I fly a lot out of Willard and like it. Why would I want to drive to ORD - tedious and time consumin

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Since then Willard has seen its share of successes (a well-regarded flight school, American Eagle increasing the number of daily flights to Chicago), disappointments (Delta pulling beacon hotel new york out, Vision Airlines' short-lived stint) beacon hotel new york and at least one oddity (Air Force One stuck in the mud).
"Willard is a nice little airport. It's close. It's convenient," said Vivienne Mackie of Urbana, beacon hotel new york who travels nationally and internationally about a dozen times a year. Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa, Mackie and her husband have been in town since 1988. How often they fly out of Willard varies year to year.
Other travelers will say it's the parking beacon hotel new york fees ($5 a day). Some, like Lawson Lau of Mahomet, who rack up frequent-flier miles on other airlines, prefer to drive to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. There they take advantage of park-sleep-fly packages, which involves staying at a hotel one night, leaving the car there for free and then taking the hotel's free shuttle to the airport.
UI Chancellor Phyllis Wise, who in her 2-1/2 years on campus has made economic development a priority, has asked a new task force to come up with recommendations on how to keep and expand air service at Willard beacon hotel new york Airport. As a follow-up to a 2011 study done for the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, the task force also will examine beacon hotel new york and make recommendations on a governance structure for the airport, which is owned and operated by the university.
The challenge facing the group is, "What can we do with the airport to not only have it be successful but be an economic beacon hotel new york engine for the community?" said its chairman, retired Champaign city manager Steve Carter. beacon hotel new york "And how can we do that in a sustainable way, not just for a year or two but something we can count on for several years in the future."
beacon hotel new york The UI and Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District plan to hire a consultant to help the group facilitate the process this year. The cost is estimated at about $100,000, with the UI paying for about 90 percent and MTD covering 10 percent.
On a recent American Eagle flight beacon hotel new york to Chicago, Candy Dobson of Cerro Gordo was headed to Charlotte, N.C., to visit her nieces, and Joanne Manaster of Champaign was headed to Abu Dhabi for a sustainability conference.
It was Dobson's beacon hotel new york first time flying out of Willard (she normally uses the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington). After her recent, hassle-free experience, she plans to consider Willard more.
As for Manaster, beacon hotel new york how often she flies in and out of Willard depends on who's paying for the ticket beacon hotel new york (if she's traveling for work, on a fixed honorarium or for pleasure) and which carrier she plans to fly. If it's going to cost her an extra $300 or so to fly the leg from Champaign to Chicago, she'll drive to Chicago, "even though it makes for an extra long day of travel," she said.
"The key is air service," beacon hotel new york said Bruce Walden, director of real estate planning and services and whose responsibilities include Willard Airport. "All other things go away, the issue of parking goes away. It's the ability to have air service that goes where people want to go at a frequency that gets them there when they want to get there and at a price that is tolerable. That's the key," he said.
The number of "enplanements" (passengers boarding planes) at Willard has dipped in recent years, especially since the departure of Delta Airlines in 2010. A decade ago the number beacon hotel new york was around 118,000. In 2012 the number slipped to about 86,000; 2013 figures haven't been finalized yet, according to Walden. In comparison, the Bloomington-Normal airport had 240,181 enplanements in 2012.
(In terms of takeoffs and landings, Willard is among the busier airports in the state due to activity associated with the UI's Institute of Aviation, Walden said. The UI had planned beacon hotel new york to close the institute, but Parkland College is taking on those aviation programs this year.)
University employees are the biggest users of the airport. There's no mandate for them to fly in and out of the local airport, but many do. The UI's annual expense out of Willard is about $5.6 million, according to UI Associate beacon hotel new york Chancellor Mike DeLorenzo.
When considering the future of Willard, one must ask the question, what is the future of the airline industry, said Alan Nudo, president of Robesons Inc. and a member of the task force. (Nudo has also sat on the Champaign County Economic beacon hotel new york Development Corporation's airport committee.)
