The St. Tammany Airport east of Abita Springs is located in the center of the parish. It was built fifty something years ago to serve a need, a home base for St. Tammany's many aircraft owners.
The Greater St. Tammany Regional Airport, which at one time was called the Richard Privette Sr. Airport, is located on La. 36 about three miles outside of Abita Springs. Richard Privette Sr. was one of St. Tammany Parish's early pioneers in flying. According to a newspaper article at the time, Privette was the first man in the parish to build and fly his own airplane.
(Photo provided by Lyle Privette)
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Lyle Privette explained in a March, 2025, Facebook post that Richard and Ralph Privette built the first flying aircraft in Abita Springs and were both pioneers in aviation.They started out bartering Kerosene for chickens and vegetables, then they started the first gas station in Abita Springs.
Richard Privette moved to Covington starting Privette Oil Co. on the corner of 21st. and Tyler St., selling Pan-Am products which went on to be Amoco Oil Co. Richard Privette also started an airport in Covington on Hwy 25 just north of the Columbia St. intersection. That's why there is an "Airport Road" there that branches off and goes to River Road. The Keen-Privette Airport was also known as the KP Airport.
Above map from Aviation in St. Tammany Over The Years
The Keen-Privette Airport ran parallel with Hwy 25 in Covington, and this was where Privette started the Southern Louisiana Chapter of the Civil Air Patrol, teaching young boys to fly and preparing them for WWII.
Some of these young men went on to fly for Delta and were private pilots. Ralph Privette went on to run the gas station in Abita Springs and was elected to the St. Tammany Police Jury, where he served for years upon his retirement. In 1973 he served as president of that group.
W. R."Richard" Privette and M. B. Keen were killed in an airplane crash near Alexandria in March of 1949. They had been involved in the creation of the Keen-Privette (KP) Airport north of Covington several years earlier.
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