Indianapolis International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport is an international airport located seven miles southwest of downtown Indianapolis in Marion County, Indiana, United States. It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority. The Federal Aviation Administration National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 categorized it as a medium hub primary commercial service facility.
The airport occupies in Wayne and Decatur townships in Marion County and Guilford Township in Hendricks County. As home to the second largest FedEx Express hub in the world, IND ranked as the eighth busiest U.S. airport in terms of air cargo throughput in 2017.
History
Indianapolis Municipal Airport opened in 1931. 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, 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.
In 2008, the board named the new main passenger facility the Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal and the new entrance road Col. H. Weir Cook Memorial Drive.
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, 1972 and 1987. This complex, along with the International Arrivals Terminal on the north side of the airfield, was replaced by the Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal on November 12, 2008.
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. The first jets were TWA 880s in 1961.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, USAir 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, with 49% of all seats. USAir ended the hub in the late 1990s.
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 late 2008.
In 1994, BAA 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 the 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. Around 2006, runway 14/32 was shortened from 7604 feet 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 and Terminal Radar Approach Control building, 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 serving as architect of record. Aviation Capital Management, 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. Thornton Tomasetti was the terminal's structural engineer along with Fink, Roberts and Petrie. Syska Hennessy was the mechanical, electrical, & plumbing engineer.
In August 2017, Allegiant Air announced it would open a $40 million aircraft base at Indianapolis International 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.
In September 2017, Delta Air Lines announced it would begin service from Indianapolis to Paris beginning in May 2018. This flight will be the first ever non-stop transatlantic passenger flight out of Indianapolis.
In 2018, technology services and consulting company Infosys announced plans to build a U.S. training center at site of the former terminal building. The development will include an education center and residential facility, bringing 3,000 jobs to the area.
Facilities
Terminal
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. It has room for 44 domestic gates and 2 international gates. Not all gate positions were used upon opening of the facility, to allow for future expansion by the airlines. The two gate concourse structures were built to allow for future expansion on their southwestern ends.The new terminal allows international arrivals to go through customs in the main passenger terminal; these passengers used to disembark in a separate building. Passengers arriving at gates A4 and A5 go to the U.S. Customs and Federal Inspection Station on the arrivals level via a dedicated and secured stairway, escalator, or elevator. After clearing customs, they exit into the south end of the main terminal's domestic baggage claim area.
The A concourse has a Delta Sky Club, the first airline lounge at Indianapolis International Airport since USAir closed its hub. The lounge opened on November 15, 2010.
Ground transportation
Eight rental car operations and the Ground Transportation Center 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
serves Orlando with 38,000 additional passengers a year, not included in this total.| Rank | City | Cargo | 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 | FedEx Express |
Airline market share
Annual traffic
Accidents and incidents
- On September 9, 1969, Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 on a Boston – Baltimore – Cincinnati – Indianapolis – St. Louis route, collided in midair with a Piper Cherokee during its descent over Fairland, Indiana 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 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.