Gen. Wayne A Downing Peoria International Airport is on a run for setting monthly passenger records as it celebrates an Airport of the Year designation from the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Director of Airports Gene Olson said consecutive record-setting months in August and September have PIA on track for one of its busiest years ever.
“We’ve been comparing ourselves, ever since COVID, to last five normal years, and I'd say ever since June, we've been in positive territory compared to those five years,” said Olson. “In June and July, we were above that five-year average, but didn't set a record. Then finally in August, we set one, and then we set another one in September.”
August brought 57,353 passengers to PIA —1.3% above the month’s high mark in 2019 and 11% higher than last August. That preceded a September with 51,820 passengers, topping a decade-old record by nearly 4% and eclipsing last year’s figure by 12%.
Those totals have put PIA just 2.7% off the pace from its best year on record.
“Our record year ever was 2019, and we had 689,000 passengers on and off through that year,” said Olson, noting the airport surpassed more than a half-million passengers for this year by the end of September.
“To put that in perspective, I think we only had, like 489,000 back in 2009 when I started here. So we're orders of magnitude better than what we were 15 years ago.”
Typically, Olson said, August and September are slower months after a summer travel rush, but it appears a boost in leisure travel contributed to the recent surge.
“I think there still is some pent-up demand from even back from COVID, where people couldn't travel or didn't want to, didn't feel safe traveling,” he said. “Now ... they're making up for it kind of with a vengeance.”
IDOT award
Last week, IDOT selected PIA as its 2024 Primary Airport of the Year. By the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition, any airport with more than 10,000 annual passengers is a primary airport.
The IDOT honor is based on factors such as accomplishments, commitment to customer safety and satisfaction, coordination with the state, facility maintenance, safety record, and promotion of aviation and educational events.
Additionally, progress toward replacing PIA's aging air traffic control tower played a role in earning the award.
Olson said the airport of the year honor and increasing passenger figures are encouraging signs for PIA’s future.
“I think the biggest factor for us is that when we have full airplanes and busy flights, that helps us when we go talk to the airlines about getting future flights and new destinations,” he said.
