Staff Report
Terminals 1 and 2 at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport will soon be history, making way for progress — namely a consolidated car rental facility to better serve a growing customer base.
CVG’s Joe Feiertag, marketing and public affairs manager, has made it a mission to capture the “human” side of the history of these now outdated terminals, opened in 1947 and 1974 respectively.
They served airline passengers until 2007 and 2012 — and no doubt there are plenty of stories to be told and memories to be shared that will help capture the whole story.
Ultimately, it’s a story of how air travel has evolved from the 40s into the jet age, an insight into the evolution of our own lifestyles and our shared sense of community, a part of personal histories of experiences and memories of times gone by.
The historic murals there are being moved and preserved. New and updated facilities serve today’s passengers and growing services and food options appeal to modern-day passengers.
But there was another time, the time these terminals were also new and progressive — and served air travelers when air travel was more rare and special.
Do you have stories or photos from the family album of welcoming home a loved one from combat? Did you or someone you know propose or get engaged there? Do you remember arriving there or departing from there for the first time? Do your memories represent a special moment in your life or in the life of the community? Did you meet someone special there for their first visit to Greater Cincinnati, arriving on their first airplane ride?
Feiertag wants to capture those memories for all time for the airport’s archives — and for a special segment to be included in the NKyTribune’s Inside Northern Kentucky KET show.
Please submit your story at cvgairport.com/stories now so it can be captured forever in the telling the history of CVG’s Terminal 1 and 2.
You may even get a “casting call” for the Inside Northern Kentucky show.
In the 1950s we moved to NKy from NJ. My dad was a corporate executive and flew out of CVG a couple of times a week. So although his office was in the Carew Tower, we lived close to the airport on Watson Road in Erlanger. My mom and I would drive him to the airport, but we wouldn’t just drop him off as you almost have to do today. We would walk out with him to the step-ramp and sometimes even go with him to his seat. Sometimes he would even introduce me to the pilots, who would in turn show me the cockpit and pin a set of plastic wings on me. My mom and I would then, weather permitting since it was open air, ascend to the observation platform and watch as the engines on the TWA Super Constellation (usually) fired up one by one and the plane taxied out and roared into the sky. The observation platform was only a couple hundred feet from the planes, so we got a great view. I think those experiences, and the fact that my Uncle was a WWII B17 pilot who flew missions over Germany, were the inspirations for me getting my private pilot’s license years later. And whenever CVG isn’t too busy and I get to do a few touch and go maneuvers there, I remember my Dad, now permanently in the sky, taking off on those same runways.
I was a 19-20 year old ticket agent for Piedmont Airlines In about 1967-1968? Reservations in downtown Cincinnati would call and I would handwrite the tickets for the passengers arriving at the airport for their flights–yep, no computers back then. And I’d call the flights over the loudspeaker: Piedmont Airlines flight 636 for Huntington, Beckley, Charleston, Roanoke, Norfolk AND intermediate stations is now boarding at gate 2. I may be exaggerating those stops, can’t really remember, but it was a hopper for sure!! I met Buck Owens and Perry Como while working there, and lots of servicemen going to and arriving from Vietnam and other places. Actually became pen pals with 12 of them and wrote each one a letter each week. Good memories from long, long ago. The good old days.
Dec. 1978 had lunch across from Kenny Price of Hee Haw during wait for flight home from MSU
He asked what i was eating…then ordered doubles of it all and paid my check.
My Dad, Dennie Story, was an Air Traffic Controller for the old terminal. We have some 8mm film (converted to VHS) of the airport’s heyday in the 60’s, the observation deck, first 707 that ever flew into the airport, JFK’s arrival, old Boone County Airport Hanger, etc. I’ll see if I can find it in storage.
My father Robert “Sonny” Combs flew an airplane for Baldwin Piano Company. The plane was at the old red brick terminal in 1958 – 1963. Then the company transferred him to Little Rock Arkansas. I loved to go to the airport. Those were happy times
I was a policeman at the airport from 1972 to 1990. Saw three police chief’s come and go in my time. Prior to being a policeman I served in the marine corps. In Vietnam, Cuba. My father retired from american airlines at cvg. Brother in-law worked for hertz rental car at cvg. Retired. My sister worked at Americans in hotel at cvg.