Indianapolis International Prepares for Superbowl Rush

The Indianapolis International Airport (KIND) is preparing for the mega rush of aircraft that will be flying in for the years biggest football game. The airport will see increased traffic starting the Monday before the game and lasting all the way until a couple days after a National Champion is crowned. KIND is definitely a large enough airport to handle the increased traffic, but there is only one problem: the weather in the Midwest in February in unpredictable to say the least. Snow, ice, and extreme cold temperatures could cause major problems for the airport. Indy has plenty of winter weather equipment ready to go. Plenty of de-icing equipment is being brought in from airports around the nation to make sure everything runs smoothly. The airport expects to receive up to 600 additional private aircraft. Most of those will be Business Jets belonging to sports fans, corporate executives, and team personnel. Commercial Airlines are also flying increased aircraft to Indianapolis during this time

In 2001, a major private jet traffic jam occurred at Florida’s Tampa International Airport (KTPA) when about 400 jets all tried to leave at the same time after the Superbowl. Some planes weren’t able to get out of the area until about 3:00 AM, many hours after the game had ended. Tampa even had to close a major runway because they had no place to park all the stuck aircraft. Indianapolis is doing everything it can to avoid a situation like this at all costs.