Indy airport sees more passengers, more flights

Airport travel has dramatically increased over the last year.

More than 7.1 million passengers traveled through the Indianapolis International Airport in 2021, an increase in overall passenger traffic by 75 percent compared to 2020.

Mario Rodriguez, executive director of the Indianapolis Airport Authority, said the next few months promise to bring even more passengers to the airport.

“We are basically down in seat capacity, about 9 percent pre-pandemic, but we expect the numbers to be fantastic going into spring break, especially since spring break is mostly a leisure travel sort of time,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriquez said the pandemic has transformed the make-up of air travel.

“It has been a very, very strong transformative period in our industry, probably the most transformative period in the last three or four decades.” Rodriquez said.

The fourth quarter of 2021 saw the most passenger traffic, with that increase attributed to fall break travel in October and holiday travel in November and December. Most of the increase in passenger traffic was due to pent-up demand from leisure travelers.

Last year also brought more than 22 new nonstop flights launched out offrom the Indy airport to 10 new destinations, along with two new airlines – Sun Country and Contour.

Contact WFYI Morning Edition newscaster and reporter Taylor Bennett at tbennett@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @TaylorB2213.