Purdue airport holds its inaugural flight to O'Hare and the return of commercial flights

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It’s been almost two decades since Purdue University’s airport offered commercial airline services; however, that all changed on Tuesday when the airport took its inaugural flight to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport through a partnership with Southern Airways.

The flight left after Purdue University President Mung Chiang, local leaders and company investors spoke at the groundbreaking event for the new Amelia Earhart Terminal.

It was a moment that many in the community have been waiting years to see. So much so that former Purdue President and former Gov. Mitch Daniels emphasized this in his speech.

“I’m pretty sure if it wasn’t the first day I was on the job 12 years ago, it was not long after I was asked the first time, ‘When are we going to get commercial air service back to Lafayette and West Lafayette,'” Daniels said.

“My answer was always the same," Daniels said. "When we can generate enough passengers and sell enough tickets, they will come. That’s the way markets work.”

Luckily for many in the community, the discussion of returning airline services initially began back in 2017 but did not officially find its footing until the last couple of years after receiving funds from Indiana through the state’s READI funds and an interested airline company.

When it came to why Southern Airways decided to invest in the Greater Lafayette area, Southern Airways CEO Stan Little explained that its location was an ideal spot within its growing Chicago hub of service as well as meeting their criterion for ideal service.

“We fly small airplanes, so we’re not interested in flying New York to L.A. long distance, or even short distance between big cities,” Little said.

“We look for cities that have a growing population," Little said. "They have a demographic that travels, that is well-educated and has money to spend on air travel and that are underserved or unserved.

“When we looked at Lafayette and saw that at one point they had two airlines here, back in the '80s and '90s and even into the 2000s, and the way that the university has grown over the last few years, this was just the ideal market.”

Southern Airways will be offering four flights to Chicago and four flights back to West Lafayette a day. In total, the airline will be able to service 36 passengers each way daily. Since Southern Airways operates smaller aircrafts, the company’s aircraft can only carry nine passengers and two pilots per flight.

Little noted that Southern Airways began working out a deal with Purdue University about 11 months ago to make this dream for the community a reality.

Although Southern Airways is currently only offering flights to the Chicago O’Hare airport, Little emphasized that if the airline sees consistent usage of their service, Southern Airways will potentially offer other airport destinations and potentially more additional flights.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on X at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue airport holds its inaugural commercial flight to O'Hare