We haven’t been there in person just yet. But we’re delighted to see the photos the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is sharing of the new $2.7-billion terminal Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).
The new terminal replaces the old Terminal A which first opened in 1973 and features fresh passenger amenities, impressive artwork, digital technology, and more than 60 regional dining and retail outlets representing national, global, and local brands.
Stretching out over more than one million square feet, the new Terminal A at EWR has 33 gates, and common-use check-in, security, and baggage claim areas built to easily handle an estimated 13.6 million passengers a year. Flights for Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Jet Blue and United Airlines will operate out of this terminal.
The seating areas are diverse and inviting. And the kid’s play areas look like so much fun.
Fresh Art in Terminal A at Newark Liberty Int’l Airport
And then there’s all the art. The work of 29 local artists is included in the terminal, with two major pieces serving as permanent anchor installations.
Karyn Olivier’s aluminum and stainless steel work, titled Approach, is made of up two 50-foot suspended sculptures that celebrate flight with different views of Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey in daytime and at night.
Between the Future Past, a mural by Layqa Nuna Yawar, celebrates the diversity of Newark, New Jersey, and the New York metropolitan area.
Photo by Zack DeZon, Courtesy Public Art Fund NY
More details to come once we get in there and walk the terminal from one end to the other.
(All photos courtesy Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, except where noted).
A new amenity that may soon become an airport staple is a program that allows travelers to reserve a time to pass through the TSA checkpoint.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) offers this service – called SEA Spot Saver – from 4 am to noon – at several checkpoints.
Now Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is piloting a similar program.
Launched this week, the DFW Fast Pass program allows travelers who don’t have TSA Precheck or Clear to make a reservation to go to the front of the checkpoint line at the Terminal D checkpoint D18. There is no cost to use the service and reservations can be made up to 7 days in advance.
And, as a nice bonus, DFW is giving passengers who use the service a complementary food or retail offering (while supplies last).
Today, our Fast Pass service pilot program launches at the 📍D18 TSA checkpoint!
It allows travelers to reserve the time they will arrive for screening, and provides an escort to the front of the regular (non-Pre-Check or Clear) TSA line.
As part of DFW’s Terminal C renovation, the airport shared a timelapse video of its “High C” gates being moved onto piers at the terminal. Take a look – this may be the way all airport terminals get built in the future.
We're celebrating an incredible milestone in our renovation of Terminal C!
Construction on the six modules that will make up our High C gates is complete and they've been carefully moved to their new home at the terminal! The project is scheduled to be completed in Summer 2022. pic.twitter.com/idLiaEE8ga
Incorporating many community traditions and the dedication of hundreds of volunteers, the 111-year-old Pendleton Round-Up – one of the country’s oldest rodeos – is back this year and ready to roll in a tiny town in eastern Oregon that is so very Old West.
The festivities include Main Street Cowboy shows, an outdoor cowboy breakfast, and the Westward Ho! Parade, which may be the largest non-motorized parade in the U.S. The real action though is in the historic Pendleton Round-Up Arena, where the classic greeting isn’t ‘hello’ or even ‘howdy,’ but ‘Let’er Buck!” Events includeBareback Bronc Riding, Saddle Bronc Riding, Bull Riding, and Steer Roping, among others.
This rodeo even has its own whiskey. The multi-million-dollar annual licensing fee helps boost the rodeo’s operating budget and contributes to the economic well-being of Pendleton. The town has a year-round population of about 16,000 but welcomes more than 50,000 visitors during the Round-Up.
(This is a slightly different version of a story we wrote for NBC News)
When low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines launched the first of 11 new routes to small cities and secondary airports from 14-gate Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) in April, it raised the airport’s profile as an alternative to Los Angeles International. And put a spotlight on BUR’s outdated facilities
“The existing terminal is too close to the runways and taxiways,” explains BUR executive director Frank Miller, “And the building is now 91 years old.” A terminal replacement plan put on hold due to COVID-19 is back on track. But funding sources for this – and for other airport infrastructure projects around the country – are “simply inadequate,” says Miller.
