Business View Magazine - October 2018

110 111 St. Louis Downtown Airport A PREMIER OPTION S t. Louis Downtown Airport is ideally located in Cahokia, Ill. just across the Mississippi River from the Gateway Arch and downtown St. Louis. The Airport is the metropolitan region’s second busiest general aviation airport and Illinois’ third busiest, aside from Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway Airports. St. Louis Downtown is owned and operated by the Bi-State Development, a Missouri-based “federal compact between the state of Missouri and the state of Illinois,” explains the Airport’s director, Erick Dahl. The airport was originally constructed in 1918 as just a turf runway and then expanded a bit in 1929. Since then, it’s steadily grown to become what it is today, with three runways and two terminals, as well as hangars situated on more than 1,000 acres. The Airport was closed from 1958 to the mid- 1960s, when Bi-State Development assumed ownership. “Elected officials in Missouri and Illinois came to Bi-State Development leadership and said we need a reliever airport.We have to AT A GLANCE ST. LOUIS DOWNTOWN AIRPORT WHAT: A public-use airport WHERE: One mile east of the central business district of Cahokia, in St. Clair County, Illinois WEBSITE: www.stlouisdowntownairport.com