Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois


Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois is five miles west of Marion, in Williamson County, Illinois. The airport is owned by the Williamson County Airport Authority. It sees one airline, subsidized by the federal government's Essential Air Service program at an annual cost of $2,562,819 or $141 per passenger. On November 11, 2016 during the grand opening ceremony for the new terminal, the airport was renamed to "Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois" to honor veterans and better reflect the regional nature of the airport.
Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 3,631 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 3,399 in 2009 and 8,047 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a non-primary commercial service airport.
It is the tenth busiest of the 12 commercial airports in Illinois

Facilities

The airport covers 1,300 acres at an elevation of 472 feet. It has two runways: 2/20 is 8,002 by 150 feet asphalt; 11/29 is 4,997 by 100 feet asphalt/concrete.
In 2019 the airport had 20,745 aircraft operations, average 56 per day: 60% general aviation, 37% air taxi, 3% military, and.2% Air Carrier.
It has one FBO, Midwest Aviation at the base of the control Tower. Midwest Aviation has one rental aircraft a Cessna 172 G1000. Midwest also has one crew car and also offers Aircraft Hangar space, aircraft washing, and Fueling for both 100LL and Jet-A

Airline and destinations

Scheduled passenger service:
On November 6, 2006 Mesa Airlines announced that in February 2007 subsidiary Air Midwest would begin flying to Decatur Airport and on to Chicago Midway International Airport; Mesa announced service from Marion would end on November 9, 2007.
On October 23, 2007 Allegiant Air announced service to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. Service was to start on February 1, 2008, and be 2x weekly; however, Allegiant dropped the plan on November 9, 2007, citing high fuel prices.
Essential Air Service was previously on Great Lakes Airlines. Ozark DC-3s started landing in 1955; their DC-9 flights ended in early 1982.

Incidents