Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) celebrated the opening of its new $1.7 billion landside terminal building on Tuesday, November 18, 2025.
The project includes an instanlty iconic pedestrian tunnel, outdoor terraces, a new parking garage, new concessions and lots of art.
(Courtesy Pittsburgh Int’l Airport)
The Stuck at the Airport team will be getting an indepth art and amenity tour tomorrow, but here are some snaps we gathered on arrival.
Looks great, right?
One our our favorite airport amenities has returned for the winter season.
Coat check services are available now through Apirl 1 at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE).
The service is set up inside the Summerfest Marketplace store, which is located pre-security in the airport’s concession mall and is available to all travelers on all flights, seven days a week.
The coat check service means travelers heading to warm climates can wear their coats to the airport, leave them at the coat check and then pick them up at MKE when they fly back home.
Better yet: checking a coat is just two dollars per day, with a maximum charge of ten dollars.
So snow birds can leave their coats behind for the entire season.
We think other airports could and should offer this helpful amenity.
And, as we have for several winters, we’re declaring MKE’s coat check service the Airport Amenity of the Week.
Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, is celebrating the recent opening of Techo International Airport (KTI).
The $2 billion airport has three runways and replaces the old Phnom Penh International Airport, which was nearly 70 years old and sported only one runway.
Located about a dozen miles from the city center, the state-of-the-art terminal is designed by Foster + Partners and blends contemporary design with Khmer heritage.
Sustainability was a key goal for the project and there’s an onsite photovoltaic farm that provides most all of the terminal’s energy.
Inside the terminal, structural trees support a steel grid shell that filters daylight.
Below, the vast open terminal space features real, mature trees.
Expansion is already on the drawing board but for now, Techo International Airport currently has 32 gates serving 31 airlines with 44 direct routes. There are currently two lounges, a Plaza Premium Lounge and a Plaza Premium First lounge. Major carriers include Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Etihad, Turkish Airlines, Air Cambodia, with more international connections soon.
You’d think that after hiring the best architects and builders and spending billions of dollars, a new airport terminal would be ready to spring into action when the work is done.
But before flights begin to come and go from a new terminal, airports usually run a dress rehearsal day with volunteers pretending to be passengers.
Here’s a slightly different version of a story we wrote for The Points Guy about why and how airports do these tests.
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is putting the finishing touches on a new $1.7 billion terminal set to open in October. Architectural and engineering firms Gensler, HDR and Luis Vidal + Architects designed the terminal and all systems and areas have been completed and rigorously tested.
“But construction and operational readiness aren’t equal,” Daniel Bryan, the consultant leading PIT’s operational readiness and transition team, said. Before the official opening date can be set and announced, PIT is conducting two public trial days, or dress rehearsals, where volunteers act as passengers to help make sure everything — and everyone — is truly ready for the big day.
The first terminal-wide test took place Saturday, Sept. 20, and included about 1,000 of the 18,000 people who responded to the airport’s initial call-out for volunteers.
Pretend passengers traveling on a pretend peak travel day were asked to do all the things real passengers do when they travel from the curb to the gate — checking bags, skis and golf clubs, going through the security checkpoint and finding their gate.
“This will be the first time we’ll see the building come alive,” Bryan said, so the team planned to check the acoustics, the public address system levels, signage and more. The test day was also a day for airport staff to do a run-through for the first day.
It was the same story at San Diego International Airport (SAN) on Sept. 14. Opening day for is Sept. 23 for the $3.8 billion Terminal 1 designed by Gensler in partnership with Turner-Flatiron.
All went well, with adjustments planned in response to feedback that the paging system was too loud in some areas and not loud enough in others, and that better signage was needed for the outdoor dining deck and the oversized baggage belt.
Kansas City International Airport (MCI) held a test day back in 2023 ahead of the opening of its new $1.5 billion terminal.
All systems worked well, said airport spokesman Justin Meyer, and in response to volunteer feedback, the airport ordered more hefty paper towels for the restrooms.
Then there was the problem of test day volunteers missing their fake flights because they were spending too much time checking out the terminal.
San Diego International Airport’s existing Terminal 1, built in 1967, closes on Tuesday, September 23, and the swanky new light-and-art-filled $3.8 billion Terminal 1 officially opens.
(A few flights will arrive at new T1 on the evening of September 22).
Designed by the Gensler architecture firm in partnership with Turner-Flatiron, the new terminal boasts five impressive commissioned art pieces – including Matthew Mazzotta’s jellyfish-inspired Rise, up above -, an outdoor patio with views of San Diego Bay and downtown, 13 security lanes, 7 bag claim carousels, and more.
We had a chance to tour the terminal as finishing touches were being put in place. Here are a few snaps from our tour.
The terminal was designed to be “open and inviting – a glassy pavilion in a garden,” said Gensler’s Terence Young, Principal, Design Director and Project Designer. Passengers can see out to the airfield from plenty of spots along the concourse, but the coziest seating is likely the area behind the center information bank.
New Terminal 1 at San Diego International Airport opens with 5 specialty stores and a dozen food and beverage outlets.
We already made SAN’s new Terminal 1 restrooms our Airport Amenity of the Week.
Not just because they’re lovely, but because each sink has three fixtures.
One dispenses soap.
One dispenses water.
And the third is a personal hand dryer.
So no need to drip your way across a counter to find a paper towel.
We did. But here are a few more snaps.
Vessel of Light, by Erwin Redl, in the dining hall, is made of triangles that respond to music from the stage beneath it, and to ambient noise
.
Amy Ellington’s A Day in the Sun includes six mosaic-covered columns in the recomposure area just past the security checkpoint.
More than a million hand-set glass tiles create patterns that are inspired by the transition from sunrise to sunset along the Pacific shoreline.
Be sure to look on the floor around each column; there are tiles set into the terrazzo too.
