It’s a new age of design and construction for U.S. airports. The major airlines, flush with cash thanks to decreased fuel costs and increased traffic, are more willing to contribute to terminal improvements. Fewer, bigger merged airlines operating fewer, fuller flights have complicated the situation for some medium-sized former hubs, such as Philadelphia, while peers such as Boston, Charlotte and Orlando are thriving due to booming local growth and lower-than-average costs per emplanement. And on top of all this is the inevitable cycle of renewal—airports are perpetual construction sites.
That construction activity is poised to accelerate at many of the 16 airports—Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Chicago, New York City’s LaGuardia and Orlando, among them—visited by ENR on its “Project Runways: America’s Airport Infrastructure” tour. A major takeaway from our scores of interviews is that new terminal designs are being informed by sustainability and sense of place. Also, project delivery methods for those terminals are diversifying, and political climate influences whether they get off the ground at all.