Indianapolis International Airport

Indianapolis International Airport
Runway layout at IND
IATA: IND ICAO: KIND FAA LID: IND WMO: 72438 IND Location of the Airport in Indianapolis
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Indianapolis Airport Authority
Serves	Indianapolis, Indiana
Location	Indianapolis, Indiana
Hub for	FedEx Express
Elevation AMSL	797 ft / 243 m
Coordinates	39°43′02″N 086°17′40″W
Website	www.IndianapolisAirport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 5L/23R 11,200 3,414 Concrete 5R/23L 10,000 3,048 Concrete 14/32 7,605 2,318 Asphalt
Statistics (2008, 2010)
Aircraft operations (2008) 197,202 Passengers (2010) 7,526,414 Air Cargo (metric tonnes) (2008) 1,039,993 Area (acres) (2008) 7,700
Source: Federal Aviation Administration

Indianapolis International Airport (IATA: IND, ICAO: KIND, FAA LID: IND) is a public airport seven miles (11 km) southwest of downtown Indianapolis, in Marion County, Indiana, United States. It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority. The airport is the largest in Indiana, occupying about 7,700 acres (3,116 ha) in Wayne and Decatur Townships of Marion County, all within the city of Indianapolis. It is near interstate highways I-65, I-69, I-70, and I-74, all of which connect to the city's I-465 beltway. The passenger terminal was the first designed and built in the United States since the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

FedEx Express opened their Indianapolis hub in 1988. Three expansions since opening have made IND home to the second largest hub in the world for FedEx behind only the world hub at Memphis International Airport. IND is the eighth largest cargo center in the U.S., the 22nd busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic. More than 2.2 billion pounds (1.0 billion kg) of cargo were managed at IND in 2010.

History

Indianapolis Municipal Airport opened in 1931; in 1944 it was renamed Weir-Cook Municipal Airport, after Col. Harvey Weir-Cook of Wilkinson, Indiana, who was a US Army Air Forces pilot in World War I and World War II, where he was killed flying a P-39 over New Caledonia. He became a flying ace during WWI, with seven victories. Since 1962 it 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. The present name was bestowed by the IAA in 1976. In summer of 2008 the IAA's board approved a resolution retaining the current airport name but designating the new main passenger facility as the Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal. The new entrance road was given the name of 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-closed 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. The Indianapolis Airport Authority maintains some offices in the old structure, but most of the old terminal is expected to eventually be demolished.

The April 1957 OAG shows 82 weekday departures: 24 Eastern, 22 TWA, 15 Delta, 11 American, 9 Lake Central and one Ozark. Eastern had a nonstop to Atlanta and one to Birmingham and TWA had two to La Guardia; 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.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s USAir (now 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.

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. (Northwest became a subsidiary of 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.

In the same year (1994) United Airlines finished building Indianapolis Maintenance Center, at a cost of $USD 600 million. United later moved their maintenance operations to its sole maintenance hub located at San Francisco International Airport.

In 2009 Republic Airways announced they would retain their maintenance hub and HQ in Indianapolis even though they acquired the much larger Frontier Airlines in Denver.

Colonel H. Weir Cook Terminal

Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal (Front View during construction)

Civic Plaza

FAA control tower

Walkway from the terminal to the parking garage with motion-activated lights

A new 1,200,000-square-foot (110,000 m²) midfield passenger terminal opened between Indianapolis International Airport's two parallel runways, southwest of the previous terminal and the crosswind runway in 2008. A new FAA Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) building, 3rd 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 among CSO Architects, SchenkelShultz Architecture and ARCHonsortium) serving as architect of record. Aviation Capital Management (Indianapolis), a subsidiary of BSA LifeStructures, is 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.

The new terminal, named in honor of Col. Harvey Weir-Cook, has room for 44 domestic gates and 2 international gates (which can function as domestic 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 (which is why gates A1-A2 and B1-B2 do not yet exist).

For the first time at Indianapolis, international arrivals can be processed through customs in the main passenger terminal. 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 US Air closed their lounge after the closure of their hub. The opening date was November 15, 2010.

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.

The airport's master plan calls for a fourth (third parallel) runway to be built southeast of I-70 sometime in the future. Between 2002 and 2004 the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) rebuilt a portion of this Interstate highway running through the south end of the airport's property. The realigned freeway allows a future taxiway bridge to the proposed fourth runway to cross overhead, and has a new traffic interchange for the midfield terminal complex. This I-70 exit (#68) is now the airport's main entrance, replacing the entrance at Sam Jones (née Airport) Expressway and High School Road. Provision has been made for future Light Rail Transit (LRT) access to the Weir Cook terminal complex.

Airport management

The Indianapolis International Airport is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA) which was created in 1962. The IAA also operates five other airports in the area, including the Downtown Heliport, Eagle Creek Airpark, Hendricks County Airport–Gordon Graham Field, Metropolitan Airport, and Indianapolis Regional Airport. The main members of the IAA board are Michael B. Stayton who is the President, Lacy M. Johnson the vice president, and Alfred R. Bennett the Secretary. Robert Duncan is the Executive Director of Indianapolis International.

Incidents and accidents

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 the 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.

On October 31, 1994, American Eagle Flight 4184, which was flying from Indianapolis to Chicago, Illinois's O'Hare International Airport, crashed into a soybean field near the northwestern Indiana town of Roselawn, killing all 68 on board.

