What is changing around The Eastern Iowa Airport and the southwest side of Cedar Rapids. Every item links to the original report.
January 2026
Eastern Iowa Airport tops 1.6 million passengers in 2025
CID welcomed more than 1.6 million travelers in 2025, a 6% increase over 2024 and the airport's third record year in a row. It was also the first time every single month set a new passenger record.
Source: Eastern Iowa Airport · Corridor Business Journal
January 2026
The record streak keeps going
January 2026 brought 128,641 passengers through CID, up 5% from January 2025 and the 23rd straight month of record traffic.
Source: CBS2 Iowa
2026
Terminal modernization is finished
After more than a decade of phased work, CID completed a terminal modernization of about $121 million. The terminal grew from 94,000 square feet to about 240,000, with an expanded security checkpoint, four new passenger boarding bridges, larger holdrooms and new concessions.
Source: Airport Improvement
May 2026
$6 million federal grant for baggage handling
The FAA awarded CID a $6 million Airport Terminal Program grant to improve its baggage handling system, citing an increase in demand.
Source: Corridor Business Journal · FAA
October 2026
Bids open for a baggage system and terminal expansion
The airport took bids for an approximately 25,500 square foot building expansion with new baggage handling equipment.
Source: Eastern Iowa Airport
2025 to 2026
Data center campuses rise at Big Cedar Industrial Center
QTS is building a data center campus on 612 acres of the Big Cedar Industrial Center, a planned $10 billion investment that the utility calls the largest economic development investment in the history of Iowa and Cedar Rapids. Google announced its own data center project at the same industrial center in 2025, its second in Iowa after Council Bluffs.
Source: Alliant Energy · Alliant Energy news · QTS