WEST LAFAYETTE — Commercial flights between West Lafayette and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport will resume in 2024, Purdue University announced Friday.
The Board of Trustees approved an agreement between Purdue, Surf Air Mobility and Southern Airways Express that would restart commercial air service dormant for two decades. The terminal connecting Greater Lafayette to Chicago is likely to be named after famed aviator Amelia Earhart when the board votes on the item in February.
Earhart, the first woman to fly nonstop and solo across the Atlantic Ocean, became a Purdue faculty member in 1935. She flew in and out of West Lafayette in the 1930s when the airport was the only university-owned airport in the nation, the university news release stated.
Purdue sought and received approval from the Earhart family to name the approximately 8,000-square-foot terminal — to be located west of the existing location — after the aviation pioneer, whose plane went missing July 2, 1937, during her unsuccessful flight around the world. Earhart has never been found.
“Purdue and the neighboring community are pleased to welcome Southern Airways Express to the Purdue University Airport,” Purdue President Mung Chiang said. “We could not do this without the outstanding support of Gov. Eric Holcomb, (Indiana Economic Development Corp.), the mayors of both Lafayette and West Lafayette, (Greater Lafayette Chamber), the (Federal Aviation Administration) and countless others.