PEORIA, Ill. — 2019 was an all-around record-setting year for General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport.
Eight monthly passenger records, including a July that was the busiest month in airport history, led to the highest-ever total number of passengers the airport has seen: 689,416.
“That’s the total number of people getting on and off airplanes here in Peoria for the year,” said Director of Airports Gene Olson.
Olson explained going into the year, it wasn’t a given the airport would see success.
“On Delta, we actually lost Detroit as a destination at the end of 2018, so we were a little concerned about how that would work out,” he said.
“But we found out from looking at the numbers, Delta passengers didn’t bail out and go somewhere else. They stayed with Delta and went continued to fly through Atlanta and Minneapolis.
“We like to think our message we’ve been trying to get out, ‘Go Global, Fly Local,’ is starting to take hold in the market and people are realizing the advantages and conveniences.”
Olson said the airport would be taking measures in 2020 to try and top 2019’s numbers. He pointed to the seasonal Allegiant service from Peoria to Nashville, which he said would run June-December, but could be extended if the demand is there.
He also mentioned a Delta aircraft, the Embraer 170, would be expanding from 50 seats to 70 seats.
“I rode one of those on a flight to Canada one time, and I’m a big guy, and you could put another guy as big as me next to me, and we wouldn’t rub shoulders. It’s a nice, comfortable airplane.”
An empty building in the western parking lot is also slated to be demolished to create more parking, Olson said.
As for a target number of passengers for 2019, Olson said a goal has been bandied about.
“I have one of my commissioners who has 700,000 as a goal for us,” he said.
“It’s not a number I’d want to tie my salary to,” he joked, “but it’s a magic number with a lot of zeroes in it and we’d love to hit it.”
