Greater Kankakee Airport is a public use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) south of the central business district of Kankakee, a city in Kankakee County, Illinois, United States. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility. The airport was opened in 1962 and continues to operate as a general aviation facility serving the Kankakee area and South Chicago. It is 60 mi south of Chicago and 75 mi north of Champaign, Illinois. It is the largest airport between the Chicago Midway Airport and the Champaign Airport. Greater Kankakee is a general aviation airport, consisting of mostly private aircraft with a mix of corporate and business aircraft usage. The airport is owned and operated by the Kankakee Valley Airport Authority. The authority has an appointed board of directors totaling six members: three members from the Kankakee County Board and one each from the communities of Kankakee, Bradley, and Bourbonnais.

History

In the 1950s, Lake Central Airlines and Ozark Airlines expressed interest in serving Kankakee but could not because the Greater Kankakee Airport predecessor was not big enough to handle Douglas DC-3s flown by the airline. The Kankakee Valley Airport Authority was developed to address this issue. In 1959, the Kankakee Valley Airport Authority selected a new site for an updated airport facility. The groundbreaking ceremony at the new site was held in May 1961, and the new airport opened in 1962. The airport received airline service to O'Hare International Airport onboard Air Wisconsin starting in 1968.

Facilities and aircraft

Facilities

Greater Kankakee Airport covers an area of 950 acres (384 ha) at an elevation of 629 feet (192 m) above mean sea level. It has two runways with asphalt surfaces: 4/22 is 5,981 by 100 feet (1,823 x 30 m) and 16/34 is 4,398 by 75 feet (1,341 x 23 m). The airplane has a fixed-based operator that sells fuel. Services include general maintenance, catering, hangars, and courtesy transportation; amenities include conference rooms, pilot supplies, a crew lounge, and more. In 2020, the airport received nearly $200,000 for runway upgrades through the federal CARES Act. The airport received $1.6 million from the State of Illinois as part of the Rebuild Illinois program during the COVID-19 pandemic. The airport planned to upgrade the airport's north–south runway and relocate one of the main taxiway ramps. Talks to upgrade these facilities had already been in the works for years as the airport aims to be able to accept larger aircraft on a more frequent basis by adding width and runway strength. Upgrades are expected to be completed in 2023.

National Guard Facilities

The airport is home to a base of the Illinois National Guard’s Company B, 106th Aviation Battalion and Company B(-), 935th Aviation Battalion in addition to two UH-60 Black Hawk aviation companies. The companies were originally based at Chicago's Midway International Airport but left because they needed more space. A 64,000-squre-foot readiness center was built at the Greater Kankakee Airport and includes office space, classrooms, locker rooms, restrooms and supply warehousing, as well as a surface maintenance bay, a kitchen facility and a 6,000-square-foot assembly hall. There is also a 121,200-square-foot facility that includes a maintenance hangar, a storage hangar, supporting maintenance shops, classrooms and administrative space as well as exterior lighting, fencing, parking areas and roadway, and a fuel storage and dispensing system.

Aircraft

For the 12-month period ending August 31, 2023, the airport had 50,000 aircraft operations, an average of 137 per day: 92% general aviation, 6% military, and 2% air taxi. At that time, there were 71 aircraft based at this airport: 62 single-engine and 8 multi-engine airplanes as well as 1 jet.

Accidents and incidents