Greater Peoria Regional Airport

General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport
IATA: PIA ICAO: KPIA FAA LID: PIA WMO: 72532
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria
Serves	Peoria, Illinois
Location	Limestone Township, Peoria County
Elevation AMSL	661 ft / 201 m
Coordinates	40°39′51″N 089°41′36″W / 40.66417°N 89.69333°W / 40.66417; -89.69333Coordinates: 40°39′51″N 089°41′36″W / 40.66417°N 89.69333°W / 40.66417; -89.69333
Website	www.FlyPIA.com
Maps
Location of Peoria County in Illinois
PIA Location of airport in Peoria County
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 13/31 10,104 3,080 Concrete 4/22 8,004 2,440 Asphalt
Statistics (2014, 2015)
Passengers 639,320 Aircraft operations 39,673 Based aircraft 58
Sources: Airport and FAA

General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (IATA: PIA, ICAO: KPIA, FAA LID: PIA) is a civil/military public airport five miles west of Peoria, in Peoria County, Illinois. The airport is on the northwest edge of Bartonville, near Bellevue. It is owned by the Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria, which often refers to it as Peoria International Airport. It was formerly the Greater Peoria Regional Airport.

This airport is in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which called it a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year). As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 278,426 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 242,142 in 2009 and 249,595 in 2010.

On May 19, 1932, the citizens of Peoria voted to have an airport. On 195 acres (0.8 km²), American Airways (now American Airlines) and Chicago and Southern Airlines brought in airmail and passenger service on 4 shale-surfaced runways. The land was purchased by 261 Peoria businessmen who formed the Peoria Airport, Inc. It was turned over to the Peoria Park District in 1937, and then to newly formed The Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria in 1950.

Airport diagram for 1956

On April 25, 2007, the Greater Peoria Airport Authority announced a new 9 gate terminal will be built and the old terminal demolished. On October 10, 2008 the airport was renamed "General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport" during a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Ross Perot, friend of the late Wayne A. Downing. The new terminal, designed by Reynolds, Smith & Hills of Jacksonville, FL, Dewberry (architecture firm) of Peoria, and built by Turner Construction, opened on April 27, 2011. As of August 24, 2012 the airport was in negotiations for international flights using a temporary customs facility.