Peoria Station

Believe me, the events of 1986 will leave your head spinning! Signs of an air service boom came early in the year. The Peoria Journal Star reported January 7 on Republic Airlines' interest in serving Peoria, as well as plans by an unnamed carrier to offer jet service to Chicago. More on those later. By 1986, the American economy was booming.  From November 1985 to July 1986, the oil price per barrel dropped from $30 to $12. Thus, airlines also benefitted from reduced expenses. A simultaneous surge in capacity brought lower fares. Peoria shared in this prosperity. Better yet, locally-based Caterpillar returned to profitability and sales were growing again. Here's a run-down of happenings by airline for the year. AIR WISCONSIN Beginning March 2, four roundtrips were operated on weekdays (fewer on weekends) between Peoria and Chicago-O'Hare. In mid-year, all four operated to and from Springfield, giving the carrier eight weekday departures out of Peoria.  When ...

The year 1985 offered a sample of what was to come in the last half of the 1980s - mergers and code-sharing.  AIR WISCONSIN ARRIVES PIA In late-January 1985, Mississippi Valley Airlines agreed to a takeover bid by Appleton, Wisconsin-based Air Wisconsin. The latter absorbed MVA on June 1 that year, and continued using MVA's F-27/Shorts 360 fleet at PIA. I can't recall seeing a Shorts 360 painted in Air Wisconsin's green, orange and white colors, so they probably remained in MVA's blue, yellow and white until finally withdrawn from here by Spring 1986.  On July 20, 1985 Air Wisconsin began sharing United Air Lines' two-letter designator code (UA) on its Chicago-O'Hare flights, thus beginning the two carriers' close relationship which would last for many years. Two of Air Wisconsin's five PIA-ORD roundtrips were cut October 27 due to an aircraft shortage. Ironically, exactly a month earlier one of the airline's executives visited the city t...

Peoria's economy remained in the dumps in 1984 as Caterpillar continued to shed employees as well as facilities. But airport passenger traffic continued to rise. An April 15 article proclaimed a nine percent increase and that fares were competitive with Chicago and St. Louis. Britt Airways' service remained largely unchanged with FH-227s operating eight roundtrips between Peoria and Chicago-O'Hare with seven nonstops to and eight nonstops from that facility. Bloomington-Normal and Springfield tag-ons gave the Terre Haute, Indiana-based airline a total of eleven weekday departures. A January 5, 1984 newspaper ad touted connections to American Airlines' Chicago-O'Hare hub. Mississippi Valley Airlines provided five weekday flights to O'Hare and six from, while Burlington (Iowa) and Springfield (IL) tag-ons provided a total of eleven weekday departures. The Moline, Illinois-based airline used a mix of Fokker F-27s, Shorts 360s and Shorts 330s. MVA newspaper ads...

Events involving PIA continued their rapid pace during 1983.  The year began with the area's largest employer, Caterpillar Tractor Co., on strike. Begun October 1, 1982, it lasted nearly 30 weeks until April 24, 1983. Although the strike had ended, the company continued to suffer declining engine and machine sales. Additional layoffs were announced shortly and people telling each other, "Will the last person leaving Peoria please turn out the lights?" And yet, passenger traffic at the Greater Peoria Airport began to grow again. Perhaps it was more a reflection of the national economy, which began showing signs of life in late 1982. Recovery continued into 1983 as inflation slowed, fuel prices declined and reduced tax rates helped fuel consumer spending and business investment. Some cite the end of fare wars that prompted travelers to drive to Chicago or St. Louis instead of flying out of Peoria.  Because Ozark had significantly reduced service at Peoria in 1981...

Many Peorians still recall the good old days when they could board an Ozark DC-9 and fly to the likes of Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Tampa and Washington, DC (later Baltimore) without changing planes. Those good old days ended in 1981-1982. ANALYSIS It is clear that the re-introduction of service here by TWA and reduced service as a consequence of the PATCO strike permanently, but pre-maturely, cut Ozark's schedule. So one might ask: How long would it have lasted otherwise? Ozark's decision to end its last roundtrip between Peoria and Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) on October 25, 1981 was forced upon it due to FAA regulations designed to minimize congestion. Unknown is when this would have occurred if not for the PATCO walkout. Ozark had dropped its last Moline to Chicago-O'Hare roundtrip on July 1, 1981. Weekday Champaign/Urbana to Chicago-O'Hare flights apparently ended with the strike or shortly thereafter. The airline maintained a weekday-only ORD-SPI...

As 1980 passed the baton to 1981, there was reason for optimism. Details of weekday departures per Ozark Air Lines' December 15, 1980 timetable offers evidence. Baltimore /1 flight, DC-9 (continues to LGA) Cedar Rapids /2 flights, DC-9, DC-9 (2nd continued to MSP) Champaign-Urbana /2 flights, DC-9 (continues to BWI* & LGA), DC-9 Chicago-O'Hare /3 flights, DC-9, DC-9, DC-9 Denver /2 flights, DC-9, DC-9 Detroit-Metro /1 flight, DC-9 Indianapolis /2 flights, DC-9 (continues to BNA & TPA), DC-9 Minneapolis-St. Paul /1 flight, DC-9 Moline /2 flights, DC-9, DC-9 St. Louis /3 flights, DC-9 (continues to MCO), DC-9, DC-9 (3rd continues to DFW) Springfield (IL) /2 flights, DC-9 (continues to STL & COU), DC-9 (continues to STL) * Baltimore/Washington International Airport changed its three-letter code from BAL to BWI effective October 26, 1980 . Weekday departures had risen from 20 to 21 and there were now two nonstops to Denver (one return flight continued ...

To understand events of 1980, we must begin in late-1979. The completion of the Interstate 474 bypass (and Airport Road interchange) on December 20 that year expanded PIA's catchment area, but unfortunately failed to compensate for an increasingly difficult period in local aviation history.  The UAW Local 974 struck area Caterpillar Tractor Company plant on October 1, 1979, forcing a reduction in manufacturing and logistics operations. The walkout ended in mid-December but reduced corporate (and probably leisure) travel, impacting passenger traffic at the Greater Peoria Airport. On October 6, 1979 the Federal Reserve changed its monetary policy as a means to slay inflation, resulting in much higher interest rates. Already suffering from rising unemployment, the national economy plunged into recession from January to July 1980. From May 5 through June 1, Ozark Air Lines was shut down due to a mechanic's strike. As a consequence of each event noted above, PIA passenger...

Beginning in the late 1970s, events surrounding the Greater Peoria Airport accelerated in frequency. These changes can be credited (or discredited, depending on your perspective) to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Therefore, this and many future posts in this series will focus on a single year. Ozark Air Lines vigorously opposed deregulation, warning proponents that it would result in the loss of service in smaller markets. The Greater Peoria Airport Authority supported deregulation initially, viewing the change as a means to obtain more airlines, but began to modify its view after the announcements of several service cuts. EFFECTS OF DEREGULATION There were cutbacks before deregulation. Sometime in 1978, probably summer, Ozark changed its Detroit-Peoria-Moline-Omaha routing to Detroit-Peoria-Des Moines. Citing the need to deploy its planes on other routes, this service was eliminated December 14. The reduction left Peoria with a single roundtrip to the Motor City, which wa...