Flights from Purdue to Florida? $25.3M terminal plan aims for return of commercial airlines

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(Photo: Dave Bangert)

Last seen at the Purdue Airport, commercial passenger airline service was petering out with a Valentine’s Day 2004 flight by AmericanConnection to St. Louis’s Lambert Field in the morning and a return to the terminal in West Lafayette that afternoon, ending the firm’s 14-month run.

AmericanConnection started offering twice-daily service out of the Purdue Airport in December 2002, the 12th company since 1965 to give it a go out of a field touted as the second-busiest airport in Indiana, according to accounts at the time by late, great J&C reporter Max Showalter. The community, working to prop up commercial flights through much of the ‘80s and ‘90s, had put $100,000 into incentives to get travelers to use the new service. But strong initial sales slipped by 68% between the first December in West Lafayette and the second. AmericanConnection pulled the plug.

No one else has tried since.

Purdue officials are ready to test that market again.