International flights at MidAmerica? New terminal expansion could allow for it by 2024

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport on Tuesday celebrated the completion of a $34 million, 41,000-square-foot expansion which nearly doubles the size of its terminal.

Because of that expansion, international flights could be added to MidAmerica by late 2024 or early 2025, Airport Director Bryan Johnson said.

“The next exciting project we have in the queue will prepare the airport for the arrival of international flights,” St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said during Tuesday’s ribbon cutting. “We’ll have more information on those plans later this year.”

Additionally, Johnson said MetroLink will be extended from Scott Air Force Base to the MidAmerica terminal some time in 2025, with this capability proving a direct connection to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

“That will be an unusual capability that does not exist in many other places in the United States and it’ll exist right here in St. Clair County,” Kern added. “There is tremendous cause for celebration and anticipation at MidAmerica Airport.”

The expansion project at MidAmerica was supported by $31 million in state and federal funding. Erik Amend, FAA regional administrator for the Great Lakes Region, added his agency invested nearly $25 million in the project through the Airport Improvement Plan.

This expansion added onto the existing 53,500-square-foot terminal at MidAmerica.

“We’re proud to partner with the airport on this expansion,” Amend said. “This project will serve as a gateway for future economic development and growth in southern Illinois and the metro-east. This terminal expansion will provide additional amenities for travelers.”

Those new amenities include a new standard Transportation Security Administration screening area, two additional boarding bridges, a service animal relief area, new family restrooms, a nursing room, an expanded departure lounge with added room for concessions, new water bottle filling stations and a below ground storm shelter.

Additionally, ADA-compliant renovations were incorporated to accommodate people with disabilities and include recessed fixtures, a larger elevator and accessible seating.

Renovation of the existing terminal is currently underway as Phase Four of the overall project and will include many of the same upgrades as the terminal expansion, while also delivering baggage handling system improvements, a new gift shop, community conference room and enhancements to passenger drop-off area outside the terminal.

The final improvements will be complete by late 2023.

“I’m really pleased about what we’re seeing,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “We’re going to see hundreds of more jobs just from the initial idea ... this has now become a major airport for the region. It’s the fifth largest in Illinois. It’s a great day for the metro-east and this is just the beginning.”

Also, a $37.7 million project to add nearly 3,100 linear feet of new Taxiway Lima pavement — a type of asphalt — and a new Taxiway Bridge over Crooked Creek is under construction at MidAmerica. It will serve Boeing’s new production facility, which is slated to open in 2024.

The facility will allow for the production of MQ-25 Stingray aircraft-refueling drones for the U.S. Navy and will create a couple hundred jobs, Pritzker said.

“We’re bringing population in, we’re bringing business here,” Pritzker said. “Business wants to go where the opportunity is, and the opportunity is where the infrastructure is at.”

MidAmerica currently services the following nonstop destinations via Allegiant Airlines: Charleston, South Carolina; Destin/Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Ft. Myers/Punta Gorda, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; Las Vegas; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Orlando, Florida; Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Tampa Bay/St. Pete, Florida. Overall, officials noted MidAmerica has 300,000 fliers yearly.

Dignitaries in attendance Tuesday included Pritzker; Amend; Thayne Klinger, director of airport affairs, Allegiant Airlines; Illinois State Senator Christopher Belt; Illinois State Representative Jay Hoffman; Kern; Rich Sauget, chairman, St. Clair County Public Building Commission; Col. Christopher Robinson, commander, 375th Air Mobility Wing, Scott Air Force Base; Johnson; and invited guests.

For more information about MidAmerica St. Louis Airport and the new terminal expansion project, visit www.flymidamerica.com or follow midamericablv on Facebook.

Chain of Rocks Bridge

In other news Tuesday, Pritzker discussed the collaborative effort between Illinois and Missouri to replace the Interstate 270 Chair of Rocks Bridge.

Prior to his visit to MidAmerica, Pritzker was on hand in Madison to tout the partnership and the progress being made on the project.

“MoDOT and Illinois DOT have been in consultation and collaboration for a number of years now trying to work out making sure we’re replacing the existing bridge with brand new opportunity,” he said. “We’ve got traffic across that bridge — it’s slowed everybody down. We’ve got a major cargo that’s moving across that bridge that slowed everybody down. Now, we’ve got 51,000 vehicles every day going across the bridge. If we expand the bridge, we’re going to have more. And more is better on both sides of the river.”

Pritzer said Missouri Department of Transportation, at more than $200 million, and Illinois Department of Transportation, at $300 million, have shared the cost.

“When you put those two together we’re replacing one bridge with two. So that tells you how much traffic that we’re expecting to come across there. And the economic development opportunity is just tremendous,” he said.