Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

If you look at this image you can see what could pose a problem to future expansion.

http://www.newindairport.com/galleries/renderings/EXT2.jpg

At some point the airport will be expanded to 60 gates. Right now the plan is for 40 gates. But in order to complete the extension of the concourse you have to eliminate the use of 3 gates at the end of each concourse. If they do only 1 concourse at a time it will cut them down to 37 gates which is still a pretty big hit. If both are done at the same time the hit will be 6 gates taking the number down to 34 which is today's level. Also at the other end of the concourse a gate will have to be taken out of service to allow for the extension of that end.

One option I see is to start the expansion and the side closest to the main terminal. That looks to involve closing down only 1 gate per side. Once that has been completed you will pick up approximately 3 gates per side. It might be 4 gates. Its hard to tell. In any case that should replace the 3 at the end that have to be closed to allow the concourse to be extended. It also looks like the side closest to the main terminal can be extended with very little work. It looks to involve almost no changes to the tarmac.

AirTran Reporter

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 341
Location: Indianapolis

Or they could just use "remote" gates and just shuttle the passengers. I am sure there would be room to park a couple of planes away from the terminal but not that far away.