Metered cabs line up outside Main Terminal arrivals
The Taxi Stand at General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA) sits directly outside the Main Terminal baggage claim doors, at the public curb. Cabs pull up in a single line, so you walk out of arrivals, cross one lane of traffic, and you are at the curbside pickup point in under 1 minute. There is no need to pre-book through the airport; you just join the front of the line and take the next car.
Drivers use standard metered fares from PIA, with the meter starting as soon as you leave the curb outside the Main Terminal. Exact rates vary by company, and some cars accept both cash and cards while a few still run cash-only, so have a card and at least $20 in bills ready. It usually takes about 15–20 minutes by taxi from PIA to downtown Peoria, depending on traffic lights along routes like IL-116.
The Taxi Stand runs whenever flights arrive at PIA, with cars typically staged around the times of the day’s larger Main Terminal departures and arrivals banks. If you land on a late-night arrival after 22:00, you might see only one or two cabs at the curb, so expect a short wait if multiple flights land close together. For early-morning flights before 06:00, some travelers call a local cab company in advance and ask them to meet at the Main Terminal curb.
Because the stand is at the public curb, taxis serve both arriving passengers and people heading out from the Main Terminal. If you are departing, you can ask to be dropped at the Main Terminal doors closest to your airline’s check-in counters, then walk 1–2 minutes inside to ticketing. Fares from nearby Peoria neighborhoods back to the airport often run in the $20–$40 range, depending on distance and time of day, so plan your cash or card use accordingly.
One practical move: before you leave the Main Terminal and step to the curb, pull up your destination address on your phone and show it to the driver at the Taxi Stand so they can plug it into GPS while you’re still at PIA and rolling out quickly.