MidAmerica St. Louis Airport
MidAmerica St. Louis Airport (IATA: BLV, ICAO: KBLV, FAA LID: BLV) is a public use airport co-located on the grounds of Scott Air Force Base. It is located 14 nautical miles (16 mi, 26 km) east of the central business district of Belleville, in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States.[1]
MidAmerica has operated as a Joint Use Airport since beginning operations in November 1997 and has not been served by any commercial airlines since Allegiant Air pulled out of the airport on January 3, 2009.[2][3]
However, Allegiant Air advertisements dated August 21, 2012, state that the company will resume operations with direct flights between MidAmerica St. Louis Airport and Orlando Sanford International Airport starting November 7, 2012.
As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 27,002 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008,[4] 1,964 enplanements in 2009, and 1,183 in 2010.[5] It was included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service airport based on enplanements in 2008 (more than 10,000 per year).[6]
Contents
1 History 2 Passenger airlines 3 Passenger facilities 4 Airline and destination 5 Cargo airlines 6 Cargo facilities 7 Runways 8 Maintenance and operations 9 Statistics 10 References 11 External links
History
MidAmerica St. Louis Airport was created to alleviate some crowding of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, but has never had service from any major airline and has been criticized as a pork barrel project.[7] Featured several times as a "Fleecing of America" segment on the NBC Nightly News, it was called a "Gateway to Nowhere" by Tom Brokaw, costing taxpayers $313 million.[8] Supporters credit MidAmerica's additional runway with saving Scott AFB from closure during BRAC 2005. They also describe MidAmerica as a "Gateway to the World", citing a new cargo terminal and customs facility designed to attract international cargo.[3] Congestion at Lambert-St. Louis has not been a problem since American Airlines reduced hub operations by fifty percent in 2003 and a new billion-dollar runway opened in 2006.[9][10] Passenger airlines
Four passenger airlines have started operations at MidAmerica only to go out of business or close operations.[11]
On August 16, 2000, Pan American Airways debuted at MidAmerica airport. Pan American Airways (Pan Am) offered non-stop service between Orlando Sanford and St. Louis. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, airline travel dropped significantly across the United States. This drop-off in air travel ultimately impacted Pan American Airways service at the fledgling airport.[12][13] Pan American Airways ceased operations at the airport December 3, 2001.
Great Plains Airlines filed for bankruptcy in January 2004 and ultimately ceased all operations.[12]
TransMeridian Airlines began service at Mid-America on November 21, 2004. The Atlanta-based airline filed for bankruptcy on September 29, 2005, then ceased service to all destinations - including Mid-America.
Allegiant Air started service from the St. Clair County-owned airport on April 29, 2005. Allegiant Air offered flights to both McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and Orlando Sanford International Airport until January 3, 2009.[14] However, as stated previously, Allegiant Air advertisements dated August 21, 2012, state that the company will resume operations with direct flights between MidAmerica St. Louis Airport and Orlando/Sanford starting November 7, 2012.
Allegiant has resumed twice weekly flights between BLV and Orlando/Sanford since November 2012. Passenger facilities
The passenger terminal was planned as an expandable facility that will provide passenger accommodations for the initial opening of the MidAmerica Airport. The passenger terminal is located in a 250-foot-wide by 7,000-foot long terminal building expansion envelope, bounded by a runway and parking lot. In the initial build-out, the terminal provides two upper level departure gates (both have jet bridges) with additional ground-level gates to serve smaller commuter aircraft.
