Indianapolis Airport maps cargo future
The Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA) board on Friday approved a 30-year land use and development plan for its airport system with a heavy focus on air cargo activity.
The approval comes nearly one year after IAA entered into a contract with aviation planning consultants, Landrum & Brown. The plan developed by Landrum & Brown (L&B) includes IAA's property in and near the international airport as well as its five general aviation facilities in the greater Indianapolis area.
The plan identifies seven development zones at Indianapolis International, with 50 distinct development sites. By 2040, when the development is expected to be complete, revenue projections range from $30 to $63 million annually.
'Right now, one of our top priorities is Zone 2 and development of air cargo facilities such as a multi-tenant, climate-controlled building where planes would taxi inside to offload time- and temperature-sensitive products. Refrigerated trucks could be loaded from a dock area and then hit the interstate for distribution,' said John D. Clark, IAA's executive director and chief executive officer, in a statement.
By 2040, a projected 1.7 million metric tons of cargo will be handled at the airport, up from about 900,000 metric tons in 2009. The bulk of this growth will be led by FedEx for an annual growth rate of 1.7 to 2.7 percent.