Terminal decline: The $300million airport built to fly hundreds of thousands across the US every year that now runs just FOUR flights a week and has never turned a profit
- MidAmerica Airport in Illinois boards a mere 16,000 passengers a year
- It was built with hopes of flying hundreds of thousands of people annually
- $313million project runs just 4 flights a week and was branded a 'mistake'
- Desolate airport with a 10,000ft runway hasn't made a profit since opening
An airport built with hopes of flying millions of passengers across America now boards a mere 16,000 a year - because nobody wants to go there.
MidAmerica Airport, in Illinois, cost $313million and was originally planned to have 85 gates to load a heavy stream of flyers onto hundreds of flights a day.
Now just two gates are needed at the busiest of times, with just four flights a week leaving the desolate runway near St Louis.
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Empty: MidAmerica airport cost $313million and was supposed to fly hundreds of thousands of passengers across America. It now boards a mere 16,000 people a year
Desolate: Just two gates are needed at the busiest of times, with just four flights a week leaving the desolate runway near St Louis, Illinois
Unpopular: The airport, which has lost lost nearly $13million in 2013 and has never turned a profit in its 18-year history, has started operating commercial flights in an attempt to recoup some of its losses
The near-empty airport runs two Allegiant Airlines flights to both Sanford Orlando and Tampa Bay airports in Florida a week. A twice-weekly service to Las Vegas will start in November.
The rest of the time the baggage carousels come to a halt, bleak departure lounges remain deadly quiet and the 10,000ft runway is almost entirely unused.
The airport, which lost lost nearly $13million in 2013 and has never turned a profit in its 18-year history, has started operating cargo flights in an attempt to recoup some of its losses.
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The $313million project was set up in 1997 to alleviate congestion at Lambert-St Louis International Airport, then a regional hub for now-shuttered Trans World Airlines.
However the combination of the 9/11 attacks, the recession and the closure of several airlines has meant that MidAmerica has never lived up to its billing, with hardly anyone using the airport.
The federal government contributed about two-thirds of the construction costs, with the state putting in $63million and St Clair County the remaining $25million.
Barren: Last year just 16,000 people boarded planes at MidAmerica, ranking it near the bottom of the country's 391 airports
Not in use: Airport director Tim Cantwell remains optimistic that the money-hemorrhaging airport will eventually turn things around
Last year just 16,000 people boarded planes at MidAmerica, ranking it near the bottom of the country's 391 airports.
Colorado aviation consultant Michael Boyd said: 'It was a mistake to start with, and it's a mistake today.'
Meanwhile St Clair County Commissioner Ed Cockrell, who originally backed the transport hub, said the airport should be handed over to the Department of Defense.
He added: 'It's not that public officials don't make bad decisions. That happens every day. We just have to step up and say we made a bad decision.'
The list of airlines to call Mid America home reads like a requiem for the embattled industry.
First came a reincarnated version of Pan American, which offered flights to Gary, Indiana, for 16 months in 2000 and 2001. The next carrier, Great Plains Airlines, lasted just three months before going bankrupt. Then came Transmeridian Airlines for a year, followed in 2005 by Allegiant, which also left Mid America in January 2009, only to resume services there nearly four years later.
Airport director Tim Cantwell remains optimistic that the money-hemorrhaging airport will eventually turn things around.
'It takes time,' he said. 'Businesses have to grow. The commercial value is going to be so great here in the next 10 to 15 years.'
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