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A U.S. Customs and Border Protection office is planned at Indianapolis Executive Airport in Zionsville, the town’s mayor said Wednesday.
Mayor John Stehr said at his State of the Town address that final negotiations are underway to place a customs office at the airport. Having a customs office would allow international flights to land at Indianapolis Executive Airport, which is located along State Road 32, about a mile east of U.S. 421.
Stehr held his State of the Town event inside one of the hangers at Indianapolis Executive Airport, which would be the fifth airport in Indiana to have a customs office if it receives approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The customs office would be inside a new hanger being built by Atlanta-based Beck’s Hybrids.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has facilities at Indianapolis International Airport, Fort Wayne International Airport, Gary Chicago International Airport and South Bend International Airport. An additional customs office is inside the Winfield K. Denton Federal Building in Evansville.
In his address, Stehr credited U.S. Sens. Jim Banks and Todd Young for their help in working to place a customs facility at the Zionsville airport. Both Banks and Young provided recorded remarks via video.
“We haven’t fully landed that customs office just yet, but tray tables are up, seats are in the upright, locked position, and we are very close,” Stehr said in his address. “And we will work with our partners here at the airport, as well as in Hamilton County, Westfield and Boone County to get that plane off the ground and get that customs office open.”
A $15.2 million project completed in 2023 extended the airport’s runway from 5,500 to 7,001 feet.
More than 40,000 flights operate in and out of Indianapolis Executive Airport annually, making the airport the fifth-busiest non-towered general aviation airport for business traffic in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s traffic flow management system counts.
The airport is the busiest non-commercial airport in the state that specifically caters to business travel or jet aircraft. General aviation represents private transport and recreational air traffic.
The two runways at Indianapolis Regional Airport measure 3,902 and 6,005 feet. The three runways at Indianapolis International Airport are 7,278, 10,000 and 11,200 feet in length.
Hamilton County purchased Indianapolis Executive Airport in 2002. The airport’s operator is Hamilton County Airport Authority, which oversees improvement, operation and maintenance at the airport.
In 2012, the town of Zionsville won a court appeal enabling it to enforce its zoning laws on the operator of the Indianapolis Executive Airport, which fell within the town’s borders after the town annexed Union Township in 2008.
Previously known as Terry Airport, Indianapolis Executive Airport has operated since 1958.
Earlier this year, the Hamilton County Airport Authority purchased the Sheridan Airport. To relieve pressure from Indianapolis Executive Airport, Hamilton County plans to shift smaller planes to Sheridan Airport in the coming years.
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