Battle of Backbone Mountain

Indianapolis International Airport (IATA: IND, ICAO: KIND, FAA LID: IND) is an international airport located seven miles (11 km) southwest of downtown Indianapolis in Marion County, Indiana, United States.[2] It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 categorized it as a medium hub primary commercial service facility.[3] The airport has flights to over 40 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The airport occupies 7,700 acres (3,116 ha) in Wayne and Decatur townships in Marion County.[2][4] IND is home to the second largest FedEx Express hub in the world; only the FedEx SuperHub in Memphis, Tennessee surpasses its cargo traffic. Additionally, because of FedEx's activity, IND consistently ranks among the top 10 busiest U.S. airports in terms of air cargo throughput.[5][6][7] Republic Airways is also headquartered at the airport, and Allegiant Air maintains Indianapolis as a focus city.

The Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZID), one of 22 established FAA area control centers, is located on the airport property's north side.

History

Beginnings

Indianapolis Municipal Airport opened in 1931, replacing the older Stout Field as the primary city airport. The airport was initially built on about 320 acres (130 ha) of land in the southwestern edge of the city, with an additional 627 acres (254 ha) acres reserved for future expansions at the airport.[8] In 1944, it was renamed Weir Cook Municipal Airport, after US Army Air Forces Col. Harvey Weir Cook of Wilkinson, Indiana, who became a flying ace during World War I with seven victories and died flying a P-39 over New Caledonia in World War II.

Since 1962, the airport has been owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA), an eight-member board with members appointed by the Mayor of Indianapolis and other officials from Marion, Hendricks, and Hamilton counties in central Indiana. In 1976, the board renamed the airport Indianapolis International Airport.[9]

From 1957 to 2008, the passenger terminal was on the east side of the airfield off High School Road. This now-demolished facility was renovated and expanded many times, notably in 1968 (Concourses A & B), 1972 (Concourse D), and 1987 (Concourse C and the attached Parking Garage). This complex, along with the International Arrivals Terminal (opened in 1976) on the north side of the airfield (off Pierson Drive), was replaced by the Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal on November 12, 2008.[10]

The April 1957 OAG shows 82 weekday departures: 24 Eastern, 22 TWA, 15 Delta, 11 American, 9 Lake Central and 1 Ozark. Eastern had a nonstop to Atlanta and one to Birmingham and TWA had two to LaGuardia; no other nonstops reached beyond Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Louisville and Pittsburgh. (Westward nonstops didn't reach beyond St. Louis until 1967; TWA started a JFK-IND-LAX 707 that year.) The first jets were TWA 880s in 1961.[citation needed]

Recent years

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, USAir (later US Airways) had a secondary hub in Indianapolis with non-stop jets to the West Coast, East Coast, and Florida and turboprop flights to cities around the Midwest. USAir peaked at 146 daily departures (including its prop affiliates), with 49% of all seats. USAir ended the hub in the late 1990s.[citation needed]

FedEx Express began their hub at the airport in 1988, with an expansion of the hub occurring ten years later. The hub employs around 4,000 people and has a sort capacity of nearly 100,000 packages per hour, making Indianapolis the largest FedEx hub in the world outside of their SuperHub in Memphis.[11]

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Indianapolis was a hub for then locally based ATA Airlines and its regional affiliate, Chicago Express/ATA Connection. After that airline entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2004, operations at IND were cut, then eliminated in 2006.[12] ATA's demise gave Northwest Airlines an opportunity to expand operations, making Indianapolis a focus city with mainline flights to the West Coast, East Coast, and the South.[13] Northwest was later acquired by Delta Air Lines in 2008, and a decade later, Delta began service from Indianapolis to Paris in May 2018. This flight was the first ever non-stop transatlantic passenger flight out of Indianapolis.[14] The flight, DL500, was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[15] Since then, the airport has been working to restore transatlantic service to Indianapolis, and in 2021, entered negotiations with British Airways to begin service to London in the summer of 2022, but ultimately failed.[16][17]

In 1990, Air Canada began nonstop service from Indianapolis to Toronto Pearson International Airport, marking the first regularly scheduled international flight out of IND.[18] Air Canada Jazz, which operated the flight from 2001, would be retired by Air Canada in 2012, and service to IND would continue under the new Air Canada Express brand.

In 1994, BAA USA was awarded a 10-year contract to manage the Indianapolis International Airport. The contract was extended three years but was later cut a year short at the request of the BAA. Private management ended on December 31, 2007, and control reverted to IAA.[19][20] Also in 1994, United Airlines finished building its Indianapolis Maintenance Center[21] at a cost of US$600 million.[22] United later moved their maintenance operations to its sole maintenance hub located at San Francisco International Airport. Around 2006, runway 14/32 was shortened from 7,604 feet (2,318 m) to its present length because the south end was not visible from the new control tower.[23]

Indianapolis International Airport's Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal Civic Plaza

