More than 8.5 million passengers traveled through the Indianapolis International Airport (IND) in 2016, setting a new record for the terminal that opened in 2008, which serves as the primary location for air travel in Indiana.
The Indy airport served half a million more passengers in 2016 than in 2015, and fell short just 1 percent of setting an all-time record for Indy airport operations, previously set in 2005.
“We knew we were very likely looking at history-making news in the fall, when we saw an accumulation of record-breaking months in April, June, September and October,” said Mario Rodriguez, executive director of the Indianapolis Airport Authority. “This has become a trend for IND. In the last three years, we’ve maintained or grown passenger traffic year over year in 33 of 36 months.”
Passenger momentum started to pick up late last fall. Prior to November 2015, Indy airport had not broken a monthly passenger record since July 2008.
Carriers like Southwest, American, Delta and United carried the bulk of the passenger traffic, with Southwest taking the top spot with 33 percent of passenger travel.
“Our airline partners collectively increased seat capacity by nine percent in 2016, which means they made a strategic decision to invest in making more seats available for passengers to fly,” said Rodriguez. “Southwest alone carried enough passengers to equate to nearly half of the residential population of Indiana.”
The increase in airlines offering more nonstop destinations contributed to the record year, with new flights launched to Chicago, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Punta Cana, and Savannah in 2016. In addition, Alaska Airlines announced in 2016 that it will begin service to Seattle in May 2017, which will broaden access for the Indiana tech sector and could help increase convention participation in Indianapolis.
Last year, the IAA operations contributed more than $5.4 billion dollars to the Marion County economy, and supported more than 22,000 jobs.
