Corporate hangar, taxiway, road coming to airport

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The Indianapolis Airport Authority, which oversees the airport at Mt. Comfort, says economic growth also brings more aviation traffic to the area. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

MT. COMFORT — Indianapolis Regional Airport is taking off this spring with a $2.2 million project to add a new corporate hangar, taxiway and road.

Eric Anderson, director of properties for the Indianapolis Airport Authority, said the developments are coming to the eastern part of the airport in Mt. Comfort. Indy Jet serves as the airport’s fixed base operator.

The new road will extend west from Airport Boulevard to the new hangar and taxiway area, Anderson said. He added construction will start this spring with substantial completion expected by August.

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Anderson said while the new hangar’s exact dimensions have yet to be determined, it will be able to hold multiple corporate-type aircraft. He added it will be bigger than the airport’s existing corporate hangar.

The airport also already offers multiple T-hangars for smaller aircraft.

It could be the start of more to come. Anderson said six to eight corporate hangars could fit in the future taxi lane area.

The Indianapolis area continues to grow, Anderson said, and so, too, must the regional airport.

“As the metropolitan area grows, then the airport authority has the opportunity for other growth,” he said.

Hancock County and the Mt. Comfort Corridor is part of that growth, he continued.

“We fully support the county and the towns and cities that are associated with this,” Anderson said. “We think the airport’s a vital piece to that and we think that this project… helps the overriding goal of master-developing that corridor.”

The growth the area is experiencing represents a good economy, Anderson added.

“You find that the corporate aircraft are a facet of that, and so our job is to sort of stay ahead of the demand,” he said. “Our job is to provide the supply side of this equation.”

Randy Sorrell, executive director of the Hancock Economic Development Council, agreed.

“With everything that’s happening out there now, it seems like certain synergies are starting to be realized as things are occurring because they’re close to the airport and the airport is growing because things are happening around them,” he said.