MidAmerica St. Louis Airport

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport represents a public use facility situated adjacent to Scott Air Force Base. It can be found 21 miles (33 kilometers) east of downtown St. Louis and16 miles ( 26 kilometers) east of the central district of Belleville in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States.

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport represents a public use facility situated adjacent to Scott Air Force Base. It can be found 21 miles (33 kilometers) east of downtown St. Louis and16 miles ( 26 kilometers) east of the central district of Belleville in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States.

BLV is the secondary domestic passenger airport that serves St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area. St. Louis Lambert International Airport represents the largest as well as a primary international and domestic facility for the region. MidAmerica has operated as a joint-use facility since November 1997 and is currently served by Allegiant Air with direct flights to Destin / Fort Walton Beach (FL), Fort Lauderdale (FL) Jacksonville (FL), Myrtle Beach (SC) Las Vegas (NV), Orlando / Sanford (FL), Punta Gorda (FL), Phoenix/Mesa (AZ), Savannah/Hilton Head (SC), Sarasota (FL), and St. Petersburg/Clearwater (FL).

Following Federal Aviation Administration records, BLV had 152,278 passenger enplanements in 2018. Introduced to the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, SIT is categorized as a primary commercial service facility based on enplanements (more than 10,000 per year).

It is the ninth busiest of the twelve commercial airports In Illinois.

History

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport was established to alleviate crowding at St. Louis Lambert International Airport but has been criticized as a project. Featured a few times as a “Fleecing of America” segment on NBC Nightly News, Tom Brokaw called it a “Gateway to Nowhere,” costing taxpayers $313 million. MidAmerica’s additional runway is credited with saving Scott AFB from closure during BRAC 2005. MidAmerica is currently often described as a “Gateway to the World,” citing a new cargo terminal and customs facility created to attract international cargo. Congestion at the airport has not been a problem because American Airlines reduced hub operations by 50% in 2003, and a new billion-dollar runway was opened in 2006.

Travelers’ service has increased since Allegiant Airlines restarted its services in 2012 with operations to nine destinations, and a further number increased in 2018.

MidAmerica was named “Airport of the Year” in the category for airports that see more than 10,000 passengers every year by the Illinois Department of Transportation in 2018.

Airlines

Four airlines have started operations at BLV. While the three went out of business or stopped operations at the airport, Allegiant Airlines continued to offer eight destinations (nine beginning in November 2017):