Category - Terminals

Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA) travelers are greeted these days by a newly renovated and expanded terminal. Updates were direly needed, reports Airport Director Tony Yaron; and the nearly $38 million multiphase project took five years to complete. "The terminal was overcrowded and aging," he explains, noting that the facility hadn't been updated since the mid-1980s. "After 9/11, we had to fit a CT-80 screening device into an old travel agency office between the ticketing offices and the street. Travelers had to schlep bags through the lobby."

When was the last time you heard about a significant public facility such as a school or stadium being built without dedicated local tax dollars? Albert J. Ellis Airport (OAJ), just outside of Jacksonville, NC, recently pulled it off. The airport's $43.9 million project added new facilities for commercial and general aviation passengers, plus a wide variety of other airside and landside improvements.

The $229 million renovation of Terminal 5 in Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) wrapped up this summer on time and on budget, with optimism high about how it will enhance the travel experience for about 6.6 million domestic passengers who use the facility each year. With Delta Air Lines as the terminal's sole airline tenant, the initiative was cooperatively funded by Delta ($11.2 million to renovate its proprietary areas and equipment), a TSA grant ($25 million for inline baggage screening) and nearly $193 million by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), which owns and operates LAX, Los Angeles Ontario International and Van Nuys Airport.

"Out with the old, in with the new" is often the sentiment that drives large-scale terminal improvement programs. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL) took a different approach during the recent $70 million renovation of its mid-century Terminal 1, by working to preserve iconic architectural elements while infusing efficiency, flexibility and modern systems to carry the facility into the future.

The 150,000-square-foot extension of Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport has JetBlue Airways all over it - literally and figuratively.

Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport (BHB) overcame significant financial challenges to remodel its facilities. And in the end, the small Maine airport doubled the size of its terminal, upgraded its security area, added new customer conveniences and generally made the building more aesthetically pleasing and energy efficient. The $2.5 million facelift, completed late last year, increased BHB’s terminal from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet. It also created separate arrival and departure areas — a critical upgrade for small airports, due to post-9/11 security requirements. (BHB logs about 34,000 total operations annually.) But the project required intense number crunching to keep it within budget. A collaborative effort by airport officials, the contractor, design team and engineering consultant cut nearly 20% from the original $3.1 million cost estimate.

Every year, more than one million tourists visit the Turks and Caicos Islands, a collection of 40 islands and cays (only eight of which are inhabited) located about 550 miles southeast of Miami. With most visitors flying into Providenciales International Airport (PLS), the facility has been working hard to keep pace with the rapidly growing needs of the popular vacation destination. By the end of the year, PLS will complete a two-phase, $50 million expansion and renovation project designed to do just that; but longer-term provisions are also in the works.

George Speake lightheartedly refers to Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) as the "home of gopher tortoise condos." But the long, deep burrows he jokes about are located within the Florida airport's runway safety area; so they actually present a glaring safety problem for SFB's good-natured vice president of operations and maintenance.

When Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) opened its completely renovated Terminal 1 in mid-April, the North Carolina airport also marked the end of its 15-year, nearly $1 billion capital development program (for more information, see Page 56). The $68 million terminal includes a new nine-gate concourse, 11 new concessions, a four-lane security checkpoint with expanded queuing area, updated ticketing and baggage claim areas and large windows featuring panoramic airfield views.

Authorities at Minneapolis-St. Paul Int'l Airport (MSP) understand that little things can have a big impact on passengers' overall travel experience. That's why they recently invested $1 million to update seating throughout Terminal 1 and plan to follow up with another wave of similar improvements later this year.

After years of planning, a false start in the wrong location and a major shift in airport governance, Fort McMurray International Airport (YMM) in Alberta finally has the terminal it needs to process the 1.3 million passengers projected to move through its facilities this year.