A new 1.2-million-square-foot (110,000 m2) midfield passenger terminal, which cost $1.1 billion, opened in 2008 between the airport's two parallel runways, southwest of the previous terminal and the crosswind runway. A new FAA Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) building, the second tallest in the United States, opened in April 2006, the first component of the long-planned midfield complex. The Weir Cook Terminal itself opened for arriving flights on the evening of November 11, 2008, and for departures the following morning. HOK was its master designer, with AeroDesign Group (a joint venture of CSO Architects, SchenkelShultz Architecture, and ARCHonsortium) serving as the architect of record. Aviation Capital Management (Indianapolis), a subsidiary of BSA LifeStructures, was the airport's program manager. Hunt/Smoot Midfield Builders, a joint venture of Hunt Construction Group and Smoot Construction was the construction manager.[24] Thornton Tomasetti was the terminal's structural engineer along with Fink, Roberts and Petrie.[25] Syska Hennessy was the mechanical, electrical, & plumbing engineer.[25] In 2021, a six-person panel of Indianapolis members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) identified the Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal among the ten most "architecturally significant" buildings completed in the city since World War II.[26]

A 162-acre (66 ha), 22 MW solar farm is at the airport. It was the largest airport solar farm in the world when the second phase opened in 2014.[27]

In August 2017, Allegiant Air announced it would open a $40 million aircraft base at the airport that would begin operations in February of the following year. The facility was to create 66 high-paying jobs by the end of year and house two Airbus aircraft.[28][29]

Facilities

Terminal

Exterior of the Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal in 2019

Indianapolis International Airport has a single terminal with two concourses and a total of 39 gates.[30] The current terminal opened in 2008 and is named in honor of Col. Harvey Weir Cook. It was one of the first designed and built in the U.S. following the September 11 attacks.[31] All international arrivals are processed in Concourse A.[30]

  • Concourse A contains 20 gates.[30]
  • Concourse B contains 19 gates.[30]

Ground transportation

Eight rental car operations and the Ground Transportation Center (where information about limousine, shuttle bus, hotel courtesy vehicles and other transportation services such as IndyGo bus service can be obtained) are located on the first floor of the attached parking garage. All pick-ups and drop-offs of rental vehicles also occur here, eliminating the need for shuttling customers to and from individual companies' remote processing facilities. The five-floor parking garage covers 11 acres (4.5 ha) on each of its levels. It features a light-filled center atrium complete with a piece of suspended artwork and contains moving sidewalks to speed pedestrians into and out of the terminal building itself.[32]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

AirlinesDestinationsRefs
Air Canada Express Toronto–Pearson [33]
Alaska Airlines Seattle/Tacoma [34]
Allegiant Air Austin, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville (FL), Key West, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando/Sanford, Punta Gorda (FL), Sarasota, St. Petersburg/Clearwater
Seasonal: Boston, Charleston (SC), Destin/Fort Walton Beach, Myrtle Beach, Savannah, West Palm Beach
[35]
American Airlines Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Washington–National
Seasonal: Cancún
[36]
American Eagle Austin, Boston, Chicago–O'Hare, New York–JFK, New York–LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Washington–National
Seasonal: Charlotte, Miami
[36]
Delta Air Lines Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City[37] [38]
Delta Connection Boston, Detroit, New York–JFK, New York–LaGuardia
Seasonal: Minneapolis/St. Paul
[38]
Frontier Airlines Dallas/Fort Worth (begins April 22, 2024),[39] Denver, New Orleans (begins May 21, 2024),[40] Orlando, Philadelphia (begins May 21, 2024)[41]
Seasonal: Raleigh/Durham
[42]
Southwest Airlines Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Cancún, Dallas–Love, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Houston–Hobby, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, San Diego, Sarasota, Tampa
Seasonal: Miami, Panama City (FL)
[43]
Spirit Airlines Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Newark, Orlando
Seasonal: Fort Myers, Myrtle Beach (resumes May 9, 2024),[44] Tampa
[45]
Sun Country Airlines Seasonal: Minneapolis/St. Paul [46]
United Airlines Chicago–O'Hare, Denver, Houston–Intercontinental, Newark, San Francisco, Washington–Dulles [47]
United Express Chicago–O'Hare, Houston–Intercontinental, Newark, Washington–Dulles [47]

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
Castle Aviation Akron, Hamilton
Cargolux Chicago–O'Hare, Luxembourg
Cargolux Italia Luxembourg
FedEx Express Allentown, Anchorage, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Burbank, Cedar Rapids, Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, Cleveland, Cologne/Bonn, Columbus–Rickenbacker, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Worth, Grand Rapids, Greenville (SC), Greensboro, Harrisburg, Hartford, Houston–Intercontinental, Kansas City, Knoxville, Liège, London–Stansted, Los Angeles, Madison, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Montreal–Mirabel, Nashville, New York–JFK, Newark, Newburgh, New Orleans, Norfolk, Oakland, Omaha, Ontario, Orlando, Ottawa, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Philadelphia, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), Raleigh/Durham, Richmond, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Jose (CA), Seattle/Tacoma, St. Louis, Syracuse, Tampa, Toronto–Pearson, Tulsa, Washington–Dulles
FedEx Feeder Buffalo, Cedar Rapids, Columbus–Rickenbacker, Fargo, Parkersburg, Rochester (MN), Sioux Falls, South Bend
MSC Air Cargo Atlanta, Chicago–O'Hare (begins April 3, 2024), Dallas/Fort Worth, Hong Kong,[48] Liege[49]

