60 TERMINALS July | August 2026 AirportImprovement.com ORF For Norfolk International Airport (ORF), the movie line “If you build it, [they] will come,” could instead be “If you build it, even more will come.” The Virginia airport is, indeed, building, changing and growing. A full slate of projects in various stages of development is addressing the entire travel sequence for passengers, from roadway alignments, parking and car rental facilities to more expedient curbside drop-offs, ticketing, check in and security screening. There is also a new federal inspections facility to streamline international arrivals, additional concourse space with new gates and concessions, two hotels in the works, and more. “We’re touching just about every piece of the terminal complex,” says Norfolk Airport Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Perryman. “By the end of 2029, this will be a completely new facility.” The two newest showpieces are a $31 million Federal Inspection Services (FIS) International Arrivals building operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the $30 million expansion of Concourse A. Among other things, the concourse addition provides more space for the airport’s largest carrier, American Airlines, plus Southwest Airlines and Breeze Airways. This January, Breeze, which has operated at ORF for five years, launched the airport’s first scheduled international service since 2001, when Air Canada discontinued its flights to Toronto Pearson a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The new nonstop flight to Cancun International Airport (CUN) in Mexico began on Saturdays, and in May the airline added a second flight on Wednesdays. The plan is to continue twice weekly flights through mid- August, pause during hurricane season, and then resume in late December. The launch at ORF was Breeze’s first international flight, followed closely by new Caribbean service from four other U.S. markets. Passengers arriving at ORF from CUN used the airport’s former FIS facility until the new station opened this March. Perryman reports that flow in the updated facility has been “very smooth.” Given this and other changes, there are a lot of moving parts within ORFs two concourses. In fact, mere hours after Perryman spoke with Airport Improvement for this article, American Airlines moved gate podiums into the newly added space in Concourse A, with the first Remain Overnight and early departure both scheduled within 48 hours. Breeze now occupies the Concourse A gates formerly used by American. Even before these recently completed changes, the landscape had already changed considerably. “For many years, this airport was well- performing but small, with few major capital projects,” says Chris Jones, vice president CHRIS JONES MARK PERRYMAN Latest Projects at Norfolk Int’l Focus on International Traffic BY SCOTT BERMAN
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