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Indianapolis Executive Airport in Zionsville, which handles thousands of corporate jet aircraft each year, has completed a runway extension that gives it the longest general aviation runway in central Indiana.
The $15.2 million project extended the airport’s runway from 5,500 feet to 7,001 feet. Officials held a ribbon cutting and a ceremonial first takeoff and landing on Tuesday.
Sean White, executive vice president at Jet Access, the fixed-base operator at Indianapolis Executive Airport, said in written remarks that the airport serves businesses and industries that provide essential services, products and jobs through agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, technology, retail, financial services and real estate.
“The runway extension allows those businesses and industries a safer, more consistent and reliable access point in the many varying weather conditions we experience here in Indiana,” White said. “The expanded infrastructure will continue to make Indy Exec Airport a vital tool in the growth and economic development of the many communities it serves.”
More than 10,000 business flights operate in and out of Indianapolis Executive Airport annually, making the airport the fourth-busiest non-towered general aviation airport for business traffic in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s traffic flow management system counts.
The airport is the busiest non-commercial airport in the state that specifically caters to business travel or jet aircraft.
General aviation represents private transport and recreational air traffic.
The two runways at Indianapolis Regional Airport measure 3,902 and 6,005 feet. The three runways at Indianapolis International Airport are 7,278, 10,000 and 11,200 feet in length.
Hamilton County purchased Indianapolis Executive Airport in 2002. The airport’s operator is Hamilton County Airport Authority, which oversees improvement, operation and maintenance at the airport.
In 2012, the town of Zionsville won a court appeal enabling it to enforce its zoning laws on the operator of the Indianapolis Executive Airport, which fell within the town’s borders after the town annexed Union Township in 2008.
Previously known as Terry Airport, Indianapolis Executive Airport has operated since 1958.
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