Peoria Station

Another departure from Peoria-centric material. Delta Air Lines announced Wednesday that it will begin nonstop service between the Indiana capital and Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France on May 24, 2018. Equipment will be 225-seat Boeing 767-300ERs (example shown on final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport on September 6, 2015). Connections beyond Paris will be available through Delta's Skyteam alliance partner, Air France.  Why is this significant? Because Indianapolis is getting its first scheduled intercontinental passenger flights. This may seem strange given that Indy is America's 15th largest city (864,164 residents in 2016) and that its metropolitan statistical area has reached 2 million. But proximity to much larger Chicago, which has long offered direct or nonstop service to Europe, and lack of hub status to offer sufficient connecting traffic are among factors relegating the city's passenger flights to North America. Until now.  Wor...

(Originally posted on January 27, 2016) The last installment in this series detailed the threat posed by inadequate facilities, mining subsidence and the lack of funding for necessary capital improvements. This post will analyze air service changes. Peoria’s municipal airport experienced major air service changes in 1950. When the year started, air carriers numbered just two – American and TWA. Lets review happenings by each. AMERICAN AIRLINES This carrier operated a daily flight in each direction between Chicago, Peoria, Springfield and St. Louis with a 40-seat Convair 240. No known major changes occurred during the year, but Peoria did see an emergency landing in the early morning hours of December 26. The Peoria Star reported that American Airlines’ Californian , operating from Chicago to Los Angeles, made an emergency landing here due to a heating unit fire. The aircraft, probably a DC-6, had 57 passengers. TRANS WORLD AIRLINES On March 15, 1950, a TWA flight ...