Bustling terminal? Here’s how many people travel through Illinois airports each year
.jpg "Traffic has not bounced back to pre-pandemic levels for Illinois’ airports, but some facilities, like MidAmerica, have seen record passengers.")
Last month, America’s airports saw a record 3 million travelers pass through. The milestone was reached July 7 and follows a couple years of depressed travel numbers following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But not all states have returned to pre-pandemic levels of air travel yet.
In Illinois, airport traffic decreased 62% in 2020 from the year before. But with distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine beginning in December of that year, travel restrictions were relaxed and more people started traveling by plane once more.
The U.S. Department of Transportation publishes data on the number of passengers flying to or from any given U.S. airport. This chart shows the number of passengers who flew to or from an Illinois airport from 2019 to 2023.
Three years after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, airport traffic has bounced back but still hasn’t returned to pre-2020 heights in Illinois. The same is true for 24 other states. In 2023, Illinois’ airport traffic was down 8.8% since 2019.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a July 8 statement he expects the current record breaking travel to continue in the coming months.
Metro-east and St. Louis airport traffic
MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah served 163,210 passengers in 2022, a record number for the facility.
Meanwhile, the larger St. Louis Lambert International Airport saw more than 14 million passengers in 2023 and may serve even more this year. So far in 2024, each month has seen more passengers than in the previous year.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved a plan in May 2023 to consolidate the two terminals at the international airport, and KSDK reports construction is expected to begin on the west wing in 2026 and the east wing in 2028.
For those looking for a deal, MidAmerica in Mascoutah has 10 flight itineraries available for less than $65 for a one-way ticket, including trips to Knoxville, Tenn., Savannah, Ga., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and more.
Service journalist Meredith Howard, based at the Belleville News-Democrat, contributed to this report.