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Economy

QC Airport Traffic Recovery Continues

WVIK, Quad Cities NPR | By Herb Trix
Published June 23, 2021 at 11:40 AM CDT
Quad Cities International Airport
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the green line is this year, the blue line is 2020

Another sign of recovery from the pandemic - passenger traffic at the Quad Cities International Airport has nearly doubled since the beginning of the year.

23,000 people traveled through the airport in both January and February, rising to 35,000 each in March and April, and then to almost 43,000 in May.

May traffic shares
Quad Cities International Airport
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May traffic shares

Airport Executive Director, Ben Leischner, credits pent-up demand created by COVID-19 for the increases, and believes they will continue thanks to Delta Airlines. First Delta ended its policy in May of blocking middle seats for social distancing, and then this month restored service from the Quad Cities to Minneapolis.

Traffic is still well below the pre-pandemic year of 2019, but seems to be rising steadily toward those levels.

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Economy COVID-19
Herb Trix
A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.
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