Fort Wayne airport preparing for new Detroit service, Project Gateway completion
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On June 7, Fort Wayne International Airport will mark the return of a key nonstop route to Detroit via Delta Airlines. The move comes amid the $140 million Project Gateway, which has seen a complete renovation of the airport’s West Terminal, with work on the East Terminal ongoing.
Executive Director of Airports Scott Hinderman spoke with Inside INdiana Business on how the airport was able to regain the Detroit service and when they expect to complete the renovation effort.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How did the new Detroit service come to be?
Well, Delta served Fort Wayne to Detroit for years. From the pandemic, Delta as a whole removed a lot of capacity out of the Detroit hub, and we lost service in 2022. They had every intention to bring it back right away in 2023, which did not come. But here in late ’23, they started rebuilding Detroit with mainline service, and we’ve been requesting it. We’ve wanted it back; the community business community in northeast Indiana was asking for it. I think Delta wanted to serve it back. They knew it was a profitable route for them. They were just dealing with flight crew challenges, aircraft challenges, and were we the next big thing for them to bring it back.
Well, the business community in northeast Indiana really engaged, and they wrote letters to the route planners, decision makers with Delta, showed them what their individual company’s travel budget was and how they’re reasonably loyal to Delta. With that, Delta has made the decision, and June 7 will be the first flight from Fort Wayne to Detroit. So the route’s coming back. It’s not a new route development, but it had been gone for a while. So it is coming back, and we’re excited.
A similar situation happened in Evansville with the return of service to Chicago, and that city is also looking to regain service to Detroit. How important is it to have that route in place in Fort Wayne?
[It’s important to] have a community connected to the globe via air service to leave the region and do commerce and do business or, more importantly, for the globe to come to your region to do commerce. So while we had seven other hub destinations in an out of our region, Detroit’s a very large airport, a good connecting hub for both domestic and international traffic, having that as part of our portfolio here at FWA is super important to get people into northeast Indiana, as well as getting northeast Indiana to go do business and then come home with a reasonably short trip.
The renovations as part of Project Gateway are ongoing. Where does the work stand right now?
We’ve been doing this project from the planning set from 2017. We actually kicked it off on the construction side shortly after the pandemic hit, which was very good planning. The west side of our terminal building is complete. We are currently on the east side. We started a year ago, and we are going to be done with our entire terminal project most likely in August of 2025. The project is a complete expansion as well as a remodel. So there isn’t a part of our terminal building that’s not getting touched.
We’re making travel easy as possibly as it can to even those who have some mobility challenges. It’s important for us to make sure that our terminal building makes it easy for the airlines to serve northeast Indiana. We had eight gates before, but a lot of our gates were designed back in the early 90s, when we were having a very small regional jet or even some turboprop activity. Now that the aircraft that serves our market has gotten larger, we couldn’t use all of our gates at the same time. We didn’t have enough lineal feet between the gates. So now, when we’re done, we’ll be able to use all 10 of our gates at the same time.
What has the feedback been like since the completion of the west terminal renovations?
It’s very confirming. As you walk around that community, the people are just giddy. They’re actually giving us a lot of accolades for a job well done, which is, again, very confirming on the work effort that the team has put into our project. It’s an easy win, if you will. We’ve had a lot of the community been very positive of our project. So going forward and trying to get this thing complete by late summer next year is easy, because the community has come out and they are liking what they’re seeing. They’re liking what we’re doing.
We are actually adding additional gates and second-level boarding. That’s not there yet, but we’re working there. We are bringing the restaurant up to the second level, so the restaurant will be much closer to the gates, so people don’t have to have any anxiety, because I think nobody wants to miss their flight. It’s a quick walk for them to get to their gate and board. And so we’re accommodation and we are accommodating those requests. What we’ve done is if you’re not from Fort Wayne or northeast Indiana, but you’re coming here to do business for the first time, our project is putting a very strong foot forward as their first impression as they come off the airplane and look at our terminal building.
The airport recently marked its 10th consecutive year without any discrepancies reported in its annual FAA safety and certification inspection. What does it mean for the airport to hit that milestone?
It’s such kudos to the team. If you’re an employee here, everybody strives for excellence. That’s kind of our goal: do the very best for the community that we can. And I don’t want to downplay even if you get one year of zero discrepancy from the FAA, because they come in and they look at the airfield and look at your training documents. They’re pretty nitpicky and rightfully so. So to get a zero discrepancy for one year is something that every airport should celebrate, but to do it for 10 consecutive years, I’ve personally have not heard of that before. I don’t know of another airport who has accomplished that. And our team gets all the credit. Our employees have done it a phenomenal job of following regulation. So, as a person who has been working in the airport industry for a long time, to be able to hit this milestone, it feels wonderful, but the true accolades, that true celebration goes to the to the employees, the staff that make it that make it happen.
Aside from completing Project Gateway, what does the future hold for the airport?
We’re one of the very few airports in the state of Indiana that are joint use. We continue to work with the Air National Guard. They’re in transition right now; they’re moving from the A-10, and they’re moving to the F-16. Next year, they’ll have their full complement of aircraft in their squadron. So making sure that we are a viable airport and a strong joint use airport is one of our goals.
We’re kicking off a strategic development plan here shortly, and then we’ll have that complete and ready for execution coming January 1 next year. Its ultimate goal is what’s best, and how do we best serve northeast Indiana community as it relates to aviation? Whether that’s aviation or non-aeronautical development, how can we best serve northeast Indiana? Some of that work will be done in the next four months, and we’ll be ready to hit the deck running January. We’re trying to make sure that we’re ready as a facility to accommodate the growth of northeast Indiana as the region grows, because Fort Wayne has continued to grow. I’m not sure where all the people are moving from, but we continue to grow, and we want to make sure that we can accommodate the needs of the region.