History

At the end of the WWII, Camp Grant was turned into the Rockford Airport.

Lew Emery founded the first flight school at the Rockford airport. That operation eventually became a full-service FBO, including maintenance, air charter and had a major role providing service to the rapidly expanding airline industry. About this time, the airport changed its name to the Greater Rockford Airport.



UPS opened what has become their second largest air freight and sorting operation in the world at RFD. Emery Air continues to provide ground support services to UPS to this day.

Emery Air Charter acquired the Raytheon facility, consolidating all the services, and becoming one of the largest aviation service companies in the Midwest. The name was changed to Emery Air, Inc., to reflect their wide range of services.

Emery Air expanded again, adding Regional Airline service, and now specializes in the Embraer and Bombardier CRJ family of regional airliners, as well as other corporate/RJ maintenance.

Airfreight numbers grew by more than 15% to 2.7 billion pounds of freight that has landed and traveled through RFD compared to 2.3 billion pounds in 2019.


Additional warehousing to be completed providing us with over 250,000 sq. feet of storage within the airport perimeter in conjunction with the airport’s expansion. Additional fuel storage tanks to be installed near the newest ramp.