Awards, Growth Continue at Indy Airport
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs Indianapolis International Airport continues to rack up awards and recognition as one of North America’s premier airports, it is growing, both inside and outside the eleven-year old terminal. The airport Monday was named the Best Airport in the United States by readers of Condé Nast Traveler for the sixth consecutive year. The designation comes just weeks after J.D. Power named the airport the best medium-sized airport in North America.
The airport also recently announced passenger traffic for the first six months of 2019 totaled 4.7 million, the highest for the first six months of an year in the airport’s history, putting it on pace to break last year’s record 9.4 million total. Meantime, construction activity at the terminal and neighboring airport property continues to be robust. “Right now, between FedEx, Infosys and our construction projects and different construction projects on the airfield, we have over $2 billion under construction, which is economic impact, construction IS an economic driver,” said Airport Authority Executive Director Mario Rodriguez.
In an interview for this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Rodriguez talked about economic impact and the quest for more nonstop flights.
In 2018, the airport reported more than 9.4 million passengers flew through the facility, breaking the previous passenger record of 8.77 million, which was established in 2017.
But passenger traffic is only part of the growth story at the airport.
Indianapolis is now a top ten cargo airport, fueled by the rise of e-commerce and continued expansion of FedEx, which operates the world’s second-largest FedEx Express hub in Indy. The hub employs 4,000 workers and has the capability of sorting nearly 100,000 packages per hour.
FedEx has announced plans to invest $1.5 billion to expand the operation over seven years.
Indian tech giant Infosys has begun construction on its U.S. Education Center, a training campus on a 70-acre site on property at the former Indianapolis airport terminal.
Infosys has committed to hiring 3,000 workers in Indianapolis by 2023.