Statistics

FAA Control Tower
Indianapolis International Airport boarding area
Walkway from the terminal to the parking garage with motion-activated lights

Top destinations

Busiest domestic routes from IND (January 2023 - December 2023)[50]
Rank City Passengers Carriers
1 Atlanta, Georgia 478,000 Delta, Southwest
2 Denver, Colorado 339,000 Frontier, Southwest, United
3 Orlando, Florida 307,000 Frontier, Southwest, Spirit
4 Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas 248,000 American
5 Charlotte, North Carolina 247,000 American
6 Chicago–O'Hare, Illinois 238,000 American, United
7 Las Vegas, Nevada 212,000 Allegiant, Southwest, Spirit
8 Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Arizona 208,000 American, Southwest
9 Newark, New Jersey 163,000 Spirit, United
10 Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota 158,000 Delta, Sun Country
Busiest cargo routes from IND (December 2019)[51]
Rank City Cargo (pounds) Carriers
1 Los Angeles, California 6,944,183 Cargolux, FedEx Express
2 Oakland, California 6,717,406 FedEx Express
3 Memphis, Tennessee 6,603,929 FedEx Express
4 Newark, New Jersey 5,786,845 FedEx Express
5 Boston, Massachusetts 4,590,933 FedEx Express
6 Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas 3,996,817 FedEx Express
7 Seattle/Tacoma, Washington 3,943,765 FedEx Express
8 Denver, Colorado 3,718,289 FedEx Express
9 Anchorage, Alaska 3,592,389 FedEx Express
10 Atlanta, Georgia 3,588,692 Cargolux, FedEx Express

Airline market share

Largest airlines at IND (Oct 2022 – Sep 2023)[52]
Rank Airline Passengers Share
1 Southwest Airlines 2,453,000 26.76%
2 American Airlines 1,503,000 16.40%
3 Republic Airways 1,194,000 13.03%
4 Delta Air Lines 1,127,000 12.29%
5 United Airlines 657,000 7.16%
Other 2,233,000 24.35%

Annual traffic

Annual passenger traffic at IND
1996–Present
[53][54]
Year Passengers Year Passengers Year Passengers
1996 7,069,039 2006 8,085,394 2016 8,511,959
1997 7,171,845 2007 8,272,289 2017 8,800,828
1998 7,292,132 2008 8,151,488 2018 9,413,962
1999 7,463,536 2009 7,465,719 2019 9,537,377
2000 7,722,191 2010 7,526,414 2020 4,104,648[55]
2001 7,238,744 2011 7,478,835 2021 7,175,979[56]
2002 6,896,418 2012 7,333,733 2022 8,693,024[57]
2003 7,361,060 2013 7,217,051 2023 9,788,867[58]
2004 8,025,051 2014 7,363,632 2024
2005 8,524,442 2015 7,998,086 2025

Passenger traffic trends

Annual passenger traffic at IND airport. See Wikidata query.

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

  1. ^ "Airline Activity Report December 2022" (PDF). d1j6zi7czwjuok.cloudfront.net. Indianapolis Airport Authority. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  2. ^ a b https://d1j6zi7czwjuok.cloudfront.net/iaa-images/reports/December-2023-Airline-Activity-Report.pdf?mtime=20240208111907[bare URL]
  3. ^ "List of NPIAS Airports" (PDF). FAA.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. October 21, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 3, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  4. ^ "IND airport at skyvector.com". skyvector.com. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  5. ^ "Airport Traffic Report, Port Authority NY NJ". Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Airport Traffic Statistics. April 2023.
  6. ^ "IND Transport Stats". About IND. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
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  8. ^ "Indianapolis International Airport". Indiana University. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
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  17. ^ "Proposed London-to-Indy flight scrapped". WISHTV.COM. December 17, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
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  27. ^ Mack, Justin L. "World's largest solar farm complete at Indianapolis airport". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  28. ^ "NEWS: Allegiant Plans Aircraft Base in Indiana, New Jobs and Future Growth". mailchi.mp.
  29. ^ "Instagram post by Allegiant • Aug 2, 2017 at 9:37pm UTC". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021.
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  39. ^ "Frontier Airlines Announces New Routes, Expanding Operations Across 38 Airports".
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  45. ^ "Where we fly, flight schedules, flight map". Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  46. ^ Thomas, Dylan (January 25, 2021). "Sun Country announces 16 new routes, including nine serving MSP". Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  47. ^ a b "Timetable". Archived from the original on January 28, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  48. ^ "Air Cargo Solution". MSC. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  49. ^ "MSC Air Cargo Schedule". msc.
  50. ^ "RITA | BTS | Transtats". Transtats.bts.gov. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
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  52. ^ "BTS". Retrieved December 24, 2023.
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External links