PEORIA, Ill. – The Illinois Department of Transportation has named the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport its Primary Airport of the Year for 2024.
A primary airport is defined by the FAA as one having more than 10,000 passengers each year.
Director of Airports Gene Olson says a key factor in PIA’s selection was the progress in replacing the airport’s aging Air Traffic Control Tower.
“They also look at your safety record, how well you maintain the place, and your relationship with the Division of Aeronautics. There are six or seven things that they look at,” Olson says.
In addition to being named Airport of the Year, PIA has also set two consecutive monthly passenger records.
August and September saw more passengers pass through the airport than ever before.
Those monthly records also represent the first times since the Covid pandemic that PIA has set new passenger count records.
In August, PIA served 57,353 passengers, 1.3-percent higher than the previous August record set in 2019 (56,639). The numbers also represent an 11-percent increase over August of 2023.
September’s passenger count at PIA was 53,796, exceeding the previous record for September of 51,820 by nearly 4-percent. That record stood since September of 2014.
September 2024’s numbers also exceeded the month’s total for 2023 by over 12-percent.
“We continue to see strong numbers month after month and are thrilled we set new monthly records for August and September, which are slower months after the Summer rush,” Gene Olson, Director of Airports, says. “The airlines are gearing up for the holidays and we expect to finish strong.”, Olson said. “This is the first time we’ve set a monthly record since the pandemic. This brings us back to the peak passenger activity we were seeing before Covid.”
PIA’s record year was set in 2019 with 689,416 passengers. This year to date, PIA is only 2.7 percent off that mark, Olson adds.
In August, PIA saw a total of 400 commercial flights, and in September the airport had 385 commercial departures.
“We are VERY pleased with our recovery through the past few years. We want to thank
our passengers for “Flying PIA” and we hope that our passengers continue to push PIA
activity to new heights through the end of this year and into the future,” Olson says.
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