Other cities served

Indianapolis International Airport serves many nearby small and mid-sized cities, including the locations of Indiana's largest universities. Cities for which Indianapolis International Airport is the nearest major commercial airport include:

• Anderson, Indiana – 57 miles (92 km)
• Bloomington, Indiana (Home of Indiana University's main campus) – 49 miles (79 km)
• Columbus, Indiana – 52 miles (84 km)
• Kokomo, Indiana – 66 miles (106 km)
• Muncie, Indiana (Home of Ball State University) – 82 miles (132 km)
• Lafayette and West Lafayette, Indiana (Home of Purdue University's main campus) – 66 miles (106 km)
• Terre Haute, Indiana (Home of Indiana State University) – 68 miles (109 km)
• The airport also serves travelers in the neighboring states of Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations	Concourse
Air Canada Express	Toronto-Pearson	A
AirTran Airways operated by Southwest Airlines	Atlanta (ends December 28, 2014), Orlando (ends December 28, 2014), Tampa (ends December 28, 2014)	B
American Airlines	Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles	B
American Eagle	Chicago-O'Hare, Miami, New York-JFK	B
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City Seasonal: Cancun, Montego Bay	A
Delta Connection	Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Raleigh/Durham Seasonal: Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa	A
Frontier Airlines	Denver, Trenton/Princeton Seasonal: Cancún	B
Southwest Airlines	Atlanta (begins December 29, 2014), Baltimore, Denver, Fort Lauderdale (ends August 9, 2014), Fort Myers, Houston-Hobby, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Tampa, Washington-National (begins November 2, 2014) Seasonal: Fort Lauderdale (begins November 3, 2014)	B
United Airlines	Houston-Intercontinental, San Francisco	A
United Express	Chicago-O'Hare, Denver, Houston-Intercontinental, Newark, Washington-Dulles	A
US Airways	Charlotte, Philadelphia, Phoenix	B
US Airways Express	Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington-National	B

Top destinations

Busiest domestic routes from IND (October 2012 – September 2013)

Rank	City	Passengers	Carriers
1	Atlanta, GA	475,000	AirTran, Delta
2	Chicago, IL (ORD)	281,000	American, United
3	Denver, CO	258,000	Frontier, Southwest, United
4	Charlotte, NC	209,000	US Airways
5	Dallas, TX	201,000	American
6	Phoenix, AZ	177,000	Southwest, US Airways
7	Detroit, MI	152,000	Delta
8	Orlando, FL	146,000	AirTran, Southwest, Delta
9	Minneapolis, MN	145,000	Delta
10	Las Vegas, NV	121,000	Southwest

Cargo airlines

Airlines	Destinations
Cargolux	Chicago-O'Hare, Los Angeles, Luxembourg
FedEx Express	Aguadilla, Allentown, Anchorage, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago-O'Hare, Cleveland, Cedar Rapids, Columbia (SC), Columbus (OH), Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Greensboro, Greenville (SC), Harrisburg, Hartford, Houston-Intercontinental, Kansas City, Knoxville, Los Angeles, London-Stansted, Manchester (NH), Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Montreal-Mirabel, Nashville, New York-JFK, Newark, Newburgh, Norfolk, Oakland, Omaha, Ontario (CA), Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Portland (OR), Raleigh/Durham, Richmond, San Diego, San Jose (CA), Seattle/Tacoma, St. Louis, Toronto-Pearson, Washington-Dulles
FedEx Feeder operated by CSA Air	Atlanta, Louisville, Madison, Pittsburgh
FedEx Feeder operated by Mountain Air Cargo	Atlanta, Cedar Rapids, Columbus (OH), Madison, Parkersburg, Peoria, Pittsburgh, South Bend

Based aircraft

The Airport has 61 based aircraft. Of these 61, eleven of them are single engine aircraft, 18 of them are multi engine aircraft, and 32 are jets. The airport also has three helicopters and one military aircraft based on site. These numbers have been decreasing significantly since 2005. In 2005, the Airport had roughly 81 based aircraft and because of encouragement by other more "general aviation friendly" airports in the area, aircraft have been moving out of Indianapolis International.

Public transportation

GO Express Travel operates the Green Line Downtown/Airport Express daily from 8am to 11pm with shuttle service picking up passengers every 30 minutes. The express service costs $10 per passenger one-way. The boarding/debarking point for this service at the airport is located at the northwest end of the Ground Transportation Center, which is found on level 1 of the parking garage. The terminal was built with a Light Rail System in mind that in the future could serve this airport.

IndyGo's Route 8 also connects the airport with downtown Indianapolis. Unlike the Green Line Express, Route 8 bus is a slower and cheaper bus route that makes frequent stops along Washington Street. The fare for Route 8 is currently $1.75 for single ride, same as other IndyGo buses.

Lafayette Limo, Bloomington Shuttle Service and Star of America, operate regular (every two hours) shuttle service between Indianapolis International Airport and several cities in central Indiana, namely Bloomington, Muncie, Anderson, and Lafayette.

During the annual running of the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 auto races, the Indianapolis Airport serves as one of several staging points around the Indianapolis area for shuttle buses that transport race fans to and from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Accolades

• 2012 – Best Airport in North America of the Airport Service Quality Awards by Airports Council International
• 2011 – 2nd Best Airport in North America of the Airport Service Quality Awards by Airports Council International
• 2010 – Highest Overall Satisfaction Index Score among small airports (< 10,000,000 passengers per year) by J.D. Power and Associates

External links

• Indianapolis International Airport (official site)
• INZone Foreign Trade Zone
• IndyGo Green Line Service
• Colonel H. Weir Cook Terminal official
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective April 18, 2024

• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KIND
  • ASN accident history for IND
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KIND
  • FAA current IND delay information