What's with the 747 passenger jets at Terminal A? (Indianapolis, Hope: maintenance, airport)

[urbanologist]

Since when does Indy get 747 passenger jet service? Lufthansa Anyone know what's going on? I am seeing them come here more often as I drive through the area frequently. These are not cargo. I saw another one just yesterday. They seem to be going to the international wing of Terminal A. I know Indy's airport have the run ways to handle them but I was just wondering. Could Indy be a connecting point or something for these big planes? More international flights?

[urbanologist]

I think I've answered my own question. It seems like the airport has already done the 747 tests. It would be interesting to know which airline is actually flying their 747 planes to the airport. The 747 I saw at one of the gates of Terminal A was passenger even though from time to time we also have the cargo jet versions fly in.

Here's an old article I found. > RTV6 - Boeing 747 Test Flight Arrives In Indianapolis - News Story

A 747 landing at the airport.

[MortonR]

747s have flown into IND since the 1980s, even before the runway and terminal expansions took place. While we didn't have any scheduled carriers using them on a regular basis, they did occasionally land here. IND is an alternate for surrounding airports, so it has to be able to accommodate airframes of this size, albeit for emergency requirements only. (IND was not certified for regular use by these aircraft at the time.)

As an aside, before the runway expansion and updates, when a 747 did land, it would blow out some of the lights in the runway lighting. A friend of mine was a maintenance person for IND at the time and they would have to go out and relamp all the lights that failed.

RM

[urbanologist]

Originally Posted by MortonR

747s have flown into IND since the 1980s, even before the runway and terminal expansions took place. While we didn't have any scheduled carriers using them on a regular basis, they did occasionally land here. IND is an alternate for surrounding airports, so it has to be able to accommodate airframes of this size, albeit for emergency requirements only. (IND was not certified for regular use by these aircraft at the time.)

As an aside, before the runway expansion and updates, when a 747 did land, it would blow out some of the lights in the runway lighting. A friend of mine was a maintenance person for IND at the time and they would have to go out and relamp all the lights that failed.

RM

I find it interesting that they've included an expanded international concourse in Terminal A. The old international passenger building was so much smaller.

The new terminal is amazing.

[urbanologist]

I wonder if they have permanently fixed all the runway lights to where they won't blow out anymore by the big planes.

[MortonR]

When the runway expansions were performed in the late 90s and early 2000s all of the infrastructure was updated to accommodate larger aircraft.

RM

[sheath]

The only 747 service I'm aware of is twice weekly cargo service on Cargolux. Those flights arrive from Luxemborg and I believe they carry medical supplies for Roche. Maybe what you saw were charter flights? If Lufthansa or any other international passenger carrier had scheduled service here, I'd think the airport would make some kind of announcement. You never now, though. Stranger things have happened.

[urbanologist]

I finally found a video to ID this carrier. It's Atlas Air. You can see the gate at 2:15 of the video where the 747 arrives to on occasion. Apparently, they do both passenger and cargo flights. In this case, it must have been a charter flight. I did read an old article once about Lufthansa looking into doing passenger service to IND. I haven't heard anything since then. It's a shame ATA didn't stick around for the new terminal. However, Indy has Republic Airways which is headquartered out of Indy. I would like to see the old Republic Airways make a come back again. Who knows what the future holds.

[Fedex333]

Lufthansa? Here a possibility: There are a lot of diverted flights from Chicago, and plane arriving in to KORD have an alternative airport to KIND (Indianapolis). We got Japan Iarljnes the other day. This happens a lot. You probably saw Lufthansa 747-800 or 400 from Frankfurt to Chicago, but due to weather conditions they had to divert to Indy!

Hope this helped!