The Southern Illinois Airport is quite busy.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the Jackson County facility was the 4th busiest airport in Illinois for 2014.
Airport Manager Gary Shafer says that lofty ranking pays off in significant federal funding for the airport, which in turn helps the area economy.
"Those dollars are essentially new monies to the area that tend to stay around at least one more cycle. So, those dollars, which average at our airport about a million a year, are new to the community and roll about one more time. So, it's about a two million dollar yearly impact to get those kind of monies."
Shafer says the ranking is attributed almost entirely to the SIU-Carbondale aviation program. He says around 85-percent of the more than 82,000 departures and arrivals at the airport last year were attributed to the Flying Salukis.
Shafer says the airport and SIU-C aviation have had a 55-year relationship.
In addition to being the 4th busiest airport in Illinois, Shafer says his facility is also ranked 195th out of 19,000 airports nationwide.
