MidAmerica St. Louis Airport is a public use airport located adjacent to Scott Air Force Base. It is located 14 nautical miles east of the central business district of Belleville and 18 nautical miles east of downtown St. Louis in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The airport is the secondary domestic passenger airport for the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area. St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the largest and primary domestic and international airport for the region. MidAmerica has operated as a joint use airport since beginning operations in November 1997 and is currently served by Allegiant Air with direct flights to Fort Lauderdale, Destin / Fort Walton Beach, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Orlando / Sanford, Phoenix/Mesa, Punta Gorda, Sarasota, Savannah/Hilton Head, and St. Petersburg/Clearwater. Per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 152,278 passenger enplanements in 2018. It was included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, which categorized it as a primary commercial service airport based on enplanements. It is the ninth busiest of the 12 commercial airports In Illinois.
History
MidAmerica St. Louis Airport was created to alleviate crowding at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, but has been criticized as a pork barrel project. 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. 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. Congestion at Lambert Airport 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. Passenger service has increased dramatically since Allegiant Airlines restarted service in 2012 with flights to nine destinations and further frequency increases in 2018. MidAmerica Airport was named "Airport of the Year" in the category for airports that see more than 10,000 passengers annually by the Illinois Department of Transportation in 2018.
Passenger airlines
Four passenger airlines have started operations at MidAmerica. While the first three went out of business or closed operations at the airport, Allegiant Airlines currently offers eight destinations :
On August 16, 2000, Pan American Airways debuted at MidAmerica airport. Pan American Airways 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 affected Pan American Airways service at the fledgling airport. 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.
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 MidAmerica.
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. However, Allegiant Air resumed operations with twice-weekly direct flights between MidAmerica St. Louis Airport and Orlando/Sanford beginning on November 7, 2012. Since that time, direct flights were added to Fort Lauderdale, Destin / Fort Walton Beach, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Orlando / Sanford, Phoenix/Mesa, Punta Gorda, and St. Petersburg/Clearwater. Allegiant operates Airbus A319 and A320 jetliners.
Passenger facilities
From the onset, the passenger terminal was planned as an expandable facility that would provide passenger accommodations for the initial opening of MidAmerica Airport and allow for easy expansion if needed. The passenger terminal is located in a 250-foot-wide by 700-foot-long terminal building expansion envelope, bounded by a runway and parking lot. The initial build-out provides two upper level departure gates with additional ground-level gates to serve smaller commuter aircraft.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Cargo
Between late 2009 and August 2010, one air cargo company, LAN Cargo, used the airport to import flowers from Bogota, Colombia, totaling one flight each week until the county abruptly ended the flights. Both Boeing Defense, Space & Security and North Bay Produce currently have facilities on site. North Bay Produce primarily ships blueberries from Michigan and Chile into the airport and using a completely refrigerated warehouse for packaging and distribution. Boeing uses the facility at MidAmerica for sub-assemblies for multiple military aircraft. Boeing and North Bay have recently constructed additions to their facilities at MidAmerica Airport.
MidAmerica St. Louis Airport covers and has two runways:
Runway 14L/32R: 10,000 by 150 feet, Surface: Concrete, ILS equipped.
Runway 14R/32L: 8,010 by 150 feet, Surface: Asphalt/Concrete, ILS equipped.
MidAmerica's construction included the creation of the 14L/32R runway, adding to the existing west runway, adding passenger and cargo terminals on the east side of the facility, and building a taxiway connecting the two runways. A new air traffic control tower staffed by Air Force personnel was also constructed midway between the two runways.
Maintenance and operations
The civil operations are administered by St. Clair County, Illinois, which also pays the maintenance costs for the east runway. Over half of all air operations at the facility utilize the eastern runway.
Statistics
USDOT's most current data indicates 308,000 passengers used BLV between January 2018 and December 2018 and the airport was ranked 204th in the United States. USDOT's Calendar Year 2016 data indicated 80,000 enplanements, nearly triple the 2015 total. FAA's Calendar Year 2015 data indicated 32,589 enplanements, nearly double the 2014 total. In calendar year 2014, the airport was ranked 363 in the United States with 16,328 passenger enplanements. This was a 20.57% increase over 2013. In calendar year 2013, the dual-use facility was ranked 373 in the United States with 13,542 passenger enplanements. This placed it ninth in the state of Illinois. By comparison, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport was ranked 31 in the United States with over 6.21 million enplanements. For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2010, the airport had 21,508 aircraft operations, an average of 58 per day: 66% military, 34% general aviation, and <1% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 35 military aircraft based at this airport.
Rank
Airport
Passengers
Carrier
1
Destin, FL: VPS
41,600
Allegiant
2
St. Petersburg, FL: PIE
27,360
Allegiant
3
Punta Gorda, FL: PGD
25,340
Allegiant
4
Sanford, FL: SFB
23,340
Allegiant
5
Jacksonville, FL: JAX
9,190
Allegiant
6
Las Vegas, NV: LAS
7,650
Allegiant
7
Fort Lauderdale, FL: FLL
7,000
Allegiant
8
Mesa, AZ: AZA
6,260
Allegiant
9
Myrtle Beach, SC: MYR
3,380
Allegiant
10
Sarasota, FL: SRQ
3,160
Allegiant
Total Passengers
Year
Total Passengers
% Change
2005
28,000
2006
49,550
76.96%
2007
51,370
3.67%
2008
47,030
8.45%
2009
374
99.20%
2010
274
26.74%
2011
0
100%
2012
3,830
2013
25,550
567.10%
2014
31,340
18.47%
2015
62,730
100.16%
2016
157,433
150.97%
2017
245,028
55.64%
2018
302,409
23.42%
2019
303,801
0.46%
2020
59,382
6.37% Thru March
Public transportation
Light rail
Shiloh-Scott St. Louis MetroLink rail station links Scott Air Force Base with direct trains to downtown St. Louis on MetroLink's Red Line. One-ride and all-day tickets can be purchased from vending machines on the platforms. MetroLink lines provide direct or indirect service to St. Louis, the Clayton area, and Illinois suburbs in St. Clair County. The line does not go all the way to the airport; one must either ride a bus or find other transportation in order to reach the station. Funding was approved to extend Metrolink to MidAmerica Airport in 2019.
Five MetroBus lines serve Scott Air Force Base via Shiloh–Scott station.
Flight Testing
In late April 2019, the first MQ-25 Stingray test aircraft was taken by road from Boeing's technical plant at St. Louis's Lambert International Airport across the Mississippi River to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, which is conjoined to Scott Air Force Base. Test flying was expected to commence at MidAmerica late in 2019, after taxi tests and the Federal Aviation Administration’s certifying the aircraft and granting airspace for flight testing. The First test flight occurred on September 19, 2019.
