Peoria Station

The year 2002 marked PIA's return to the top as Central Illinois' busiest passenger air facility. As soon as 2003 dawned, however, threats of service cuts increased as the airline industry reeled from a shaky economy, financial losses, terror threats and new regulations. The year offered a lot of drama, so I'll analyze each carrier's service and end with a bright spot which continues to the present day. AMERICAN CONNECTION (Trans States Airlines) Having been relegated to secondary status (i. e., not part of the American Eagle network), former TW Express carrier Trans States Airlines was limited to providing "American Connection" feeder service to American Airlines' St. Louis hub.  American Airlines' rationale for acquiring TWA was in part to gain a reliever hub to Chicago-O'Hare, which had a cap placed on flights during the tumultuous summer of 2000. American's idea may have worked if not for 9-11 and the subsequent air travel slumps. Cutbacks ...

I haven't posted one of these in awhile, so here it is. Ask a question on transportation and industry. As always, if I don't know the answer, I'll find one. As a much-needed update, I looked through the archives and realized the last of the "PIA - A History" was posted on December 28, 2022, a little more than a year ago! So with this week's Arctic weather changing my routine, I decided to write the next one. Look for "PIA - A History: Events of 2003" soon.  Two decades have passed, so it is easier to analyze events in historical context. As with the last four write ups, I will include a slide show, focusing on commercial airline traffic during the Prairie Air Show July 5-6, 2003.  - David P. Jordan

In 2002, the Greater Peoria Regional Airport regained its status as Central Illinois' busiest air passenger facility. That was the good news, but the storm clouds of uncertainty, continuing security concerns and turmoil in the airline industry continued to plague the outlook for local airline service. Let's review airline service changes which occurred that year.  AMERICAN CONNECTION (Trans States Airlines) At the start of 2002, this carrier offered seven weekday departures to St. Louis. Traffic was recovering post-9/11, so it resumed an eighth on January 8. April schedules show a ninth had been added, though newspaper coverage in late-June indicates service had been reduced to seven again. Frequency was brought back up to nine roundtrips on September 4. These flights operated with a mix of 68-seat ATR-72, 48-seat ATR-42 and 29-seat Jetstream 41 turboprops.  AMERICAN EAGLE (American Eagle Airlines) When 2002 began, weekday departures to Chicago-O'Hare totaled four. Passenge...

Two events in 1999 - AccessAir's failure and the displacement by Bloomington-Normal's Central Illinois Regional Airport (CIRA) as the region's leading airline passenger facility - threatened PIA's future as 2000 dawned. The question on everyone's mind was how to deal with the problem. Let us review happenings by airline for the year. AMERICAN EAGLE (American Eagle Airlines) By the end of May 2000, flights moved from Gate 4 to Gate 5, which was formerly used by AccessAir and was jetway-equipped. About this time, the carrier announced that it intended to convert all Chicago-O'Hare flights to regional jets by fall. Peoria would gain a sixth daily roundtrip (first shown in AA's September 6 timetable). A fifth roundtrip was converted to jet service on August 21 and the sixth on October 23. There would be no more American Eagle ATR-42s operating in or out of Peoria.  NORTHWEST AIRLINK (Mesaba Airlines) On May 1, when Bloomington-Normal received an ...

AccessAir's plans to offer Peoria nonstop and direct flights to multiple major destinations thrilled those of us who remembered (or learned of) the good old days of the 1970s. And for a time in 1999, service levels and available (and projected) service began to resemble those days. Yet, this fantastic revival was cut short by all too familiar circumstances. The Greater Peoria Regional Airport saw a lot of change and drama in 1999, so this post will only cover that year. Let us first look at happenings by individual airlines. ACCESSAIR After its April 18, 1997 public announcement of plans to serve Peoria, this carrier consumed nearly two years to start operations. Difficulty obtaining slots at New York-LaGuardia Airport prompted consideration of Newark International Airport (also slot-controlled) on a temporary basis. Then in late 1998, the carrier entered into a deal with Northwest Airlines to lease two unused slots until April 4. After final regulatory approval, the ca...

Image consciousness dominated PIA in the 1990s, but airport officials seemed powerless to reverse declining service offerings. In 1997, however, a shift in fortune was spurred not by PIA but by a competitor 50 miles away. THE RISE OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS REGIONAL AIRPORT Starting in 1945, the Greater Peoria [Regional] Airport had dominated the Central Illinois region in passenger volume for five decades. No other facility came close. But by the late-1990s, it was clear PIA's reign was threatened by Bloomington-Normal Airport (BMI). Renamed Central Illinois Regional Airport in 1996, BMI quickly lived up to its name. Officials revealed in late-summer that they were pursuing a recent upstart named AirTran Airways, which would offer daily nonstop jet service to Orlando, Florida. Bloomington's Pantagraph also stated that CIRA was competing with PIA for this service. AirTran chose CIRA despite the airfield's limitations. First, Runway 02-20, opened a few months prior, was to...

By 1995, it was clear that PIA's passenger business was in recession. One would expect a downward trend during an economic recession, but at this time both the local and national economy were booming. High fares, loss of major carriers and the false perception created by the local media that PIA had lost all jet service were primary contributors to the decline. Understanding the times is vital. Let's start with a rundown of local air service happenings in 1995 and 1996. AMERICAN EAGLE (Flagship Airlines/Simmons Airlines) When a sufficient number of Flagship Airlines Saab 340 turboprops were made available and their crews finished training for winter weather operations, Chicago-O'Hare service resumed Janauary 4, 1995. Initially, there were six daily roundtrips. The FAA's December 9, 1994 order to ground ATR-42s apparently ended permanently the Peoria-Burlington (Iowa) tag-on that was operated daily for several years. Simmons returned its ATR-42 fleet to five of s...