Business View Magazine | October 2019

169 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2019 THE I THACA TOMPK INS REGIONAL A I RPORT moved to its current, hilltop location, which was an airfield that the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory had constructed during the conflict. The University granted the Airport to Tompkins County in the ‘50s, and, gradually, flight activity moved from the old airport down on the lake to the new one. During those early days, the airfield was home to Robinson Aviation, which later became Mohawk Airlines, the precursor of American Airlines, Allegheny Airlines, and US Airways. Ithaca Tompkins remained a small municipal airport throughout the 1950s, but activity picked up as the commercial airline industry began to flourish during the 1960s. Today, ITH hosts half the region’s commercial air traffic, and is an important driver of the area’s economy. “Our community is unique in that we are very globally connected,” explains Airport Director, Mike Hall. “Roughly half of our passenger flow is inbound to Ithaca, whereas, more typically in this region, 70 percent of the traffic is outbound to someplace else. So, we’re the real hot spot, and we continue to grow a couple of percentage points a year, pictured Airport Director, Mike Hall