Purdue dedicates $12.7M Earhart Terminal, says more flights coming

After community effort to expand Purdue Airport and bring in commercial passenger service, President Mung Chiang calls it ‘Terminal P’ for Chicago’s O’Hare, promises more to come

• Thanks to sponsor Stuart & Branigin for continued support of the Based in Lafayette reporting project.

---

PURDUE DEDICATES $12.7M EARHART TERMINAL, SAYS MORE FLIGHTS COMING

Purdue dedicated its new, $12.7 million Amelia Earhart Terminal at the university’s airport Friday – days after it welcomed the arrival of United Airline-affiliated SkyWest – with assurances that the 11 weekly flights to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport were just the start for commercial passenger service out of West Lafayette.

“Chicago is the first stop, not the only one going forward,” Purdue President Mung Chiang told university trustees, a few hours ahead formal dedication ceremonies on a steamy Friday afternoon.

“This is a reflection of the tremendous economic growth at Purdue and around Purdue with all our partners,” Chiang said. “And this will further accelerate, in many future years and decades, the economic vitality and prosperity of this community.”

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

Where those flights might go and what carriers might be in play was still in discussion, Jessica Robertson, associate vice president for auxiliary services at Purdue, said Friday.

“But we want to continue to expand,” Robertson said. “And we're going to continue having those conversations with other carriers.”

For now, Chiang was calling the nearly 10,000-square-foot facility, which officially opened Tuesday, essentially “Terminal P” for Chicago’s O’Hare – “with P for Purdue.”

“I have one thing to say,” Chiang said, before cutting a ribbon cutting and an arrival of a SkyWest flight treated to a water salute from two Purdue University Fire Department tankers. “Buy your tickets.”

The new terminal, just west of the existing terminal, was part of a plan to accommodate larger, daily commercial flights. Purdue trustees agreed in 2023 to name it for Amelia Earhart, the famed aviator who worked for Purdue from 1935 to 1937.

The terminal includes 100 dedicated parking spaces with rates that have a maximum $5 a day, ticketing, TSA passenger and baggage screening, baggage claim and waiting area.

Purdue’s push for the return of commercial flights came in coordination with requests from Greater Lafayette. In late 2022, Greater Lafayette leaders agreed to put $7 million toward airport improvements, as part of a $30 million regional plan to spend money the state offered a six-county region via Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) grants.

West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter said that growing up in the area, the Purdue Airport terminal was a place she and others would greet and pick up friends in the military flying home for the holidays.

“At the time, my very young eyes thought that terminal looked very old – the age of aviation itself,” Easter said. “Twenty years later, with a little perspective and eyes that are not quite as young, I see how long that terminal carried us to where we are today, and I have a profound appreciation for what air service means to the city of West Lafayette, the city of Lafayette and our entire region. Over the past two decades, our community worked diligently with the university to establish a long-term, viable partnership to bring air service back to LAF.”

Purdue lured Southern Airways Express to revive commercial passenger service in May 2024 – the first since American Connection took its last flight out of Purdue in 2004. AmericanConnection had been the 12th company since 1965 to offer flights at Purdue. The airline opened with a schedule of 24 round-trips weekly between Purdue and O’Hare, with four of the 65-minute flights on weekdays and two on Saturdays and Sundays. Southern used a turboprop aircraft with room for nine passenger seats, painted with black-and-gold trim and Purdue’s “Motion P” on the tail.

Since the reintroduction of commercial passenger service on May 15, 2024, Southern had 10,525 passengers through its last flight into Purdue earlier this week, according to university figures.

Southern took its last flight out of Purdue on Monday, a day before SkyWest started service. The company has not commented on why it pulled out of Purdue Airport, while university officials simply thanked Southern for being a willing partner in relaunching commercial air service at Purdue Airport.

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

SkyWest has scheduled 11 weekly round-trip flights out of the Purdue Airport on CRJ200 twin-engine jets with a capacity of 50 passengers per flight. Flights are expected to cost $100 each way, according to the university.

Kevin Peters, director of network and fleet strategy for United Airlines, touted the service as putting LAF into a network that offered “a whole new level of access that's right in your backyard,” including connections to 202 cities and 27 countries.

In April, Purdue trustees agreed to put up $5 million over the next two years to back the new venture with SkyWest.

Chiang told trustees Friday morning that the $12.7 million terminal is “not the most fancy terminal you have ever seen.”

“Because that would have cost $37 million to our neighbors,” Chiang said. “Well, does this provide the same function, I asked. They said, Yes, exact same function. Well, why don't we save $25 million for ourselves and our neighbors? But this is a facility that will allow you to have a larger commercial passenger aircraft, is fully equipped with TSA, and will allow us to not only go to O'Hare as a starting point, the first small step, but to other farther distances.”

• For booking information, check in here.

Today’s the day to subscribe to the Based in Lafayette reporting project. Free and full-access subscriptions are available here.

A PURDUE TRUSTEES ROUND-UP

Before the airport terminal ceremonies Friday afternoon, Purdue trustees met on campus. Here are a few takeaways from that meeting.

