Indianapolis International Airport (USGS).jpg
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Indianapolis International Airport is an
international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...
located seven miles (11 km) southwest of downtown
Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
in
Marion County, Indiana Marion County is located in the U.S. state of Indiana. The 2020 United States census, 2020 United States census reported a population of 977,203, making it the largest county in the state and 51st List of the most populous counties in the United ...
, United States.https://d1j6zi7czwjuok.cloudfront.net/iaa-images/reports/December-2023-Airline-Activity-Report.pdf?mtime=20240208111907 It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...
for 2017–2021
categorized Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...
it as a medium hub primary commercial service facility. The airport has flights to over 40 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The airport occupies in Wayne and Decatur townships in Marion County. 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.
Republic Airways Republic Airways Inc. is a regional airline subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings that operates service as American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express using a fleet of Embraer 170 and Embraer 175 regional jets. It is headquartered ...
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 Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscript ...
as the primary city airport. The airport was initially built on about of land in the southwestern edge of the city, with an additional reserved for future expansions at the airport. In 1944, it was renamed Weir Cook Municipal Airport, after US Army Air Forces Col.
Harvey Weir Cook Harvey Weir Cook (June 30, 1892 – March 24, 1943) was an American fighter ace in World War I and Distinguished Service Cross recipient. He was also a pioneer in civilian commercial aviation and a leading figure in the development of aviation i ...
of Wilkinson, Indiana, who had become a flying ace during World War I with seven victories and had died flying a P-39 over
New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
in World War II. Indianapolis was one of many stops along the first transcontinental air/rail service between Los Angeles and New York that was started by Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) in 1929. TAT would later become
Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...
(TWA) and continued to serve IND until their merger into American Airlines in 2001. Since 1962, the airport has been owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA). The IAA has an eight-member board with members appointed by the mayor of Indianapolis and other officials from Marion, Hendricks, and
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...
counties in central Indiana. In 1976, the board renamed the airport Indianapolis International Airport. 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 and 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. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide (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 New York-LaGuardia; no other nonstops reached beyond Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Louisville and Pittsburgh. The first jets were TWA
Convair 880 The Convair 880 is an American narrow-body jet airliner produced by the Convair division of General Dynamics. It was designed to compete with the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 by being smaller but faster, a niche that failed to create demand. When ...
s in 1961. Westward nonstops didn't reach beyond St. Louis until 1967 when TWA started a JFK-IND-LAX flight with a
Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
. In the mid-1970s, TWA ran a widebody Lockheed L-1011 on the nonstop flight to Los Angeles.


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 The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
. USAir peaked at 146 daily departures (including its prop affiliates), with 49% of all seats. USAir ended the hub in the late 1990s. FedEx Express began its 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 the company's
SuperHub Memphis International Airport is a civil-military airport located southeast of Downtown Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. It is the primary international airport serving Memphis. It covers and has four runways., effective A ...
in Memphis. 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. 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. 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. The flight, DL500, was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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. In 1990, Air Canada began nonstop service from Indianapolis to Toronto Pearson International Airport, marking the first regularly scheduled international flight out of IND. 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 Air Canada Express is a brand name of regional feeder flights for Air Canada that are subcontracted to other airlines. As of March 2021, Jazz Aviation is the sole operator of Air Canada Express. They primarily connect smaller cities with Air Cana ...
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. Also in 1994, United Airlines finished building its Indianapolis Maintenance Center at a cost of US$600 million. United later moved their maintenance operations to its sole maintenance hub located at
San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...
. Around 2006, runway 14/32 was shortened from to its present length because the south end was not visible from the new control tower. A new 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 BSA LifeStructures is an architectural and engineering firm headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The firm has six regional offices in the United States that include: Austin, Texas, Denver, Colorado, St. Louis, Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana, Ra ...
, was the airport's program manager. Hunt/Smoot Midfield Builders, a joint venture of Hunt Construction Group and Smoot Construction was the construction manager. Thornton Tomasetti was the terminal's structural engineer along with Fink, Roberts and Petrie. Syska Hennessy was the mechanical, electrical, & plumbing engineer. 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. A , 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. 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.


Facilities


Terminal

Indianapolis International Airport has a single terminal with two concourses and a total of 39 gates. 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. All international arrivals are processed in Concourse A. *Concourse A contains 20 gates. *Concourse B contains 19 gates.


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 The Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation, branded as IndyGo, is a public transit agency and municipal corporation of the City of Indianapolis in the U.S. state of Indiana. It operates fixed-route buses, bus rapid transit, microtrans ...
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 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.


Airlines and destinations


Passenger


Cargo


Statistics


Top destinations


Airline market share


Annual traffic


Passenger traffic trends


Accidents and incidents

* On September 9, 1969,
Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 was a regularly scheduled Allegheny Airlines flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to St. Louis, Missouri, with stops in Baltimore, Maryland, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana. On September 9, 1969, the air ...
on a Boston
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
Cincinnati
Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
St. Louis route, collided in midair with a Piper Cherokee during its descent over
Fairland, Indiana Fairland is a town in Brandywine Township, Shelby County, Indiana. The population was 315 at the 2010 census. History Construction of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Lafayette Railroad began in 1849, and Fairland was platted in 1852. Isaac Od ...
, in Shelby County. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 crashed into a cornfield near London, Indiana, killing all 78 passengers and 4 crew members on board. The student pilot who was flying the Cherokee was also killed. * On October 20, 1987, a United States Air Force
A-7D Corsair II The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV). The A-7 was developed during the early 1960s as replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its design was ...
crashed into a Ramada Inn near the airport after the pilot was forced to eject due to an engine malfunction. Ten people were killed, nine of them hotel employees.


See also

*
List of airports in Indiana This is a list of airports in Indiana (a U.S. state), grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public-use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports that w ...
* List of the busiest airports in the United States * List of attractions and events in Indianapolis *
List of largest cargo airports in the United States List of the largest cargo airports in the United States based on weight of landed cargo in US Pounds (freight + mail) since 2008 (note: this list includes airports in U.S. territories). See also * List of busiest airports in the world by cargo t ...
* List of tallest air traffic control towers in the United States * * Transportation in Indianapolis


References


External links


Indianapolis International Airport
(official site) * {{Authority control 1931 establishments in Indiana Airports established in 1931 Airports in Indiana Buildings and structures in Indianapolis FedEx Express Transportation buildings and structures in Marion County, Indiana Transportation in Indianapolis