Gary/Chicago International Airport
Gary/Chicago International Airport
Gary/Chicago International Airport (IATA: GYY, ICAO: KGYY, FAA LID: GYY) is a joint civil-military public airport in Gary, in Lake County, Indiana, United States. It is three miles northwest of the city center of Gary, and 25 miles (40 km) southeast of the Chicago Loop. It is operated by the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority, which was created by an interstate compact between Gary, Chicago, and Indiana. Nearby highway connections include I-90, I-80, I-94, I-65 and the Chicago Skyway. Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 4,353 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 1,633 in 2009 and 2,143 in 2010. It is in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which called it a non-primary commercial service airport based on enplanements in 2008 (between 2,500 and 10,000 per year) but would be categorized as general aviation based on enplanements in 2010.
Location
41.617°N, 87.413°O · 180 m s. n. m. (591 ft)
General data
Runways · 2
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 4 Official publication
Tower
Ground
ATIS (automatic information)
Approach
Frequencies from the official publication: FAA NASR, AIRAC 01 OCT 2026, checked on Oct 16, 2026. They change with each amendment: not for navigation without checking the current AIP. See the official publication In MHz.
History
Gary/Chicago bills itself as the "third airport" for the Chicago metropolitan area, supplementing Chicago's major airports, O'Hare and Midway. Gary/Chicago Airport has been designed with an eye towards growth and the administration is courting airlines aggressively. Numerous businesses, including Boeing, Menards and White Lodging Services, base their corporate aircraft here. A National Guard installation has been built.
Federal funds were secured in January 2006 to move railroad tracks away from the northwest corner to allow extension of the main runway to 9,000 feet, as well as add gates to the existing passenger terminal building. The recent creation of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority is expected to draw more state and local dollars for infrastructure improvements and additions.
Expanding Gary/Chicago Airport is an alternative to constructing a new airport near Peotone, Illinois, 30 miles south of Chicago. One advantage of expanding the Gary airport is its proximity to downtown Chicago. This plan is backed by the mayors of Gary and Chicago, while the Illinois state government is in favor of construction at Peotone. Tax revenues from a new airport at Peotone would go to the Illinois state government, while those from an expanded Gary airport would go to a regional airport authority and thus to the cities of Chicago and Gary.
A long-standing proposal to turn the Gary/Chicago International Airport into Chicago's third major airport received a boost in early 2006 with the approval of $48 million in federal funding over the next ten years. Expansion plans include a new multi-level Intermodal Terminal combining three modes of transit – passenger rail, passenger vehicles and air travel. The rail system is designed to combine both commuter and high-speed lines.
High tension power lines along the west end of the airport are buried. A definitive agreement has been reached with the railroads that will allow relocation of elevated tracks currently blocking the west end of runway 30. Completion of these projects was required to make way for a lengthening of the main runway.
On the afternoon of March 22, 2013, the FAA threatened to close the airport's control tower, along with other airports in Illinois as a part of Federal Budget sequestration in 2013. However, Allegiant Air planned to keep flying to Gary, resuming in May. The closure did not happen as planned.
The construction of the northwest extension of runway 12/30 from 7,003 to 8,859 feet was finally completed and opened for service on June 25, 2015.
Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 16, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 16). Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY). Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/GYY
MLA
“Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 16 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/GYY. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/GYY.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/GYY (Accessed: 23 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_gyy,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/GYY},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/GYY}},
urldate = {2026-10-23},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-23}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/GYY |title=Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-16 |access-date=2026-10-23 |language=en}}