The latest Quad City Arts’ Art at the Airport exhibit is all in the family — paintings by Kristin Quinn of Davenport, with ceramic creations by her sister, Megan Quinn, of Rock Island, on display through June 30. Megan Quinn is a professor at Augustana College in Rock Island, while Kristin Quinn is a professor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport. Megan is a ceramic artist, and Kristin is a painter. The two sisters grew up in a family of five children with parents who were educators, and their dad was a physicist who specialized in optics and provided access to visually... Read More

Solar energy is coming to the Quad Cities International Airport by late this summer. Solar panels affixed to the terminal roof and a new carport structure will provide a clean, renewable energy source for the airport, and a covered parking option for nearly 200 spots in the short-term lot – at no cost to the Moline airport. Two additional electric vehicle charging stations will be added to the existing three once the project is completed. At the time of this announcement, only 20 percent of public U.S. airports are using solar power. “We are fortunate to have this opportunity to bring a clean... Read More

March 2021 was the Quad Cities International Airport’s busiest month in a whole year, the airport announced Wednesday. Restored routes and additional spring break service gave the Q-C Airport in Moline an increase of nearly 12,000 passengers from the previous month. This improved traffic to a 46-percent decline over 2019, compared to the 56-60% decline that has been the norm for the past several months. “All indications have pointed toward a pent-up demand for travel and we’re seeing the evidence of that here,” QCIA executive director Benjamin Leischner said in the airport release. “The... Read More

The timing of the Quad Cities International Airport (QCIA) announcing its ambitious, sleek renovation plans Tuesday was no coincidence. The public unveiling of more than $20 million in passenger terminal improvements came the day before President Joe Biden today announced his ambitious $2-trillion infrastructure plans, dubbed “The American Jobs Plan” – which includes $25 billion for airport improvements nationwide. “A lot of the funds we get, we pull in federally into the community. So we’re not big on pulling taxes from our neighbors,” QCIA executive director Benjamin Leischner... Read More

The Quad Cities International Airport in Moline will be getting a dramatic, $20-million-plus facelift. Several concepts and images were unveiled Tuesday by airport officials that include added amenities for passengers and represent the first major investment in the aging facility since 2001. The landside terminal, which includes ticketing and baggage claim, has not been updated since 1985. “The travel industry has changed dramatically since 1985 but our airport has had to take a patchwork approach to keep up,” QCIA executive director Benjamin Leischner said Tuesday. “With the work being done... Read More

Benjamin Leischner, executive director of the Quad City International Airport, is chairman of the new Illinois Airports Council. He and other airport leaders are praising a proposed amendment to Illinois Aeronautics Act, legislation that defines the role of the Illinois Department of Transportation when it comes to regulating aviation in the state of Illinois. SB-1764 works to streamline how commercial service airports in the state of Illinois receive federal money awarded by the FAA to airports, better defines allowable use of state money for the construction of public aeronautical facilities... Read More

The Quad City International Airport is getting a $2.8 million boost from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Coronavirus Response Grant Program. The program, funded under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020 (CRRSA), awarded $2 billion total to U.S. airports. This funding will continue to offset lost revenue and provide operational and payroll support. The Q-C airport previously received $8 million from the CARES Act. “As a facility that supports nearly 500 jobs, nearly 100 of which are employed directly by the Metropolitan Airport Authority,... Read More

Reflecting international devastation of the airline industry, due to Covid-19, Moline’s Quad City International Airport saw a drop of more than half the passengers from 2019 to 2020. The airport served 306,260 total passengers last year, 58 percent fewer than 2019’s 721,999, the Metropolitan Airport Authority board of commissioners learned at its Tuesday meeting. Airport executive director Ben Leischner said some of the decline stemmed from decisions of United Airlines to suspend nonstop flights to Denver last spring, and Delta to drop nonstop service to Minneapolis and Detroit, as well as... Read More

Despite federal health officials urging people to stay home, millions of people will fly during Thanksgiving week, including many through the Quad City International Airport, Moline. More than 1 million air travelers passed through security checkpoints at U.S. airports Nov. 20 and 22 for only the second and third time since the pandemic began, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Sunday was the single-busiest day at airport checkpoints since March. Saturday, the travel numbers neared a million, bringing the three-day total to more than 3 million passengers. The surge in... Read More

The new Quad City Arts Art at the Airport exhibit (Nov. 4 to Jan. 4, 2021) presents Nancy Lindsay’s landscape paintings, Marcia Whitmore’s botanical watercolors and a selection of fossils and minerals from Augustana College’s Fryxell Geology Museum. Nancy Lindsay, of Stone City, Iowa, discovered the beauty of the Iowa landscape when she moved to Iowa in 1998, when her husband introduced her to all the scenic areas. “Palisades, Pleasant Creek, Pinicon, Wapsipinicon and Backbone Parks are some of my favorite places to paint,” Lindsay said in a Quad City Arts release. “As a landscape... Read More