Quad City International Airport
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S10
N 41° 27.276 W 090° 30.395
15T E 708261 N 4592225
The Quad City International Airport is the third busiest commercial airport in Illinois.
Waymark Code: WM4CWV
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 08/07/2008
Views: 33
Quad City International Airport (IATA: MLI, ICAO: KMLI, FAA LID: MLI) is a public airport located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Moline, a city in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. It is owned by the Metropolitan Airport Authority.[1] It serves the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa.
The Quad City International Airport is the third busiest commercial airport in Illinois – Chicago's O'Hare and Midway International Airports respectively lead the state. The international designation is for being an official port of entry and having a customs service. A Foreign Trade Zone and U.S. Customs Office are located at the airport, enabling international inbound and outbound shipments.
Franing Field, the site of the present Quad City International Airport, was picked as an ideal flying field, which consisted of 120 acres (49 ha) of level, grassy land free of obstacles. The airport made headlines right at the start, chosen as a control point for the first coast-to-coast flight in the fall of 1919. On August 18th, 1927, an estimated 10,000 people came to welcome Charles A. Lindbergh in Moline and his famous plane The Spirit of St. Louis on the Gugenheim tour, a cross-country commercial aviation promotion tour. In 1929, Phoebe Omlie set an altitude record above the airport in a Velie Monocoupe, the only plane ever manufactured in Moline, which still hangs in the passenger terminal. In 1947, the Metropolitan Airport Authority of Rock Island County was formed after seven townships voted to establish it. In 1957, the first count of enplaning and deplaning passengers was made with a total of 59,701 recorded. The airport underwent major remodeling in 1961 and 1968, adding everything from baggage claim to a restaurant and passenger boarding areas. The current airport terminal was completed in 1985, after studies showed that an addition to the 1954 structure would prove more costly than building an entirely new terminal. The shift to the new $11 million terminal created many new opportunities for expansion of airline facilities. Between 1979 and 1986, the number of airlines increased from two to seven. [2] Major carriers flying mainline jets to the Quad Cities have included America West Airlines, American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Ozark Airlines, Pan Am, TWA, and United Airlines. In the early and mid-1990s, turboprop equipment was much more prevalent. Northwest Airlink as well as other airlines operated daily flights to/from QCIA on Saab 340B turboprop aircraft. Carriers like Northwest Airlink have almost completely replaced their turboprop equipment with newer regional jets. In fact, every commercial flight out of Quad City International, with the rare exception of an occasional Saab 340B Northwest Airlink flight operated by Mesaba Airlines, is now served by jet aircraft. In 2001, the terminal underwent a major renovation and expansion that included two new concourses, a larger baggage claim area, new restaurants, and gift shops. The completion of the project doubled the size of the passenger terminal.
In 2004, Northwest Airlines announced major expansion plans for Quad City International with their feeder carrier, Northwest Airlink. United Airlines also recently expanded its Denver, Colorado, market at MLI. The larger-jet service to this airport is provided by AirTran Airways, which uses 117-seat Boeing 717s and 137-seat Boeing 737s to fly between Quad City International and Atlanta, Georgia, Orlando, Florida.
The Quad City International Airport has experienced steady growth in terms of passengers enplaned and has increasingly expanded the amount of direct flight options. In 2006, for the first time in history, 911,522 passengers arrived at and departed from Quad City International Airport. Traffic was up 6% over 2005 and broke the previous annual passenger record held in 2004 by over 34,000 passengers. In 2006, 456,802 passengers were enplaned and 454,720 were deplaned. Passenger totals (both enplanements and deplanements) have been running in excess of 850,000 during each of the last few years.
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