Even before the pandemic and the sharp decline in air travel, “chronic underfunding” created a backlog of more than $115 billion in necessary infrastructure needs for just the next five years, according to a study by Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA) released in March.
“We’re trying to build 21st century airports,” says Kevin Burke, ACI-NA’s president and chief executive office, “But we have 20th century airports that are, on average, more than 40 years old.”
Will infrastructure funds help?
That is why airports continue pushing for an increase to one of the main ongoing infrastructure funding mechanisms for airports – the federally capped user fee on tickets known as the Passenger Facility Charge. That fee was last raised from $3 to $4.50 twenty years ago, before 9/11.
And it is why all eyes are on the $25 billion line item for airports in the Biden Administration’s infrastructure plan being hammered out in Washington, D.C.
The proposal includes $10 billion to supplement the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), $10 billion for terminal redevelopment and intermodal transit connections, and $5 billion to replace and modernize Federal Aviation Administration equipment.
ACI-NA’s study says that instead of investing in large, high-impact projects to modernize facilities and increase capacity, “airports have been forced to prioritize smaller, immediate needs like maintenance of aging structures and systems.” And now there are “tens of billions of dollars in additional projects that have been delayed or canceled due to the pandemic and economic recession.”
During the pandemic, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) put the $3 billion, 24-gate Terminal F project on pause. But it pressed ahead with some other major projects, including the accelerated reconstruction of an arrival runway, the opening of the four-gate Terminal D South extension of the international terminal, and the construction of a new operations center.
“We continued the work because it was important to the airport,” explains DFW CEO Sean Donohue. “But the projects were also important to the region. During the peak of all that work it created 4,000 construction jobs.”
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Portland International Airport (PDX), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), and Kansas City International Airport (KCI) are some other airports that moved forward with major construction work during the pandemic. In some cases, completing projects ahead of schedule and with some cost savings thanks to reduced traffic in and around the terminals.
And Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), which put a hold on it $1.1 billion terminal project in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was able to restart that project in February 2021.
“The pandemic really highlighted the need for our Terminal Modernization Project,” said Christina Cassotis, CEO of Pittsburgh International Airport. “We’ll be the first airport in the country built from the ground up in a post-pandemic world and that’s given us the chance to include public health as a key component of the design.”
Next steps?
Despite the summer bump in travel, passenger traffic and the revenue it brings to airports is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.
ACI-NA estimates airports will lose at least $40 billion through March 2022 and even more if passenger traffic stays depressed. That makes finding funding for all the needed airport infrastructure projects more important.
The funds needed for short and long-term capital improvement projects at US airports far exceed the amounts in any of the proposed federal packages. “But the reality is that as things get back to normal and some level of funding is agreed to, you’ll see a lot more cranes, and a lot more work that will everyone,” says ACI-NA’s Burke.
“That includes communities, airports, the trades and, of course, passengers.”
The airport is getting a new main terminal and we stopped in to get an “in-progress” view and to learn about what it will take to make the project happen.
Here are some snaps of what the terminal looks like now.
Sadly, one of our favorite features of PDX, the pre-security shopping street with branches of many local favorites, is gone and not coming back. But many of these shops still have post-security outlets, and additional local shops are opening now, with more on the way.
Outside, things look pretty torn up too. But we were assured that the construction is not getting in the way of flight schedules. No small feat!
Here’s are some renderings of what the new terminal will look like. And below, a recent PDX tweet with a video of what we’ll see inside the new terminal. It looks like it will be pretty snazzy, pretty Portland, and very northwest.
But we are enjoying the way airports around the country are using the ‘How it Started vs. How it’s going’ meme to show off their lovely modern terminals.
Feel free to send us others you find. We will add them to the list over the weekend.
If you spot other airports posting their “How it started” photos, please let us know. We may break this up into two posts. Or lean how to make an album.
