PEORIA, Ill. – Operations at Peoria International Airport leading into the holiday weekend are not seeing troubles and problems that other airports across the country are seeing.
Director Gene Olson tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan” that the airport has not seen many delays.
“We’ve fared pretty normally,” Olson says. “We didn’t really see any kind of interruptions. We’ve been lucky though. I mean, a drought is terrible for the farmers, but it’s not bad for an airport.”
Olson says smoke from Canadian wildfires that blanketed central Illinois last week had minimal impact on operations at the airport. He says only the flight schools were affected with less than ideal conditions to train in.
Information on flight arrivals and departures can be found at flypia.com.
Olson says the airport is also seeing more flights coming into and departing, as five-year averages are returning to pre-pandemic levels.
He says they’re also looking to expand the number of airlines and flights for Peoria.
“We actually applied for a grant through the U.S. DOT to help us get some stimulus for some new service to a couple of new cities,” Olson said. “We’re looking to expand our offerings to the west and southwest.”
Olson says one factor in having more flights and airlines is improvements to the flight tower. He says architects have recently completed survey work on what improvements are needed, and have submitted them to the FAA.
