Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport is the gateway to the capital city of the state of Illinois, served by three airlines, and home to the 183rd Wing of the Illinois National Guard and the State Aviation and Safety Office for the Army National Guard. The airport hosts several corporate hangars, supporting locally operating businesses in their own fleet operations while offering a home to companies such as StandardAero, an international aircraft refurbishment and overhaul company which has a legacy with the airport stretching back to the early 1950s. In recent years, a new fixed-based operator, Stellar Aviation, has joined the collection of quality service providers at the airport.
In short, Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport is a major operation.
“All told, we average approximately $6 to $7 million in the annual operational budget,” says the airport’s Executive Director, Mark Hanna. “Our capital improvement budget fluctuates from year to year with a mix of local and federally funded projects valued between $2 to $10 million. With State and Federal Grant assistance it may be tens of millions of dollars, depending on the year.”
When we speak to Hanna it is a major year for the airport, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary since its dedication. The celebrations began with a formal ceremony attended by our U.S. Senator, local dignitaries, officials from the Illinois Air National Guard and American Airlines, the first commercial service provider to serve the airport.
“We marked the 75th anniversary on November 2nd 2022 with US Senator Richard Durbin as a keynote speaker. It was a remarkable ceremony,” Hanna recalls. “We kicked that off and throughout the year we have been doing marketing, promotions and awareness on social media. We are also planning a significant open house for the public in early August 2023. We will invite all our stakeholders, old and new, large and small to participate and showcase their businesses and to share with others what they do for the community.”
These festivities are more than just an excuse for a party, however. They are also a chance to showcase the role Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport plays, and the opportunities it offers for potential new recruits in the field of aviation. All told, the airport provides $370.8 million in total economic output annually for the local economy impacting 2,630 jobs.
“There are human resource shortages in pilots and mechanics, so we are doing what we can here to address that,” Hanna says. “We invite the public to come out and see what the airport’s all about, but also provide opportunities for children and school-age students to learn, explore and investigate aviation careers. “
The Passengers’ Choice
Throughout the last 75 years, the airport has performed well, due to its strategic location, but also its dedication to providing an excellent service for travellers.
“We are centrally located, easy to access, with free parking, a valued passenger amenity that we have absorbed into our operating budget. We are foregoing those revenues. It is important to offer that added value to local passengers and the local market,” Hanna points out. “We encourage people to look at the total cost of travel – if there is an overnight stay, added meals and snacks, and of course parking which can be upwards of $20 a day. All those are things we like to put at the top of our customers’ minds when we are marketing. We encourage local and regional prospective air service passengers to give us a first look, and airlines appreciate the marketing angle to steer passengers their way.”
As well as passenger flights, the airport has a complement of more than 150 individual Thangers for private aircraft storage, allowing the airport to accommodate all sectors of aviation.
“We understand many kitchen table discussions centre around air service, but we are just as supportive of the general and business aviation community, supporting their operations as well as our corporate partners is a top priority,” Hanna emphasises.
It is a mission Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport is continuing to embark on in a process of constant improvement.
“In recent years we all have continued to find ways to improve the passenger experience. For quite some time the airport had not made significant changes or accommodations for the size of the equipment needed for security screening,” Hanna says. “That has always been a challenge for us – to make more efficient use of the terminal. We still have parts of the building from the 1950s so there has not been a major expansion of the airport’s footprint, rather a focus has been to make the current space more efficient and accommodating.”
For the airport’s 75th anniversary, it will be making major improvements for passengers, in response not only to the pandemic but the airport’s growing volumes of traffic. Comparing 2022 to 2021, the airport’s traffic has risen by 22.5%, and in November 2021 it even gained a new route to Phoenix/Mesa – a major accomplishment during the pandemic. But that does not tell the full story.
“Many industries are skipping comparisons from 2020 or 2021 and use 2019 as the benchmark,” Hanna says. “Compared to 2019 we were only 4.5%, down, with 17,000 passengers. So, we have made some huge real-term gains. We are optimistic moving into the new year.”
A New Era
Indeed, it is once we start talking about the future of Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport that we really see Hanna light up.
“This is where I’ve got a lot to talk about!” he says gleefully.
Within the last year, Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport has either planned, completed, or started projects totalling $91 million in investment, including over $7 million in terminal upgrades and $3.5 million in the north Airport road and parking facilities.
“We have completed nearly $23 million in runway work and we just completed a $2 million rehabilitation on our longest runway,” Hanna says. “We are also just days away from announcing the activation of a $6.2 million solar array we are constructing. The 2.88 MW system will provide 90% of the power service for the airport’s public safety building, an FAA building and the StandardAero MRO facility on the airfield. Their paint facility, main workshops, sales and engineering department will be 90% powered by this solar power project.”
In September 2022 last year the Illinois Public Airports Association recognised this work with an Achievement Award for Sustainability.
These big, ambitious projects are matched by smaller changes, such as utility fencing and drainage improvements that will reduce hazards for aircraft and wildlife. But Hanna is also looking further into the future.
“We received a grant to look into non-aviation development planning, and we are really focused on this project to provide an airport cities plan and plan for the onset of Advanced Air Mobility,” Hanna says.
AAM concerns the electrification of aircraft powerplants.
“We are seeing vertical take-off and landing become a part of the conversation around urban commuting. We are also learning of fixed-wing electrified aircraft being proposed for longer routes, so we are working with our airline partners to be one of the first to provide resources to accommodate and support electric aircraft,” Hanna says. “We are a prime candidate to be part of that rollout for electrified fixed-wing service into a major hub.”
Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport may look very different when it reaches its 150th anniversary, but Hanna is laying the groundwork for that vision right now.
