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Carl G. Olson

Executive Director

Central Illinois Regional Airport

309.663.7384  

Central Illinois Regional Airport Releases 2009 Passenger Traffic Report

December 2009 Travel Increases over December 2008

( Bloomington , IL , January 15, 2010) …December passenger travel at the Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal showed a healthy increase, but overall the airport saw fewer travelers in 2009 than in 2008.  Total 2009 passenger traffic showed a 7% decrease from its 2008 record high number of travelers. In 2009, a total of 495,656 passengers flew on the airport’s commercial airlines that include AirTran Airways, American Eagle and Delta. 

Paul Harmon, Chairman of the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority, acknowledged that the global economy’s stress can be seen in the year-end numbers for CIRA.  “While we are not satisfied with a decrease in our passenger traffic, we know that these numbers are reflective of an overall downturn in air travel in the last year.” said Chairman Harmon. “According to U.S.D.O.T. the national average for passenger traffic was showing a 12.3% decrease through the third quarter of 2009.  Year end numbers have not yet been released but CIRA appears to be faring better than the national trend.” 

 For CIRA the 7% decrease is an improvement over the mid-year statistics and the trend has been positive in recent months. 

Harmon added, “We had an excellent holiday season and overall December, with traffic stabilizing and increasing in the last four months of the year.  Traffic in December was 4.9% higher than in December of 2008.”

 In 2009, U.S. airlines cut capacity system wide as they tried to manage lower demand in both the business and leisure travel segments.  At CIRA, a new route to Dallas-Ft. Worth on American Eagle that was introduced in late 2008 offered travelers an additional hub to complement American Eagle’s daily service to Chicago O’Hare, and access to the US . Southwest, Mexico and beyond.  AirTran Airways continued to offer daily service to Atlanta Georgia and nonstop service to Orlando Florida four times per week.  AirTran was recently awarded the prestigious Market Leadership Award from Air Transport World (ATW) for, among other things, its ground-breaking deployment of Wi-Fi Internet access on every flight as well as its innovative blending of the traditional low-cost carrier model with features not typical of low-cost carriers, including Business Class, and complimentary XM Satellite Radio.  Delta’s merge with Northwest Airlines created the world’s largest airline with daily departures to Atlanta , Georgia and Detroit , Michigan .  CIRA is the only downstate Illinois airport with Delta service to Atlanta , the airline’s largest hub.

  Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal, located on Route 9 East in Bloomington offers the lowest average fares in central Illinois , free parking and access to hundreds of worldwide destinations.  More info rmation may be found at www.cira.com. ##