"All (airlines) have is capital beacon hotel new york equipment, and they move that capital equipment to where they can make a profit," Nudo said. "They will move their assets — planes — to where they can make money," he pointed out.
It's not unusual for airlines to demand revenue guarantees from communities in which they launch new service. In 2012, the UI was awarded a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Community Air Service Program to expand beacon hotel new york air service to the East Coast. The federal program helps fund revenue guarantees as well as marketing costs.
In 2000, the U.S. had about 11 major airlines (Northwest, Delta, United, Continental, AirTran, Southwest, ATA, American Airlines, TWA, US Airways, America West). Today there are four: Delta, United, Southwest, American.
beacon hotel new york "Now we're down to four airlines trying to serve major and regional airlines. Competition is great. beacon hotel new york It's difficult (to expand air service) but we're continuing to look at it. That's why want to get community input to help us through this process," beacon hotel new york he said.
As part of its work, the task force also will look at how the airport can drive economic development in the region. That entails supporting and expanding aviation-related businesses and other opportunities at the airport.The airport property encompasses about 1,700 acres and some of that land is farmed. Those operations do bring in a good chunk of revenue to the airport, about $274,000 annually.
"I think the airport is a driver for growth as well," not just aviation-industry related growth, but for all companies looking at Champaign-Urbana, said Dan Sholem, an equipment finance consultant and member of the task force.
"When national (business) concerns come in and look at a city (for a possible location), they have a checklist. One item is, is there an airport that gets me in and out in an efficient way? If a business is told, well, you can drive 40 minutes to Bloomington's beacon hotel new york airport, why wouldn't the business beacon hotel new york then locate in Bloomington?" Nudo asked.
Over the years, consultants and community members have floated other options for how the airport could be governed, beacon hotel new york such as by a local airport authority, a contractor that would manage operations, a city department, or even the C-U MTD.
When asked if the university ever intends to get out of the airport business, Chancellor Phyllis Wise said earlier this week the university is "trying to work out an organizational structure that will work for this community, because we realize that a really good airport is so important to people being able to get in and out of the city. We're working on whatever it will take, whatever organizational structure it will take, to be able to do that," Wise said.
Added DeLorenzo: "The answer is it's not part of our core mission to operate an airport." However, the airport is "integral to the success of the university," in terms of recruiting beacon hotel new york faculty, helping researchers move around the country and world, he said.
Its aim: To essentially develop a business plan, to submit recommendations to Chancellor Phyllis Wise for short and long-term strategies to sustain and expand local air service. Also provide recommendations on the governance of the airport.
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Although I left the community 20 years ago, one of the concern travellers had then was not mentioned beacon hotel new york in this article. LONG CONNECTION WAITS in CHicago and St. Louis to get anywwhere after flying in from Willard AIrport, or waiting to go back.
I haven't tracked the data carefully, but my impression from flying every few months is that since AA ended up with a monopoly at Willard, the prices have gone up dramatically. Five years ago, the legs from ORD to CMI and back woud add less than $100 to the price of a ticket, often only $60 or so. Now, at some $200-300 for those legs, it costs as much as a round-trip from ORD to JFK (granted, a very different route in terms of supply and demand).
Why pay for that, when you have BMI, ORD, MDW, and IND all an easy drive away, and cheap and reliable buses and trains to Chicago? I do miss the half-hour beacon hotel new york flight down from Chicago, but I don't miss it $200.
I would be curious to see data correlating the rise in price that I think I've seen with the drop in ridership. It could be that causation is in the other direction, even, but that would be at odds with my impression beacon hotel new york that flights generally have not gotten two or three times as expensive.
I fly a lot out of Willard and like it. Why would I want to drive to ORD - tedious and time consuming. I board early AM, hungry and tired, arrive beacon hotel new york in Chicago or Dallas, have a nice snack and am on my way, arriving anywhere I want in the US around noon.
The perennial problem at Willard will never be resolved until one of the mid-sized airports folds - Bloomington, Peoria, Decatur. And that is not going to happen because each one of these towns is fighting the same fight.
The economic nature of the C-U r