South Bend International Airport
South Bend International Airport
South Bend International Airport (IATA: SBN, ICAO: KSBN, FAA LID: SBN) is a commercial and freight airport located three miles northwest of downtown South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States. It is the state's second busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic after Indianapolis International Airport. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2015–2019 called it a primary commercial service facility. Federal Aviation Administration and St. Joseph County Airport Authority records show the airport had 337,140 passenger enplanements in 2020 with an estimated total air passenger volume of over 680,000. It is owned by the St. Joseph County Airport Authority. Passengers can make connections to local public transportation services such as the South Shore Line trains to Millennium Station in Chicago and the local TRANSPO bus route #4 which travels along Lincoln Way.
Location
41.708°N, 86.317°O · 244 m s. n. m. (799 ft)
General data
Runways · 3
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 7 Official publication
Tower
Ground
Clearance delivery
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
In the early days, South Bend's main airport was Cadet Field in present-day Granger. Vincent Hugo Bendix, founder of Bendix Aviation, bought land northwest of South Bend in 1929 to provide air service closer to the city. Bendix Municipal Airport opened in 1933.
Bendix Airport was later called St. Joseph County Airport, then Michiana Regional Transportation Center. The airport was renamed South Bend Regional Airport on January 1, 2000, later South Bend International Airport on April 23, 2014, to help identify the airport, many travelers not knowing the meaning of Michiana (taken from "Michigan" and "Indiana").
The April 1957 OAG shows 10 weekday departures on North Central, 9 on United, 6 on Lake Central and 3 on TWA. North Central Airlines merged with Southern Airways on July 1, 1979, commencing operations with Republic from South Bend.
Until the 1980s the airport had four runways; in the 1950s runway 9 was 5000 ft, runways 6 (now taxiway A-3) and 12 (now taxiway A-4) were 4000 ft and the 3059-ft runway 18 connected the west ends of runways 6 and 12. In 1964 runway 9 was extended to 6000 ft. In January 1967 SBN got its first scheduled jets, United Caravelles flying Chicago O'Hare-South Bend-Fort Wayne-Newark and back.
On April 23, 2014, the St. Joseph County Airport Authority announced the airport was changing its name from South Bend Regional Airport to South Bend International Airport. The Airport Authority has had conversations with two airlines interested in providing service to Mexico and the Bahamas and indicated that it was looking at service to Toronto, Ireland and Europe. As part of the change, the airport will begin a $3 million (USD) project to construct a general aviation facility and a border customs area, to be financed through federal, state and airport funds.
On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Department Of Transportation awarded 20 grants under the Small Community Air Service Development Program ("Small Community Program" or "SCASDP") benefitting communities in 16 states to assist with the implementation of the air service initiatives proposed in their grant applications. Of these grants, South Bend was awarded $750,000 to expand its route network to the West Coast (Los Angeles or San Francisco) or expand routes to Washington DC.
What flies here
From our own logbook: 358 aircraft documented between 2007 and 2025.
Types seen here
Airlines with documented aircraft
Busiest routes from here
A count of our own aircraft profiles, year by year, from the public United States flight records: it reflects what we have documented, not the airport’s total traffic.
Airlines operating here · 5
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: St. Joseph County Airport Authority · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.
This page was last updated on October 16, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 16). South Bend International Airport (SBN). Retrieved October 19, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/SBN
MLA
“South Bend International Airport (SBN).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 16 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/SBN. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “South Bend International Airport (SBN).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/SBN.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) South Bend International Airport (SBN). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/SBN (Accessed: 19 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_sbn,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{South Bend International Airport (SBN)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/SBN},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/SBN}},
urldate = {2026-10-19},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-19}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/SBN |title=South Bend International Airport (SBN) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-16 |access-date=2026-10-19 |language=en}}