History
RFD traces its history back to 1917, when Camp Grant was established during the First World War as an U.S. Army Cavalry Camp. During the events of World War II, Camp Grant was made into a military training base and prisoner of war confinement center.
Following the war, the state of Illinois adopted the Airport Authority Act. The Greater Rockford Airport Authority was created in 1946. For more than forty years, the facility was referred to as the Greater Rockford Airport, serving the area as a regional airport. In 1987, the current passenger terminal was constructed in an effort to attract more passenger service. Six years later, United Parcel Service opened its first of two cargo facilities at the airport. The location became a selling point as a transportation facility for cargo as well as for passengers. However, declining passenger numbers led to the temporary loss of scheduled passenger airline service in 2001. Although the Rockford airport had previously had flights to the O'Hare airport, for many residents, it was far more affordable to get to Chicago by bus or by their own car and then fly. In 2003, passenger service was restored to the airport as the facility marketed itself towards leisure travelers; instead of offering regional service primarily to O'Hare or other Midwestern destinations, Rockford offered low-cost flights to Florida.
In in effort to capitalize on the airport's location (less than 90 miles (145 km) from downtown Chicago and about 30 miles (48 km) from the outermost Chicago suburbs), its name was changed to the Northwest Chicagoland Regional Airport at Rockford in the early 2000s. In 2004, the airport became an official US port of entry and achieved international status; that year, it was renamed the Chicago/Rockford International Airport (the slash was removed in 2007). The name was not only shorter, but the change also brought it in line with the other two "Chicago" airports (O'Hare and Midway). In many forms of media, the airport also markets itself by its three FAA/IATA call letters: RFD.
Today, the Rockford airport is marketed to residents of Rockford and surrounding areas as an alternative to Chicago Midway International Airport and O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, WI and Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin as well as limited service airports such as Dubuque Regional Airport in Iowa. The airlines at RFD also often use their low fares and free airport parking as a selling point as well.
Read more about this topic: Chicago Rockford International Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)