Central Illinois Regional Airport Nonstop Flight to Detroit Sees Favorable Trends

Nov. 11—BLOOMINGTON — Traffic for the new nonstop flight service to Detroit from Central Illinois Regional Airport through Delta is doing well despite launching during a pandemic, airport officials reported Tuesday.

After just four weeks of operation the airport has received positive feedback and traffic trends from Delta, CIRA Executive Director Carl Olson said Tuesday during the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority Board meeting.

"It's increasingly being used by Rivian with positive results and positive feedback," Olson said. "Overall, it was a good month with respect to the situation we're in."

The airport announced the new nonstop service to Detroit in September, which was applauded by Rivian and community business leaders. Airport officials have said Rivian's travel activity to and from its Normal manufacturing facility was a catalyst for discussions with Delta.

"It's showing positive trends; it's increasing each week," said Olson.

Overall airport traffic also has improved slightly, he said.

Nationwide traffic for airports, as well as CIRA, has been down between 61-64% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Olson told The Pantagraph. For the month of October, airport traffic at CIRA was down 57% from the previous year, a slight improvement over previous months.

Flights have also been operating with 40% less capacity, meaning there were 40% fewer seats available as airlines reduced schedules, operated smaller aircraft and pulled services due to the pandemic, said Olson.

"Our October loads performed much better than we expected for the month despite COIVD and significant flight reductions," he said. "Overall for the month of October, I don't know if we're ever going to be satisfied, but we're pleased."

In other business, commissioners approved a $159,100 bid to ENTEC Services of Bartonville to replace the software and control centers of the new heating and air conditioning system for the airport terminal building.

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Contact Sierra Henry at 309-820-3234. Follow her on Twitter: @pg_sierrahenry.

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