PEORIA — Destin was one new destination this year for travelers who use Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport.

Sometime soon, resumption of flights to and from Denver would be part of Peoria’s destiny, if airport director Gene Olson has his way. But that’s up to the airlines — and, perhaps, the passengers.

“It’s really a tough situation, because the community always wants to know, ‘OK, where’s the next place you’re going?’” Olson said. “We can’t tell you that, because we don’t know. It’s a long time frame.

“People should understand that every time they buy a ticket getting on a plane in another city, they’re telling the airlines that’s where the flight needs to be. If you want that flight here, you have to patronize the flights that are already here, because the airlines look at that data.”

The data for the Peoria airport has been looking good recently.

March was the airport’s busiest month on record. Almost 61,200 passengers traveled through the airport that month.

Olson attributed at least part of those numbers to the timing of spring break this year. Colleges and other schools’ breaks were limited to March, for the most part, instead of bleeding into April.

Passengers traverse the 12 destinations the Peoria airport serves. The newest locale was Destin, Fla., a Panhandle resort city Allegiant Air serves.

Allegiant talked with Peoria officials for two years before flights began in late spring. It’s a seasonal destination; service ended in early September.

“We’re hoping that it did well enough where Allegiant will want to expand that,” Olson said.

Allegiant specializes in flying from mid-sized cities to resort areas, such as Las Vegas or Florida. The airline offers service from Peoria to those places. American, Delta and United airlines fly between Peoria and business centers or hubs where travelers can transfer to international or other national locations.

The addition last year of service to one such place — Charlotte, N.C., via American — has been successful, Olson said. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul are similar destinations.

What Peoria lacks right now is a connection to a gateway city in the American West, according to Olson. Denver might be ideal.

For years, United flew between Denver and Peoria. But once low-fare Frontier Airlines began to offer now-defunct service between Denver and Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington, leisure travelers from the Peoria area availed themselves of it, according to Olson.

“What was left were people flying to Denver to connect to somewhere else,” he said. “The way the airlines credit revenue, Peoria to Denver was not making their standards. All the places people were going (from) Denver were places they could get to through Chicago.”

Some flights to and from Chicago and other locales soon will have a new platform upon which to load and unload passengers.

Part of the airport apron is being replaced, at a cost of about $4.5 million, according to Olson. The old apron dates from the 1950s. The new one, to augment apron sections replaced earlier this decade, sits atop 16 inches of rock, necessary to stabilize liquid-like soil.

“Basically, it’s plant material that’s had 50 or 60 years on its journey to becoming petroleum,” Olson said about the soil.

A newer, larger maintenance facility is to be built nearby, with construction expected to begin in October. The facility is designed to accommodate all of the airport’s snow-removal equipment. Currently, it’s stored at various locations on the airport property, Olson said.

The facility is to cost about $9 million. Funding for it and the new apron comes from various sources, including a tax assessed on tickets.

New construction also is planned for Mount Hawley Auxiliary Airport, a North Peoria general-aviation facility Olson also oversees. That airport’s equivalent of a terminal building, about 50 years old, is overdue for replacement.

Otherwise, Mount Hawley appears to be in robust shape. Olson said there is an 18-person waiting list for hangar space there.

“General aviation nationwide is facing a lot of challenges, but around here, it’s doing pretty well,” Olson said.

Nick Vlahos can be reached at 686-3285 or nvlahos@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @VlahosNick.