INDIANAPOLIS — This year was one of the busiest for Indianapolis — and the airport certainly reflected that.
Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA) officials said the airport hit a "historical record" last week, with more than 10 million people traveling through the airport in 2024.
“We knew we were going to finish strong in 2024, and it’s only fitting we marked our 10-million-passenger milestone shortly after welcoming travelers for the Big Ten,” said IAA Executive Director Mario Rodriguez.
Officials said more than 5.2 million people traveled through the airport in the first half of the year for the NBA All-Star game in February, spring break travel, the Total Solar Eclipse, the Indy 500 and Memorial Day weekend.
In June and July, IAA officials said nearly 2 million people flew through IND, making these months the busiest months in the airport's history.
In August, more than 824,000 people traveling through the airport – making it the busiest August in the airport’s history.
People traveled through IND over the summer for summer travel, but also for the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials, National Eucharistic Congress, Brickyard 400, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Grand Boulé and Gen Con.
"October brought an anticipated heavy fall break travel season; however, at the beginning of the month, Hurricane Milton impacted flight schedules with what would have resulted in record-breaking passenger traffic," IAA officials said.
At the end of October, and into early November, thousands of people traveled through the airport for the last U.S. tour stop of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.
Then, IAA officials said Thanksgiving holiday travel pushed the numbers "even higher."
December is off to a "strong" start since college football fans flew in for the Big Ten championship game earlier this month, officials said.
“There’s a multitude of positive factors that have driven passenger growth across the year,” said Marsha Wurster, IAA senior director of commercial enterprise. “On top of seasonal travel peaks, IND has welcomed a resurgence of leisure and business travel since the pandemic and benefited from intentional efforts connecting the needs of our community, corporate and airline partners with demonstrated demand and strength of our local economy.”
