As confirmed reports of measles continue to emerge in pockets throughout the United States, airport operators throughout the country face the prospect of receiving contagious passengers and visitors.
Salt Lake City International (SLC) is using several full-scale mockups to ensure that even minute details of key components for its $3.6 billion redevelopment program yield the best results possible.
Last November, Scottsdale Airport (SDL) inaugurated its Aviation Business Center, the centerpiece of a $27 million redevelopment project that also includes a veterans memorial and two new hangars. The 23,800-square-foot building replaces SDL's outdated, underutilized terminal built in 1968.
Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) is phasing in a new approach to managing ground transportation. Its new Multi Modal Facility brings together rental car operations, public parking, airport shuttles and bus stops'all in the same 2.6-million-square-foot complex. Moreover, the new facility is a short walk to/from an existing station for the region's commuter train system.
Walkability is a buzzword usually associated with city planning; and curb appeal is typically an issue for real estate agents. Both, however, are now key features at El Paso International (ELP). The West Texas airport is completing an $11 million exterior renovation that links its terminal to nearby restaurants and onsite hotels via paved walkways. Improving passenger drop-off/pickup areas and upgrading exterior landscaping and lighting are other primary projects.
There's never a good time to close runways and taxiways for rehab work. But thanks to an intense coordination effort, Page Field (FMY) in Fort Myers, FL, completed a nearly $30 million airfield project last year with minimal disruptions to flight operations. Crews repaved the airport's two runways, upgraded several taxiways and installed a new airfield lighting system in 19 months, despite imposing weather challenges that included Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
In addition to serving local travelers, Rochester International Airport (RST) caters to thousands of passengers who fly to southern Minnesota each year for care or work at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. In fact, the two organizations, located just 15 minutes apart, are inextricably linked.
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is in the middle of a $7.3 billion modernization program. Main components of the initiative include reconstruction and expansion of Terminal 1 and the new 27-gate Boarding Area B; additional gates in Terminal 3; a new hotel; expansion of the AirTrain system; and a second long-term parking garage.
In 2016, dozens of U.S. communities were hit with alarming news: Harmful chemicals from a large family of man-made compounds known as PFAS (short for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) had been found in their drinking water. In fact, a nationwide groundwater study detected PFAS-contaminated drinking water in 43 states.
While a striking new 972,000-square-foot terminal typically gets the glory when it comes to recent projects at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY), there's more going on than the $1.029 billion capital improvement program. When operations move to the north side of the airfield this fall, a new hydrant fueling system and fuel farm will begin operating to support them.
After nearly 35 years of service and approximately 650,000 arrivals and departures, the primary arrivals runway at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) was due for a significant facelift. The $135 million project that provided it was the first full runway rehabilitation effort since the airport opened in 1974'and its first asphalt overlay.
Lynn A. Boccio, vice president of Strategic Business & Diversity Relations for Avis Budget Group, distinctly remembers picking up a call from a then-unknown airport colleague just before the 2016 Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC) Conference.
