Ayresport Airport

Economic reasons and corporate consolidation. Ayresport was a private airfield owned by Ayres Corporation. When the company went bankrupt in 2001, the airport's future became uncertain. The successor company, Thrush Aircraft, Inc., chose to consolidate its manufacturing and flight operations at the nearby and much larger Southwest Georgia Regional Airport (KABY), rendering the private Ayresport facility redundant.

The airport is permanently closed and abandoned. The single asphalt runway, though deteriorated, remains clearly visible on satellite imagery. The standard closed-runway 'X' markings are painted on both ends. The former Ayres Corporation factory and hangars adjacent to the field have been repurposed and are now part of a large industrial and business park. A significant portion of the adjacent area is occupied by a massive Mars Wrigley confectionery manufacturing plant. The airfield land itself appears to be unused, serving as open buffer space for the surrounding industrial facilities.

Ayresport was a historically significant private airfield integral to the agricultural aviation industry. It was built and operated by the Ayres Corporation, a world-renowned manufacturer of agricultural aircraft. The airport's primary purpose was to support the adjacent factory. It handled all flight operations for the company, including initial test flights for new designs, production test flights for every aircraft built, and final delivery flights to customers worldwide. It was the birthplace and proving ground for the famous Ayres S-2R Thrush and its variants, one of the most successful crop-dusting aircraft ever produced.

There are no plans or prospects for reopening Ayresport. The land has been absorbed into a major industrial zone, and all local general and commercial aviation has been consolidated at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport. The infrastructure is degraded, and the surrounding industrial development makes its revival as an airport infeasible and unnecessary.