It must have been a hot time out in Hoosier Land the other day. They opened the new airport terminal in Indianapolis, and it's really a new airport, even though they're using the same runways. The thing is, they moved the terminal so it's sort in a logical place rather than being way off to the side, like the old one, so now airliners don't have to take a trip through several counties to get to and from the city's actual airport. We were supposed to talk with John Kish, who runs the airport and the indeed the city's airport authority, but every time we connected, he had to go run to another media demand. You know how those reporters are. We finally got to John, who explained, "it really is a new airport..."
We hope so, because the one or two times we were through there, it was like being back in junior high school, with low roofs, little light, and the smell of that green stuff that janitors use. But., Kish says, "we've got twice as much concession space, a new bag-handling system, and a new look,"
he said. "And we're ready to go. When we agreed with the airlines that we'd delay it by some 18 months, we took advantage of the time to build the access roads and get the airport all hooked up to the local road
system in time for the first day." The local paper, the Star, did some live blogging and continuous coverage. Things may be down nationally, but Delta send a pretty high-ranking fellow, Bob Cortelyou, the airline's senior network planner, as a sign that it will not abandon a city that merger partner Northwest had developed into a focus city. And Kish concluded, "it's just a great opportunity for me to talk about the opportunities airlines have here."
Leave a comment