Latest news with #MetropolitanAirportAuthorityofPeoria
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Peoria airport hits all-time record passenger numbers in March
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — The records keep falling when it comes to total passengers at the Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport. The Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria announced that March had the highest number — 71,988 — of passengers flying in and out of the airport. The old record was in July 2019 when 68,447 flew in and out of the airport. It also beat the old monthly all time high by more than 5%, said Gene Olson, Director of Airports for the authority. 'We knew that March was going to put up some impressive numbers, based on the activity in our parking lots, and we suspected we might set a record,' he said. 'But we didn't anticipate breaking the all-time monthly record, and we didn't foresee setting the record by that large of a margin.' He added the airlines have been adding frequencies to the destinations we already served and adding new destinations. 'We're grateful to the folks in Central Illinois who have been using those additional flights,' he said. 'People have really been supporting our existing flights, and we're seeing great usage of both our low-cost Denver weekly flights and our new daily Denver flights on United.' The airport has seen increasing numbers which have exceeded the pre-Covid monthly averages since last June. In 2024 alone, the airport set monthly records in August, September, November, and December. They set a record this past January but fell short by just over 500 passengers in February which was likely due to snow-related cancellations at the hub airports. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Yahoo
Local aviation experts weigh in on safety of flying
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Local aviation experts say recent airplane catastrophes should not be a cause for concern for travelers. Gene Olson, the director of airports for the Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria, says he believes air travel remains one of the safest modes of transportation. 'If I had a reason to go or put my family on an airliner tomorrow, I would do it. If I needed to go to Washington D.C. and DCA was the most convenient airport, I would go there,' he said, referring to the airport code for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. By comparison, the code for Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport is PIA. His comments in the wake of last month's collision between a American Eagle flight and a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that resulted in 67 deaths. Two days later, a medical transport jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, killing all six aboard and one person on the ground. Missing Alaska flight found with no survivors: What to know Melissa Beaver with the Central Illinois Regional Airport shared the same sentiment, that air travel is still one of the safest ways to travel, saying the country has one of the largest and safest air transit systems. Olson and Beaver both agree the reason airplane crashes are so prominent in the news is the fact they are so rare. Noting that another plane crash just occurred in Alaska this past week, Beaver said the public tends to pay more attention to such incidents because they are so uncommon,. Airline flying is 'systematic' according to Olson, meaning there are a lot of rules and regulations in place to keep everyone safe. 'If I had an airplane and I wanted to hop in the airplane and go somewhere, and it's just me I am the one deciding if the weather is good enough,' he said. 'But if it's an airline flight, and they're taking a paying passenger along, then all that is proscripted.' Every airline has an operating handbook that lays out safety guidelines that tell the airline company, based on weather or mechanical conditions, if they can fly or not. When it comes to the cause of the recent airplane crashes, both stress that it can take months to a year for a cause to be given, as there is a lot of information and evidence the National Transportation Safety Board has to comb through. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
