Departure
89%
vs 95% ▼ 6
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Greater Kankakee Airport (KIKK) is a general aviation field in Kankakee County, Illinois, about three nautical miles south of downtown Kankakee and roughly 60 miles south of Chicago. Operated by the Kankakee Valley Airport Authority since 1962, it offers two hard-surfaced, lit runways, an ILS approach, and a mix of civilian and Illinois National Guard helicopter operations, making it a useful and uncongested waypoint for VFR pilots transiting the south Chicagoland area.
Greater Kankakee Airport, identified as KIKK (IATA: IKK), is a public-use general aviation airport owned and operated by the Kankakee Valley Airport Authority. It has served the Kankakee, Chicagoland, and Northern Indiana communities since opening in 1962, and today handles a mix of private, corporate, and business aircraft alongside Illinois National Guard helicopter units. For a simulator pilot, it offers a realistic slice of Midwestern general aviation flying: an ILS-equipped field with two solid runways, sitting between the much busier Chicago airports and Champaign to the south.
The airport lies in Kankakee County, Illinois, about three nautical miles south of the Kankakee central business district, directly alongside Interstate 57 near its exit 308. It sits roughly 60 miles south of Chicago and about 75 miles north of Champaign, Illinois, making it the largest airport between Chicago Midway and Champaign. The field is described as lying outside the Chicago airspace structure, which keeps its local skies comparatively uncongested compared with the airports closer to the city.
Greater Kankakee Airport has two physical runways, both asphalt and lit. Runway 04/22 is 5,933 feet long, with an ILS serving runway 04. Runway 16/34 is 4,389 feet long. Field elevation is 620 feet.
Weather information is available on AWOS at 111.6 MHz. En-route traffic in the area can be worked by Chicago Center on 132.5 MHz, and Chicago Flight Service can be reached on 122.2 MHz. Local traffic advisories and airport information are handled on the CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 123.0 MHz, with the airport radio operating as Kankakee Radio. The field is equipped with an ILS approach to Runway 04.
The airport is a readily identifiable landmark for pilots following Interstate 57, sitting directly alongside the highway near its exit 308, south of the city of Kankakee itself.
The Kankakee Valley Airport Authority was formed to build a replacement for an earlier, smaller airfield after Lake Central Airlines and Ozark Airlines showed interest in serving Kankakee in the 1950s but found the existing field too small to handle Douglas DC-3 operations. A new site was selected in 1959, groundbreaking took place in May 1961, and the present airport opened in 1962. Airline service to Chicago O'Hare began aboard Air Wisconsin in 1968. The airport has since become home to Illinois National Guard aviation units, including Company B of the 106th Aviation Battalion and Company B(-) of the 935th Aviation Battalion, operating UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters after relocating from Chicago Midway due to space constraints; a 64,000-square-foot readiness center and a separate 121,200-square-foot maintenance and storage facility were built to support these units. In 2020 the airport received federal CARES Act funding of nearly $200,000 for runway upgrades, followed by $1.6 million from the State of Illinois Rebuild Illinois program to further upgrade the north-south runway and relocate a taxiway ramp, work expected to conclude around 2023.
The airport is a general aviation facility covering some 950 acres, hosting mostly private aircraft alongside a smaller number of corporate and business movements, and recording about 50,000 annual aircraft operations with roughly 71 based aircraft. A fixed-base operator on the field sells fuel and provides general maintenance, catering, hangar space, and courtesy transportation, with amenities including conference rooms, pilot supplies, and a crew lounge. The airport also continues to host Illinois National Guard Black Hawk helicopter units in dedicated readiness and maintenance facilities.
