PEORIA — Don’t be surprised if you see more airplanes flying in and out of the north side of Peoria next fall.
A planned extension of the runway at Mount Hawley Airport, 1320 W. Bird Blvd., Peoria, is expected to attract more airplanes to the airport.

Last week, airport officials learned they would receive around $900,000 in state and federal funding to extend the runway at Mount Hawley Airport from 3,600 feet to 4,000 feet.
The state and federal funds will finance the majority of the $950,000 needed to construct the extension. Those funds will come from aviation fees and taxes, such as airline ticket taxes, departure fees and cargo taxes.
Construction of the runway is expected to start next summer and end next fall.
The runway extension was a result of a feasibility study that was conducted in 2006-2007.
The owner of Mount Hawley Airport, Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria, which also runs the Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport, conducted the feasibility study at the request of state officials.
“There was a feasibility study conducted,” said Gene Olson, director of the Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport Peoria. “Some state officials were wondering whether the airport was feasible to maintain and so at that time they looked at whether we would be better off to keep the property where it is and develop it, sell the airport and develop a new site from scratch or sell the airport to consolidate all the activity at Peoria International.
“The result of that study was that it is unique and that the best place to serve the district market was at the existing airport. So at that point we ended up with an airport layout plan that shows a 400-foot runway extension and then we proceeded to go about working on actually doing the extension.”
Other planned improvements in the airport layout plan included a widening of the runway, the purchase of a new taxiway and the relocation of some of the buildings. Olson expects airport officials to reevaluate the possibility of completing the other planned improvements after the runway extension is constructed.
 “We’re going to complete the planning studies and then look at additional development that will happen probably over the next 3-5 years or longer,” said Olson.
Pilots with insurance restrictions on airplanes flying on and off runways less than 4,000 feet are expected to use the aviation services of Mount Hawley Airport once the runway is extended.
 “One of the big restrictions that you see on multi-engine aircraft is that their insurance doesn’t want them to go into runways that are shorter than 4,000 feet,” said Olson. “The justification of doing this runway extension is to get rid of that insurance restriction.”
Olson expects more turboprop airplanes, such as King Air and Cessna Citation airplanes, that “burn substantially more fuel” and “generally flying longer trips” to fly in and out of Mount Hawley Airport, after its runway is extended, allowing the airport’s fixed-base operator, Peoria Aviation, LLC., to sell more turbine fuel.
“It allows us to get to get a higher portion of turbo props into the mix and that’s really good for our fixed-base operator Peoria Aviation,” said Olson. “That’s (Peoria Aviation) the independent business that actually sells aviation services to the public out at Mount Hawley. What it does is it allows them to sell more turbine fuel.”
According to Olson, Mount Hawley Airport is primarily used for business purposes.
“A lot of people are using that airport for business purposes,” said Olson. “It’s almost any kind of business you can imagine. Some people that are traveling from somewhere else that are flying into Peoria like to use Mount Hawley because it’s actually closer to where they’re going to have their appointment.
“A good example would be Caterpillar in Mossville. Mount Hawley is so convenient to Mossville.”
Currently, around 70 airplanes are housed at Mount Hawley Airport.