Mary Milz/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis, March 9 - Business travelers John Dart and Dan O'Sullivan fly out of Indianapolis often. They love nonstop flights.
Dart says he travels "nationwide. If I can go east, west, north or south that's a big advantage for us, a lot of time savings."
As of June 9 they'll have more options yet with Northwest Airlines starting nonstop service to Austin, Seattle, Denver and St. Louis. The new flights will make Northwest Indy's largest carrier with 52 flights a day to 21 destinations and the carrier using all gates in the A concourse.
Fay Beauchine says, "We at Northwest believe in Indianapolis and want to be the preferred carrier of this community."
The news comes eight months after Northwest, then a minor player, announced plans to double its service in Indianapolis and as once dominant ATA scales back to a mere four flights a day.
While Northwest insists "There are no plans to make it a hub," the expansion makes Indy Northwest's fourth largest market.
Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson thinks, "It's hard to see today as anything other than an unqualified success for Indianapolis, leisure travelers and the business community."
Airport officials say that while the expansion helps fill the gap left by ATA, there are still several cities they're targeting for non-stop service, foremost San Francisco, but also San Diego, Salt Lake City and St. Petersburg.
As for the impact on fares, Patrick Dooley with the Indianapolis Airport Authority says, "With 19 carriers here, airfare will continue to be low."
With the new nonstop to Denver, likely cutting fares there, it's all good news to frequent flyers.
"Yea, we're going to Dallas now and have trips planned to those other destinations later this year," says O'Sullivan.
