Overview

The scope of the project is to build a new terminal and establish scheduled commercial airline service at Purdue airport (LAF) to stimulate economic development and population growth. Lafayette-West Lafayette is the second largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the U.S. without direct access to an airport with commercial service. The READI funds will be used for the terminal ($7M)). The cost for the entire project is $10M, of which $7M is requested from READI and $3M iss committed as matching from Eli Lily Grant, through the Lilly College and Community Collaboration grant. The goal of the READI funding used for the LAF Airport project is to finalize the infrastructure that supports commercial air service. This approach allows the region to demonstrate the demand and viability of commercial air service and creates a path to scale commercial air service operations as needed. The READI funding and Lilly matching grant will be used to create temporary space on the existing apron west of the terminal as a new parking lot and safety improvements are necessary for the enhanced activation of this location.