of the new airfield was antisubmarine patrols along the Gulf of Mexico coastline . In early June 1942 , the 21st Bombardment Group , based at Jackson AAB , dispatched the 313th Bombardment Squadron flying B - 25 Mitchell s from the airfield . They was replaced in late June by the 113th Observation Squadron which flew light observation planes ( O - 49 Vigilant s and O - 52 Owl s ) until the end of July . The 27th Bombardment Group ( Light ) , flying A - 20 Havoc s arrived at Hattiesburg in mid - August . The 27th was forming in the Philippines at the time of the Attack on Pearl Harbor and without any aircraft ( they were diverted to Australia ) , the unit ' s ground echelon were pressed into infantry duty and were either killed or surrendered after the Battle of Bataan . Its pilots reformed the unit in Australia , but its A - 24 Dauntless es were badly mauled during the battle of the Dutch East Indies and in New Guinea . The entire unit was withdrawn from the Southwest Pacific and reformed and reequipped in the United States . The reconstituted group trained at Hattiesburg until the end of October then were moved for final training before joining Twelfth Air Force in North Africa . The 27th Bombardment Group was the last combat unit to be stationed at Hattiesburg , as by early 1943 , purpose - built Army Airfields designed for training large units had been built in the southeast and Hattiesburg AAF was reassigned to Air Technical Service Command to become a support airfield , performing maintenance on transient aircraft and also to support the Army training units at Camp Shelby . In early 1945 , military activities were phased down , and the Air Force put Hattiesburg on standby inactive status . Return to full civil control was made in April 1946 . In 1974 , airline service was moved to the new Hattiesburg - Laurel Regional Airport . Though commercial air service is no longer conducted at the municipal airport , the facility maintains a vital role in the transportation infrastructure of the metropolitan Hattiesburg area , serving as the preferred business airport for Forrest , Lamar and Perry Counties , as well as parts of Pearl River , Stone and Greene counties . Facilities and aircraft . Hattiesburg Bobby L . Chain Municipal Airport covers an area of 420 acres ( 170 hectare ) at an elevation of 151 feet ( 46 m ) above mean sea level . It has one runway designated 13 / 31 with an asphalt surface measuring 6 , 094 by 150 feet ( 1 , 857 x 46 m ) . For the 12 - month period ending June 14 , 2012 , the airport had 39 , 672 aircraft operations , an average of 108 per day : 88 % general aviation , 8 % military , 3 % scheduled commercial , and 1 % air taxi . At that time there were 45 aircraft based at this airport : 78 % single - engine , 16 % multi - engine , and 7 % helicopter .