Horry County Plans to Close Twin City Airport in Loris, SC, as Community and State Officials Push to Keep It Open

Horry County's Department of Airports announced in a June 29, 2026 letter that it plans to close Twin City Airport (5J9) in Loris, South Carolina, citing cost savings. The announcement drew a strong reaction, including a social media campaign that attracted more than 300 supporters. Support from the community, state aviation officials, local pilots and airport business operators appears to have given the field a reprieve. The Department of Airports has not indicated any change in its decision and did not respond to two requests for comment.

The airport has a single 3,694-foot runway and lacks restroom facilities, a public shelter for transient pilots and fuel, according to Horry County realtor Rick Elliott, who opposes the closure. His father, State Senator Dick Elliott, fought a similar effort to keep the airport open in the late 1990s.

Advocates for keeping the airport include the mayors of Loris and neighboring Tabor City, North Carolina, the Loris Chamber of Commerce, area flight instructors, the head of the McLeod hospital complex in Loris, and Horry County Councilman Mark Causey. Their main complaint is a lack of county financial support over past decades. Combined state and local funds spent on 5J9 between 1980 and 2026 totaled $72,754. In the same period, Conway-Horry County Airport (KHYW) received 15 grants totaling about $13.4 million, and Grand Strand Airport (KCRE) received 19 grants totaling about $22 million.

Hangars, businesses and landowner parcels at 5J9 are classed as through-the-fence operators even though they sit within the airport footprint. Their aircraft therefore do not count toward the FAA minimum of 10 based aircraft for grant eligibility, one reason the county gave for the closure.

John Stephenson, who operates Attitude Aviators Flight School at 5J9, organized an Aug. 9 meeting of concerned individuals. Sam Sarvis, who runs maintenance facility Sarvis Aviation on the field, said the county would need to add fuel and a small fixed base operation building, noting only six tie-downs exist.

South Carolina Aeronautics Commission Executive Director Gary Siegfried said there is a path forward that requires hangar owners and Horry County to work together. Moving 5J9 from National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) Unclassified to NPIAS Basic would make it eligible for FAA funding, but that requires 10 based aircraft.

The state has begun a statewide airport system plan and economic impact study expected to take about two years, and has asked the county to keep the airport open at least until it is complete.

Small public-use fields live or die on funding eligibility, and eligibility follows classification. At Loris, the grant totals for the county's other two airports, set against $72,754 spent on 5J9 over 46 years, show how unevenly a sponsor can invest across its system, and how that history then feeds the argument that a field does not pay its way.

The based-aircraft rule shows a second structural point: aircraft housed by through-the-fence operators sit physically on the field yet do not count toward the 10-aircraft threshold. Where a considerable share of activity falls into that category, a sponsor can face a field that looks inactive on paper while carrying real commercial use.

The next milestones are the county's response to the state's request to wait for the roughly two-year system plan and economic impact study, and whether hangar owners and the county reach an arrangement on based-aircraft counts.