{"id":36758,"date":"2026-10-05T00:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T00:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=36758"},"modified":"2026-10-05T00:48:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T00:48:37","slug":"idot-announces-airport-of-the-year-awards-recognizing-best-in-illinois-aviation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/uncategorized\/idot-announces-airport-of-the-year-awards-recognizing-best-in-illinois-aviation\/%20","title":{"rendered":"IDOT Announces Airport of the Year Awards Recognizing Best in Illinois Aviation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Photo &#8211; MidAmerica St. Louis Airport<\/em> &#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Illinois Department of Transportation announced that six airports have received Airport of the Year awards in recognition of outstanding commitment to safety and customer satisfaction. The awards were presented today during the Illinois Public Airports Association fall conference in Galena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAirports help to drive the economy in their communities while connecting Illinois to the world,\u201d said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful for the services airports provide and proud to recognize them for their exemplary work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The winners were selected based on their accomplishments, including an outstanding partnership with IDOT and a strong commitment to customer safety and satisfaction. Among the award considerations are cooperation and coordination with the state, safety record, facility maintenance and promotion of aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2026 recipients are: \u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>MidAmerica St. Louis Airport \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b Primary Airport of the Year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chicago Executive Airport \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b Reliever Airport of the Year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Albertus Airport \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b Large General Aviation Airport of the Year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tri-Township Airport \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b Small General Aviation Airport of the Year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carle Health Methodist Hospital \u200b \u200b \u200b Restricted Landing Area Heliport of the Year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thacker Airport \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b \u200b Restricted Landing Area Airport of the Year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Illinois is home to almost 100 public airports and heliports, with nearly 3,000 aircraft registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. The system of airports supports more than 492,000 jobs, with a combined payroll of $21.9 billion and a total economic impact of $95.4 billion. Across the state, there are more than 700 aviation facilities, including heliports, balloon, glider and ultra-light landing facilities as well as grass landing strips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To learn more about aviation in Illinois and the Illinois Aviation System Plan, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ilaviation.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.ilaviation.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo &#8211; MidAmerica St. Louis Airport &#8211; The Illinois Department of Transportation announced that six airports have received Airport of the Year awards in recognition of outstanding commitment to safety and customer satisfaction. The awards were presented today during the Illinois Public Airports Association fall conference in Galena. \u201cAirports help to drive the economy in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mid-America-St-Louis-New-Boarding-bridges-serving-the-terminal-expansion-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36761,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36758\/revisions\/36761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}