Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Piedmont Triad International Airport (KGSO) lies west of Greensboro, North Carolina, serving the Piedmont Triad region of Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem. It is a busy Class C commercial and cargo hub with three substantial hard runways, full ILS coverage on two of them, and a history stretching back to the earliest days of scheduled air mail in the South. For the simulator pilot it offers a realistic mix of airline, FedEx cargo and general aviation traffic under a control tower and radar approach service.
Piedmont Triad International Airport, known locally as PTI, is a large public airport owned and operated by the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. It sits on a sprawling campus west of Greensboro and acts as a major FedEx Express cargo hub as well as a scheduled passenger gateway for the Piedmont Triad region covering Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem. Its combination of long runways, full instrument approach coverage and a mix of airline, cargo and general aviation movements makes it an interesting and realistic destination for VFR or IFR flights in a flight simulator.
PTI sits within Class C airspace, reflecting its status as a busy commercial and cargo airport, and is located in unincorporated Guilford County just off Bryan Boulevard, west of the city of Greensboro. The airport occupies a very large site of roughly 3,770 acres and lies at the centre of the Piedmont Triad region, roughly equidistant from Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem.
The airport has three physical runways. Runway 05R/23L is the longest, at 9,988 ft (05R) and 9,987 ft (23L), hard-surfaced, lit and equipped with ILS on both ends. Runway 05L/23R is 8,988 ft in each direction, also hard-surfaced, lit and served by ILS on both ends. The shorter crosswind runway, 14/32, measures 6,369 ft, is hard-surfaced and lit, with ILS available on runway 32.
Pilots can expect a full range of radio services befitting a Class C towered airport. The airport call sign is Piedmont Triad, with air/ground communications on 118.5 MHz, approach and departure control also available, ATIS broadcasting on 128.55 MHz, clearance delivery on 121.75 MHz, ground control on 121.9 MHz, tower on 119.1 MHz, and a UNICOM frequency of 122.95 MHz for general aviation use. Instrument landing systems serve both long runways (05R/23L and 05L/23R) and runway 32, supporting instrument approaches in a variety of weather conditions.
The site's aviation heritage predates the current airport: nearby Maynard Field, dedicated in 1919 near Oak Ridge, was one of the first commercial airports in the South, named for North Carolinian pilot Lt. Belvin Maynard. The present airport traces its origin to 1927, when the Tri-City Airport Commission selected land near the community of Friendship for a new field intended to serve the New York to New Orleans air mail route; racing pilot Captain Roscoe Turner reportedly called it 'the best landing field in the south'. Greensboro and Guilford County purchased the property and named it Lindley Field in May 1927, and Charles Lindbergh landed there with the Spirit of St. Louis that October during his cross-country tour. Regular air mail service began in 1928 with Pitcairn Aviation, which later became Eastern Air Transport and then Eastern Air Lines, while Dixie Flying Service inaugurated passenger service to Washington, D.C. in 1930. After a Depression-era closure, the airport reopened in 1937 with two all-weather runways. In July 1942 the Army Air Corps requisitioned the field for wartime use, lengthening the runways and building a new terminal, before civilian service resumed after the war. A new passenger terminal opened in 1958, and the airport was renamed Greensboro-High Point Airport and later Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem before adopting the Piedmont Triad International Airport name in 1987, with the current terminal complex having been completed in 1982.
PTI remains a significant hub for FedEx Express cargo operations and continues to handle scheduled passenger airline service to over a dozen destinations, alongside general aviation traffic. The terminal, completed in 1982, has 26 gates split between north and south concourses. A maintenance and engineering facility operated by Marshall USA was added on the airport's north-east sector in 2025, underlining PTI's continuing role as a working commercial and cargo airport for the Piedmont Triad region.