STEM teacher certificate program starting: Purdue will add a certificate program that would allow students to be certified as STEM teachers in Indiana high schools, following legislation passed this spring by the Indiana General Assembly. Senate Bill 255, carried by state Sen. Spencer Deery, a West Lafayette Republican, called for ways for science, technology, engineering and math majors to get teaching licenses to help fill vacancies in K-12 schools. The certificate program will include a nine-credit program in the foundations of STEM teaching, job shadowing in the teaching field and a passing score on a standardized test. Provost Patrick Wolfe said the program would be taught through the College of Science, designed to not add time to a degree path. Wolfe said the program would be open to roughly 32,000 of Purdue’s student body. He said it wasn’t clear how many students would be open to the concept, as trustees said they would continue to advocate for state incentives for STEM students to encourage them to teach, even if it’s for the first few years of their careers. Senate Bill 249, also carried by Deery, would allow school districts to offer supplemental pay for STEM teachers.

“There is the salary differential,” Wolfe said. “Graduates are looking at great jobs in industry. … This companion piece of legislation, the one-two punch, is to try to help make sure that if you go into the classroom as a STEM teacher, you're going to be compensated accordingly.”

The certificate program will be offered starting with the fall 2025 semester.

Elliott Hall of Music tile replacement means closing for a semester: Purdue will spend $2.5 million to replace original, 90-year-old acoustic tiles on the ceiling of the 6,000-seat Elliott Hall of Music. Work is expected to start after commencement ceremonies in June 2026 for Tippecanoe School Corp.’s Harrison and McCutcheon high schools and is scheduled to be done in January 2027. Jay Wasson, Purdue’s vice president for physical facilities, said the project timeline was as compressed as possible but will include 60-foot scaffolding that will require moving programming – including Purdue Convocations, testing and summer and fall commencement ceremonies – out of Elliott Hall of Music for next summer and the fall 2026 semester.

Purdue Indianapolis student center: Purdue trustees agreed to pay $4.5 million to Purdue Research Foundation to take over a two-story, 25,000-square-foot space at 518-520 Indiana Ave. in Indianapolis the campuses first student success center. PRF had purchased the property in December 2024. The remodeled facility is expected to be open in time for the fall 2025 semester, with study spaces, libraries, a testing center, writing lab and other features that will free space on Purdue’s 28-acre campus near downtown Indianapolis.

Trustees on trustees: After the General Assembly targeted Indiana University trustees by taking away alumni appointments and Gov. Mike Braun wasted little time to use that new power to replace board members in Bloomington, the governor this week reappointed three Purdue trustees. Malcolm DeKryger, Sonny Beck and Shawn Taylor have fresh three-year terms.

Gary Lehman, Purdue trustees chairman, made a note to the reappointments at the head of Friday’s meeting.

“Realizing this is a strange time in higher ed and trustees are being challenged a lot of times, appropriately so, for their leadership, that was a great vote of confidence for these three and for the board, at least in the eyes of the governor, that the university is doing the right thing,” Lehman said. “So that's great.”

Gov. Mike Braun (Photo: Dave Bangert)

During a stop at Purdue earlier this summer, Braun said he considered conditions different for the two university systems.

“I think what you saw at IU was, as one of our flagships here, issues that I think many would say need maybe different group of governance,” Braun said. “And that’s one of the options.”

Braun at the time pointed to Mitch Daniels-era changes at Purdue – including an ongoing tuition freeze and a push for three-year degrees, among them – as business-style, return-on-investment practices he’d like to see other state campuses take on.

---

THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …

WLFI-TV18 AMONG 10 ALLEN MEDIA STATIONS SOLD: West Lafayette’s WLFI was among 10 TV stations picked up by Atlanta-based Gray Media in a deal with $171 million, Deadline reported Friday. The Allen Media Group, headed by billionaire businessman and comedian Byron Allen, had the local CBS affiliate on the market for the past few months. According to a press release from Gray Media, the company’s “portfolio includes 78 markets with the top-rated television station and 99 markets with the first or second highest rated during 2024 as well as the largest Telemundo affiliate group with 44 markets.” Gray Media reported it expected to close the deal in the fourth quarter of 2025. For more: “Byron Allen’s AMG Selling 10 TV Stations To Gray Media.”

CAUCUS SET TO FILL WEST LAFAYETTE CITY COUNCIL VACANCY: The Tippecanoe County Democratic Party will hold a caucus to replace Michelle Dennis on the West Lafayette City Council at 7 p.m. Aug. 27 at the West Lafayette Public Library, party chair Ken Jones said. The deadline for nominations is 7 p.m. Aug. 24. Dennis, a Democrat serving a first term in District 2, announced this week that she is stepping down as she starts attending IU McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis, where classes will conflict with city council meeting nights. The District 2 seat, which covers neighborhoods east of Purdue’s campus, will be the second one this year to be filled by a Democratic Party caucus. Earlier this year, Nick Schenkel, former West Lafayette Public Library director, was selected to represent District 1, replacing Laila Veidemanis after she graduated from Purdue in May and moved from the city. Here’s more on the process and how to apply for the position.

SHOOTING NEAR TATE & LYLE: J&C reporter Jillian Ellison had details of the arrest of Charles Stutz, 56, in connection with a late-Thursday night shooting just off the property of the Tate & Lyle plant at 2245 Sagamore Parkway North in Lafayette. Here’s more: “Police arrest Lafayette man in overnight shooting at Tate & Lyle; 26-year-old man hurt.”

Thanks, again, to sponsor Stuart & Branigin for continued support of the Based in Lafayette reporting project.

Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.