Indianapolis International Airport - History

History

Before it got its International designation in 1975, Indianapolis's primary commercial air passenger and cargo facility was called 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 while flying a P-39 over New Caledonia. He became a flying ace during WWI, with seven victories. The airport opened in 1931 and its name was changed to Weir-Cook in 1944. Since 1962 it has been owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA), an eight-member governing board with members appointed by the Mayor of Indianapolis and certain other officials from Marion, Hendricks, and Hamilton counties in central Indiana. The present name was bestowed by the IAA in 1976. In the 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. In the same resolution, the new main airport entrance road was also given the name of Col. H. Weir Cook Memorial Drive.

From 1957 to 2008 the main passenger terminal was located on the eastern end of the airfield off High School Road. This now-closed facility was renovated and expanded many times during its lifespan, most notably in 1968 (Concourses A & B), 1972 (Concourse D), and 1987 (Concourse C and the attached Parking Garage). This entire complex, along with the separate International Arrivals Terminal (opened in 1976) located on the north side of the airfield (off Pierson Drive), became obsolete once the new Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal opened on November 12, 2008. The Indianapolis Airport Authority maintains some office facilities in a portion of the old structure, but the majority of that former terminal building is expected to eventually be demolished.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, USAir (now US Airways) maintained a secondary hub in Indianapolis, with non-stop jet service to the west coast, east coast, and Florida, as well as turbo-prop service to cities throughout the Midwest. With a peak of 146 daily departures during this era, USAir was the dominant carrier, accounting for 49% of all seats. USAir discontinued the hub in the late 1990s.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Indianapolis International Airport became 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 drastically cut, and service in Indianapolis was totally eliminated in 2006.

ATA's demise at IND gave Northwest Airlines an opportunity to greatly expand its operations at the airport. This service expansion allowed Indianapolis to become a focus city for that air carrier, which itself became a wholly owned but separately operated 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 later extended three additional years but subsequently was cut a year short at the request of the BAA. Private management ended on December 31, 2007 and control was transitioned back to IAA management.

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 have acquired the much larger Frontier Airlines, located in Denver.