New features at U.S. airports

ByABC News
November 10, 2008, 12:01 AM

— -- of Indianapolis International will formally open on Tuesday after three years of construction.

The new main terminal

The $1.1 billion facility named Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal will be able to handle up to 12 million passengers a year. The airport says the 1.2 million-square-foot terminal, with two 20-gate concourses, is the largest LEED-certified building (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in the Midwest. It will also feature 50 retailers and restaurants, plus free Wi-Fi.

Some flights will still arrive at the old terminal on Tuesday, and airport employees will be stationed at both terminals to direct passengers. All flights will operate from the new terminal starting Wednesday. Ground transportation will be available until Nov. 26 for passengers who parked at the old terminal.

Phoenix Sky Harbor has installed 80 recycling receptacles past security in all three of its terminals.

Citing lack of demand, airport officials in Los Angeles will drop the sole commercial flight at LA/Palmdale Regional Airport on Dec. 7 and abandon efforts to develop it as a commercial airport. LA/Palmdale Regional is located about 60 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX and other regional airports, launched the United flight from Palmdale to San Francisco last year to gauge its viability as an airport that would help relieve traffic at LAX.

Route news

Delta will launch

service between Paris Charles de Gaulle and both Pittsburgh and Raleigh/Durham, N.C. Delta's Raleigh/Durham-Paris service will start June 2, while its Pittsburgh-Paris service is scheduled for June 3. Delta will fly five times a week on both routes, using Boeing 757s.

Delta will begin a weekly, non-stop Nashville-Cancun, Mexico, route starting Dec. 27.

Southwest Airlines will restore daily non-stop service between Kansas City and Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 2.

Facts and figures