Challenges and opportunities on the table for Quincy’s airport

Published 4:32 pm Thursday, August 6, 2026

QUINCY — The Quincy Regional Airport has had an interesting month already, and Director Bill Lantz said his calendar remains full.

Wednesday night, the City of Quincy’s Aeronautics Committee held the regular monthly meeting to get updates on some high-profile items affecting the airport.

Lantz said one of the bigger issues being looked at is the operation of the restaurant inside the airport terminal. He said the committee is going to press pause on seeking a tenant to operate a full-time, full-service restaurant because of updates needed to the facility.

The terminal building, which includes the restaurant, started construction in 1969 before opening in 1972. A number of restaurant owners have come through, but with new standards for food service locations, the airport would have to invest heavily to modernize the facility.

According to Lantz, the upgrades could run as high as $250,000 and would start with a $25,000 planning and assessment phase, an amount that he’s reluctant to ask for merely on the hope of attracting a new restaurant operator.

Lantz said the committee and the airport administration will remain open to proposals from anyone with a plan to reopen the restaurant on a full-term basis, but for the moment, the focus is shifting to potential smaller-format operations such as a coffee bar or something similar.

Over the past weekend, a driver crashed into a fence and some other structures at the airport. While the crash didn’t disrupt operations, Lantz said current estimates for repairs are projected to be between $14,000 and $18,000.

“We have a little bit of ground damage to repair once everything’s done, because of the contractors’ work to rebuild the fence,” Lantz said. “So we’ve got a contractor that’s going to handle the sod repair and get backseed and grass for us.”

Quincy Police arrested Sean Zanger, 19, of Quincy on charges that include criminal damage to government property between $10,000 and $100,000.

Another item discussed by the committee involves efforts to make it easier for travelers to get to and from the airport. The committee will review a proposal from Contour Airlines to operate a rental-car business from the airport. Currently, there are no rental operations at the airport itself, and rental agencies often have no available vehicles.

This proposal would see Contour set up a space at the airport’s counter to run its own rental operation, something Lantz said they’ve created a pilot program for and hope to use Quincy Regional as a testbed for the program.

“It’s outside the box of what we would normally see, but I think it’s a nice idea,” Lantz said.

Later this month, Quincy Regional is again playing host to the Commemorative Air Force’s “Rise Above” traveling exhibit. Running from Aug. 22-25, the exhibit will share the story of the Tuskegee Airmen and their famous “Red Tail” P-51 Mustangs, including a functional plane painted in the classic scheme from World War II.

The exhibit was on display in 2023 with much acclaim, including tours from students at George Iles Elementary, the school named after the Red Tails colonel who called Quincy home before joining the United States Army Air Forces during WWII.

Along with the Red Tails visit, the airport will also play host on Aug. 20 to the next mission for the Great River Honor Flight (GRHF), taking veterans and escorts directly from Quincy to Washington, D.C., and back for a one-day sightseeing trip. This will be the second GRHF mission to base out of Quincy rather than making a two-hour each-way bus trip to and from the St. Louis International Airport.

Lantz is excited about the special events coming to the airport, but he also hopes people remember that the airport is there to serve the community, providing round-trip flights from the Gem City to both Chicago and Nashville airports.

“I just want to encourage the public locally to use the airport for what it was designed for,” he said.

As of June, when Contour added Nashville flights, the airport has seen more than 800 enplanements in a month, the first time that number has been reached since 2018. Under the guidelines of the federal Essential Air Service program, if the airport reaches 10,000 enplanements in the fiscal year, an additional $1 million would be awarded in federal funding.