CONTACTS:
Dan Mann, Airport Director, 362-3131 or
Pam Hinman, Director of Marketing & Communications, 286-5719
Customer Appreciation Day April 27
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2007 -The Eastern Iowa Airport is marking the 60th anniversary of the first commercial flight out of the airport on Friday, April 27 with a customer appreciation day in the Airport terminal.
Refreshments will be provided in the terminal lobby from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, featuring treats from Creative Host and Blue Strawberry Coffee Company.
On April 27, 1947, the Cedar Rapids Municipal Airport, with a runway of 5,400 feet in length, was dedicated. Twenty thousand people witnessed the first commercial passenger plane land on the airstrip. In the first year of operation, two United Airlines flights arrived and departed a day, carrying a total of 3,045 passengers.
The Airport – renamed in 1997 to The Eastern Iowa Airport - has a come a long way in 60 years.
With more than $75 million dollars of capital improvement projects planned over the next five years, Airport Director Dan Mann said the Airport will be poised for growth.
“We have more than 1 million passengers who are using the Airport and we only see that number increasing in the future,” he said. “It’s important for the Airport to be the best facility possible to serve Eastern Iowa residents.”
March passenger numbers just released show 95,861 passengers chose The Eastern Iowa Airport (CID) for their air service needs. That total is 625 more passengers than March 2006 – a record setting year for CID.
Contributing to March passenger numbers was a whopping 33.8 percent increase in vehicles from Illinois using CID.
“We appreciate that our friends in Illinois recognize that Cedar Rapids offers more options than any airport in Eastern Iowa or Western Illinois,” Mann said.
Those options increased in April with American Eagle adding a sixth flight to Dallas-Ft. Worth and in June, Delta Connection carrier ASA adding a second trip to Atlanta.
With those additional flights, that will bring the daily departures out of Cedar Rapids to 47. The five airlines at CID – American, Delta Connection, Northwest, United Express and Allegiant Air provide non-stop flights to 10 hubs where people can connect and travel anywhere in the world.
Mann said the more people who use CID, the more opportunities will open up for service to new destinations.
“We continue to talk to the carriers who presently serve our market and to new carriers that present other opportunities,” Mann said. “When we are able to show them growth is occurring – and that it is widespread support, geographically speaking – airlines take notice.”
For more information on the air service and other customer amenities at The Eastern Iowa Airport, log onto the Airport Web site at www.eiairport.org.