Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport – also known by its former official names as Standiford Field and Louisville International Airport – is a civil-military airport in Louisville, Kentucky. The airport was renamed after boxer and Louisville native Muhammad Ali in 2019, three years after his death. The airport covers and has three runways. Its IATA airport code, SDF, is based on the airport's former name, Standiford Field. Despite being called an international airport, it has no regularly scheduled international passenger flights, but is a port of entry, handling many UPS Airlines international cargo flights through the United Parcel Service's worldwide air hub, often referred to as UPS Worldport.

Over 4.8 million passengers passed through the airport in 2024, while nearly 6.6 billion pounds (3.3 million tons) of cargo passed through in 2024. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a "primary commercial service" airport, since it has over 10,000 passenger boardings (enplanements) per year. Federal Aviation Administration records show the airport had 2,402,517 revenue enplanements in 2024.

Because of UPS Airlines' operations, Louisville International Airport is the third-busiest cargo airport in the United States, only falling short of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, and FedEx's SuperHub at the Memphis International Airport in Memphis, Tennessee.

It is also the world's sixth-busiest airport by cargo traffic, behind Hong Kong, Memphis, Shanghai Pudong, Anchorage, and Incheon International Airport. The Kentucky Air National Guard's 123rd Airlift Wing operates Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft from the co-located Louisville Air National Guard Base.

History

Standiford Field was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1941 on a parcel of land south of Louisville that was found not to have flooded during the Ohio River flood of 1937. It was named for Dr. Elisha David Standiford, a local businessman and politician, who was active in transportation issues and owned part of the land. The field remained under Army control until 1947, when it was turned over to the Louisville Air Board for commercial operations.

Until around 1947, Bowman Field was Louisville's main airport, which was too close to downtown to expand. For many years, passenger traffic went through the small brick Lee Terminal at Standiford Field. Today's more modern and much larger facilities were built in the 1980s. Most of the Lee Terminal was later torn down.

When Standiford Field was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1941, it had one runway. The airfield opened to the public in 1947 and all commercial service from Bowman Field moved to Standiford Field. American, Eastern, and TWA were the first airlines and had 1,300 passengers a week. The airlines used World War II barracks on the east side of the field until May 25, 1950, when a proper terminal opened. Lee Terminal could handle 150,000 passengers annually and included 6 new gates, which increased terminal space to . The three runways (1, 6 and 11) were all 5000 ft.

The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 45 weekday departures on Eastern Airlines, 19 American, 9 TWA, 4 Piedmont and 2 Ozark. Scheduled jet flights (Eastern 720s to Idlewild) began in January–February 1962.

In 1970, the terminal again expanded; the main lobby was extended and the Delta Air Lines concourse was built. Parallel runways, needed for expanded UPS operations, were part of the airport expansion. , the airport is in the midst of a major renovation project called SDF Next, which includes more than $1 billion in planned enhancements to the Jerry E. Abramson Terminal, work on the baggage claim, updates to security and lighting, and changes to the rental car counters, among other improvements.

On January 16, 2019, the Louisville Regional Airport Authority voted to change the name of the airport to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in honor of the boxer and Louisville native Muhammad Ali. On June 6, 2019, the airport unveiled its new logo, featuring "Ali's silhouette, arms up and victorious, against the background of a butterfly".

Facilities

Terminal

thumb|Concourse B

The Jerry E. Abramson Terminal, named after former Lieutenant Governor and five-term Louisville mayor Jerry Abramson, is the airport's main commercial terminal. It consists of two floors with ground transportation and baggage claim services on the first floor and ticketing, passenger drop off, and concourse access on the second floor. There are 24 gates in the two concourses. These concourses are connected by a rotunda and connector that contains a unified security checkpoint located in the main section of the terminal.

Concourse A contains 12 gates.

Worldport

thumb|right|500px|UPS Worldport at Louisville International Airport in 2004

Worldport is the worldwide air hub for UPS (United Parcel Service) located at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. Because of UPS, Louisville is the fourth-busiest cargo airport in the world, and the second busiest in the United States. Although UPS has had a hub at Louisville since 1980, the name 'Worldport' was not used officially by the company until 2002, after a $1 billion, five-year expansion. Previously, the project was named Hub 2000. The facility is currently 5.2 million sq ft (48 ha; 80 football fields) in size and capable of handling 115 packages per second, or 416,000 per hour. With more than 20,000 employees, UPS is one of the largest employers in both the city of Louisville and the state of Kentucky as a whole. The facility, which serves all of the company's major international and domestic hubs, mainly handles express and international packages and letters.

A expansion was completed in spring 2006 to integrate heavy freight into the UPS system. The expansion was prefaced by the purchase of Menlo Worldwide Forwarding, formerly Emery Worldwide. The new facility, designated Worldport Freight Facility (HWP), went online in April 2006 and was the first of the company's regional hubs to begin integrating the Menlo volume into the system. Operations at Menlo's facility in Dayton, Ohio, ended in June 2006.

In May 2006, UPS announced that for the third time in seven years it would significantly expand its Worldport hub, with a second investment of $1 billion. The second expansion was completed in April 2010, with the facility now measuring , with a perimeter of . The plan was for more than to be added to its existing facility, with another of space to be renovated with new technology and equipment. Worldport sorting capacity was to expand from 300,000 packages per hour to 416,000 packages per hour. Additionally, several ramps at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport were to be built or altered bringing a total increase of just over .

Airlines and destinations