Eastern Iowa Airport – also known as Cedar Rapids Airport – is a public airport in southern

Cedar Rapids Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in u ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, United States. It is located on Wright Brothers Boulevard, approximately west of Interstate 380. The airport covers of land.

Airline service

The airport was previously served almost entirely by

regional jet A regional jet (RJ) is a jet airliner, jet-powered regional airliner usually defined by having fewer than 100 seats. The first aircraft considered part of this category was the Sud-Aviation Caravelle in 1959, followed by Douglas DC-9, BAC O ...

s, but now sees

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

use

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

s that fly to Atlanta, as well as

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with Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s to

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , often referred to by locals as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , Effective Ju ...

and O'Hare International Airport.

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

has recently upgraded flights in 2022 on

Airbus A319 The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a maximum range of . Final ass ...

s and

s to

Charlotte Charlotte most commonly refers to: *Charlotte (given name), a feminine form of the given name Charles ** Princess Charlotte (disambiguation) ** Queen Charlotte (disambiguation) *Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, a city * Charlotte (cake) ...

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

and Phoenix. Delta uses mostly regional jets to

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, although the size will increase on most flights there to 70–76 seats with first-class cabins, while Allegiant and Frontier fly Airbus A320 family aircraft. The airport sees five airlines with non-stop flights to seventeen airports. The airport has nine gates on the upper concourse with

jet bridge A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

boarding. The airport used to be divided into two concourses, designated (B) and (C). After the renovation, all the B gates were removed and three new gates were added in addition to the C gates. The gates lost their "C" designation and became gates 4–9. The new gates 1–3 serve

and Frontier. Shortly thereafter, the airport expanded the concourse and added an additional 4 gates, making for a total of 13 gates. Arriving passengers have a short walk to the baggage claim area. Several national

rental car A car rental, hire car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time to the public, generally ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It is often organized with numerous local branches (which allow a user to ...

company counters and a courtesy shuttle counter are in this area. On July 8, 2016, the airport announced new twice-daily service between CID and

. The service started on November 4, 2016, and is flown on CRJ-700/900s by

PSA Airlines PSA Airlines, Inc. is an American regional airline headquartered at Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio. The airline is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group and it is paid by fellow group member American Airlines ...

, later upgraded to CRJ900 aircraft and currently now all Mainline Airbus Aircraft for American Airlines. On December 18, 2019, American Airlines began daily seasonal service from CID to Phoenix, which became daily year round service as of June 2021. This route used to be flown on CRJ900 aircraft and now is on Airbus 319 aircraft as of November 2022

History

Cedar Rapids' first airport was Hunter Field, a private airport established by Dan Hunter in the 1920s on Bowling Street SW north of U.S. Highway 30. The airport was used for private charter service, pilot training, and

airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be th ...

, but it was unusable during bad weather. Cedar Rapids Municipal Airport was completed with military funding in 1944 but was not dedicated until April 27, 1947. The Cedar Rapids Parks Department operated the airport until a new Airport Commission was established in 1945; Donald Hines, who led the effort to build the airport, was the commission's director until he retired in 1973; he died in 1975. Scheduled east–west passenger service from

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

began in 1947, and north–south passenger service from

Ozark Air Lines Ozark Air Lines was a local service carrier (originally known as a feeder airline) in the United States that operated from 1950 until 1986, when it was purchased by Trans World Airlines (TWA). Ozark got a second chance to be an airline when t ...

began in 1957. In 1969, the airport had 31 airline arrivals each weekday and recorded 353,000 passengers that year. The present terminal designed by Brown, Healey, Bock Architects and Planners was dedicated in 1986 with a ceremony that U.S. Secretary of Transportation

Elizabeth Dole Mary Elizabeth Alexander Dole (née Hanford; born July 29, 1936)Mary Ella Cathey Hanford, "Asbury and Hanford Families: Newly Discovered Genealogical Information" ''The Historical Trail'' 33 (1996), pp. 44–45, 49. is an American attorney, auth ...

attended. The Cedar Rapids Airport was renamed The Eastern Iowa Airport in 1997 to reflect its status as a regional airport. In 2008 the airport enplaned and deplaned one million passengers for the first time in its history; it set a record in 2017 with 1,143,335 passengers. In 2019, CID set an all-time record with 1,342,496 passengers served. On June 3, 2010, runway 9/27 closed for reconstruction, reopening on September 23. A temporary runway had been set up parallel to the closed runway. Beginning July 3, 2010, and lasting for four weeks, Runway 13/31 was also closed as they rebuilt the intersection with Runway 9/27.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Annual traffic

Top destinations

Airport management

* Marty Lenss: C.M., Airport Director * Kathleen Bell: Director of Finance & Administration * Todd Gibbs: C.M., Director of Operations * Pamela Hinman: Director of Marketing & Communications * Caleb Mason: Director of Properties & Business Development

Accidents and incidents

* August 30, 1970 – US Navy

Blue Angels The Blue Angels, formally named the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, are a Aerobatics, flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy.. Blue Angels official site. Formed in 1946, the unit is the second oldest formal aerobatics ...

pilot Lt. Ernie Christensen belly-landed his F-4J Phantom at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids with one engine stuck in afterburner during an airshow at the airport. He ejected safely, while the aircraft ran off the runway. *December 20, 2004 - A

Learjet 25 The Learjet 25 is an American ten-seat (two crew and eight passengers), twin-engine, high-speed business jet aircraft manufactured by Learjet. It is a stretched version of the Learjet 24. Development The first Model 25 flew on August 12, 19 ...

collided with a berm while landing on runway 13 at CID Airport because of a failure of the nose gear strut, the takeoff roll was rough so a decision was made to return to the airport. There were no injuries.

General aviation

Scheduled airline traffic shares the Eastern Iowa Airport with cargo and

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

traffic. Numerous nearby airports specialize in general aviation; the closest is Green Castle Airport.

References

The Eastern Iowa Airport: History
from The Eastern Iowa Airport's website, accessed February 26, 2006

External links

The Eastern Iowa Airport
(official site) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eastern Iowa Airport, The Airports in Iowa Buildings and structures in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Transportation buildings and structures in Linn County, Iowa Transportation in Cedar Rapids, Iowa 1944 establishments in Iowa Airports established in 1944