Arkansas International Airport is a public use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) northwest of the central business district of Blytheville, a city in Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. It is owned by the Gosnell Regional Airport Authority.HistoryArkansas International Airport was developed from the closed Eaker Air Force Base (formerly Blytheville Air Force Base), after its closure by the United States Air Force on 15 December 1992.In 2008, Aviation Repair Technologies (ART) established its headquarters at the facility and opened repair facilities for aircraft heavy maintenance, short-term aircraft storage, and aircraft engine disassembly. The company's heavy maintenance activities are focused on regional turboprop and jet aircraft, including the ATR 72, ATR 42, CRJ 200, CRJ 700, CRJ 900, Embraer 120, ERJ 135, ERJ 145, ERJ 170, and ERJ 190 aircraft. Its aircraft engine disassembly operation, named Turbine Support International (TSI), is a joint venture between ART and Air France-KLM. TSI is focused on disassembly of CFM56, CF6-80, and CF6-50 engine types. Also located at the airport is an aircraft jet engine test cell that was constructed in 1991 by the US Air Force and is capable of testing engines that produce up to 56,000 lbs of thrust, including CFM56, CF34, and other popular engine types. Aviation Repair Technologies holds an exclusive lease on the test cell through 2019. From its headquarters at the facility, ART also manages a network of thirteen line maintenance facilities located at major airports around the United States. The facility secured a lease with USA Floral, a major floral distributor based near Washington, D.C., that needed a southern locale for its regular flights to South America to import flowers. USA Floral was expected to create hundreds of jobs in Blytheville.
