If you use MidAmerica this month, you won’t be alone. Airport on pace to set passenger record
MidAmerica St. Louis Airport and St. Clair County officials are calling 2019 a milestone year for the airport due to increasing patronage, new partnerships and projects.
The airport is set to reach its highest number of monthly passengers on record in July, with roughly 46,000 passengers expected to use the airport. That’s roughly 3,000 more than in June.
The airport is on pace for a 20-percent increase in traffic in 2019, according to airport officials.
The rise in traffic comes from a mixture of improvements and continued growth at the airport, officials said, touting new MetroLink support, growing awareness of the facility and an ongoing partnership with Boeing.
“Things are really taking off at MidAmerica as we continue to grow and welcome a record number of passengers who are choosing to fly from this great location to some of the most popular destinations in the country,” St. Clair County chairmen Mark Kern. said
Allegiant Airlines currently offers direct flights to several airports in Florida, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Passenger growth has been at more than 475 percent over the past five years, partially due to flight options from Allegiant flights, the county said in a news release.
Responding to Growth
MidAmerica recently expanded its parking lot and added a paid parking structure for the lot. A new bus service also was introduced by the St. Clair County Transit District in March to provide round trips between the Shiloh-Scott AFB MetroLink station and the bus stop at the passenger terminal of the airport for MetroLink Riders.
Those improvements were made due to the continued increase in patronage at the airport over the past five years. Kern said that trend is expected to continue as word spreads about MidAmerica’s offerings.
The airport also attributed some of its growth to its partnership with Scott Air Force Base, which gives the base use of its civilian runway for some military flying missions.
“While we’re excited about the growth on the passenger side of our operations, we’re also proud that our unique status as a Joint Use Airport partnering with Scott Air Force Base is enabling us to serve their needs in an important way in 2019, and that’s contributing to significant additional takeoffs and landings on our runway,” said Tim Cantwell, director of MidAmerica.
The runway is used when the military runway is undergoing repair, maintenance and construction, making it possible for the base’s planes to avoid deployment to several different areas.
Construction began on the military runway to upgrade visual aids to a high-intensity airfield lighting system aimed to enhance visibility for the night and inclement weather flight operations.
Rebuilding Illinois
The state’s new six-year Rebuild Illinois Capital plan also is expected to give the airport a boost in the form of a $96 million project to extend the MetroLink from the Shiloh-Scott Airforce Base station to MidAmerica.
Connecting the airport to the rest of the MetroLink line is hoped to bring in even more customers.
The 5-mile route’s construction begin in two years and could take roughly 18-months, Bi-State Development, the organization that oversees MetroLink, President and CEO Taulby Roach told the Post-Dispatch in June.
This story was originally published July 3, 2019 at 1:25 PM.