a regional facility for eastern North Carolina and was listed in timetables for Piedmont Airlines as Kinston/Goldsboro/Greenville/Camp LeJeune, NC. As the nearby cities of Greenville, New Bern and Jacksonville, NC built up their own service in the 1980s and 1990s, passenger traffic at Kinston declined until all airline service was discontinued by the beginning of 2000. Later attempts were made to revive commercial air service but were unsuccessful. Historical airline service Piedmont Airlines provided service from Kinston to various destinations in North Carolina and Virginia from the early 1950s. By the early 1980s, Piedmont operated scheduled routes connecting Kinston to Atlanta, New York LaGuardia Airport, Richmond, VA, Washington National, and Wilmington, NC using a combination of Boeing 727-200, and Boeing 737-200 jets as well as YS-11 and F-27 prop aircraft. Nonstop flights to Charlotte Douglas International Airport were added in 1981 and to Baltimore/Washington International Airport in 1984. Charlotte and Baltimore would become major hubs for Piedmont. Piedmont Commuter service operated by CCAir and Henson supplemented Piedmont's service. Piedmont merged into USAir on August 5, 1989 and USAir continued to serve Kinston with mainline Fokker F28 jets until May, 1992. USAir Express service operated by CCAir (formerly Piedmont Commuter) continued to serve Kinston until January 2, 2000; its withdrawal left Kinston without scheduled service. American Airlines briefly served Kinston with flights to Raleigh-Durham International Airport from May through October, 1990 by way of its American Eagle partner, Nashville Eagle. Jetstream 31 commuter aircraft were flown. Delta Air Lines began scheduled service from Kinston to Atlanta in March, 2005 by was of its Delta Connection partner, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, using Bombardier CRJ100/200 regional jets. Delta soon found the service consistently unprofitable, due in large part to many travelers driving to nearby Raleigh-Durham, and terminated the service on January 5, 2007. Allegiant Air operated a twice weekly flight to Orlando Sanford International Airport from November 2006 to April, 2008 using McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft. Kinston was also served by other commuter airlines. Wheeler Airlines served the airport briefly in 1976 and again in 1985 with flights to Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, and Washington DC. Sunbird Airlines provided service to Charlotte and Raleigh Durham from 1980 until early 1985 using Cessna 402 and Beechcraft Model 99 aircraft. The carrier returned to Kinston by August 1985 operating as Piedmont Commuter and changed its name to CCAir in early 1986. Cargo routes Accidents and incidents On November