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2000 — 2026
A million passengers, nearly: The modern airport's milestones run in a steady line. In January 2007 a modernized 210-foot air traffic control tower opened on the south side at a cost of $9.7 million. Traffic set a record in 2000, lost it after the September 2001 attacks and the Indianapolis fare wars, then grew for ten consecutive years to a new record in 2019 — and then, after the pandemic, outran everything: 856,803 total passengers in 2024, an all-time record, and 983,042 in 2025, up 14.7 percent, with 494,014 enplanements, both figures stated by the authority as new annual records. The field behind the numbers covers 3,351 acres with three runways, the main 5/23 at 11,981 feet — long enough, as the airport notes, for the largest military airlifters, with arresting gear at both ends for tactical aircraft. The terminal that serves it was rebuilt under Project Gateway: the West Terminal expansion finished in May 2023, and the East Terminal expansion — some $77 million, gates 2 through 4 moved upstairs to jet bridges, an expanded security checkpoint, the Gateway Lounge by STAR Bank opened in May 2025 — was projected for substantial completion in July 2026, closing a five-year construction program of about $145 million in total, the most ambitious renovation in the airport's history. A parking expansion adding 551 long-term spaces broke ground in 2025. The Greater Fort Wayne Aviation Museum, the institution that keeps this section's whole story, sits inside the Lieutenant Paul Baer Terminal — digitized under Project Gateway, its curator Roger Myers co-author of the standard local history, Fort Wayne Aviation: Baer Field & Beyond.
Sources:
- Fort Wayne–Allen County Airport Authority, record announcements and Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, fiscal year 2025 — the 2024 and 2025 passenger records, the 494,014 enplanements, Project Gateway East's cost and July 2026 projected completion.
- Federal Aviation Administration airport record for FWA — the 3,351 acres, the three runways, 5/23 at 11,981 feet.
- Fort Wayne International Airport history record — the January 2007 control tower and its $9.7 million cost; the 2000 record and post-2001 slump; ten straight record years to 2019.
- Journal Gazette coverage of the Project Gateway West ribbon-cutting (May 2023) and the authority's expansion releases — the West Terminal figures and the finished terminal's 159,000 square feet.