And because the airport has a pre-security indoor observation gallery with a wide variety of exhibits and viewing spots out to airfied activity.
Now there’s more to enjoy at BWI. Especially for passengers flying on Southwest Airlines.
The airport recently celebrated the opening of its new Concourse A/B Connector and Baggage Handling System. The $520 million project is the largest capital improvement in the airport’s history and includes a two-story building addition.
The project not only creates a faster, direct connection between Concourses A and B, it updates five gate areas. It also adds a new in-line screening baggage handling system that can process nearly 3,500 bags per hour – a significant increase over the previous 2,100 bags per hour.
The project also adds new spaces for food and retail and upgrades some of the restrooms to match the loos that helped BWI win “America’s Best Restroom” contest in 2023.
Pittsburgh International Airport‘s (PIT) new $1.7 billion, 811,000 square-foot landside terminal opened in mid-November, just in time for the busy holiday travel season.
The project is designed by the architectural firms Gensler and HDR, in association with luis vidal + architects and also includes upgrades to the airside facilities.
We visited a few months before and then at the end of opening day, when everyone associated with the project was still exhausted and, rightfully, giddy.
For most travelers, the highlights of the new terminal are the 12-lane security checkpoint, the faster baggage handling system, the new parking garage and the elimination of the train between the landside and airside terminals.
There are also four outdoor patios that will be finished this spring.
Passengers now enter the terminal via a light-filled main hall with 38 steel, tree-shaped columns supporting a soaring, undulating wood ceiling dotted with 4,000 constellation lights.
And once past security, the journey to the gates is via a pedestrian tunnel meant to evoke the Fort Pitt Tunnel that welcomes drivers entering the city.
Nice, right?
PIT Airport’s new and refreshed art
For us, the best part of PIT’s new landside and refreshed airside terminals is all the art.
The collection includes both existing and brand new work by local, regional and national artists.
Front and center is “Pittsburgh,” a 28-foot long and equally wide kinetic mobile by famed artist Alexander Calder.
Valued now at about $12 million, the piece has been in the airport’s collection for almost 70 years.
But it has never really been given a spot where it could be easily viewed and appreciated.
Now it’s the first thing travelers and airport visitors see when they enter the main terminal atrium.
In a story we did in November for the Runway Girl Network, we highlighted the Calder sculpture and many of the new art pieces at PIT.
In the new landside terminal, the terrazzo flooring on the departures level has 58 leaves from 12 different native western Pennsylvania trees in Clayton Merrell’s “Forest Floor.”
These aluminum leaves are actual size and associated with the tree columns that support the roof.
The 13,000 square feet of new terrazo flooring is an extension of “The Sky Beneath our Feet,” the 82,000 square-foot terrazzosky floor that Merrell created for the airside terminal back in 2013.
“In the original project, space is inverted by bringing the sky down beneath us,” Merrell told us. “In the new section, space is flipped back again by introducing a reflection — the new section appearing to be the reflection of the sky on the surface of water.”
In the bag claim level, our favorite pieces is “Luggage Thoughts” by Pittsburgh’s John Peña.
Colorful metal luggage sits on top of the four bag carousels.
And each features a “thought bubble” in an activated split-flap display board.
“Baggage Claim #1 and #4 make a lot more observations overall, while Baggage Claim #2 sleeps most of the time and will occasionally snore and wake itself up,” said Peña, while the bag at Bag Claim #3, “has both a real-time existential discovery and also learns how to make pierogi.”
International arriving passengers get a treat too.
Alisha Wormley’s 2-part “Portals” features items found in the airport’s lost and found collection arranged in a Butterfly Nebula and a brass and glass Orrery where the planets depict various immigrant communities.
So we’ll be using a SEA Visitor Pass to visit the SubPop Airport Shop during its final week at the airport. The shop opened back in 2014 and has been delighting music-minded travelers ever since.
While at SEA we’ll do some last minute holiday shopping and to try to catch a selfie or two with Santa and the other holiday characters that are roaming around.
Cool new terminal expansion at Fresno Yosemite Int’l Airport (FAT)
Just in time for holiday travel, Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT) – the airport that welcomes travelers with giant indoor sequoia tree replicas – debuted a new terminal expansion that is part of a four year modernization project.
This piece adds approximately 98,000 square feet to FAT’s footprint with an expanded Concourse B that includes several new shops and restaurants, updated passenger holdrooms and two “swing-gate” jet bridges that accommodate both domestic and international flight arrivals.
Terrazzo flooring features a river themed pattern designed to symbolize the various waterways that flow through the Central Valley. And there’s more fresh public art, courtesy of a partnership with the Fresno Arts Council.
Airport guest pass programs allow non-ticketed guests to go through the security checkpoint and access the secure side of a terminal to dine, shop, see the art and spend more time with family and friends.
Each airport has its own set of rules for how many guests are invited and when guests are permitted in the terminals. But everyone who applies for a pass must provide and present a TSA-approved identification and go through security screeing.
Here is the current list of airports offering guest pass programs
We’re delighted that an increasing number of airports are adding gate pass programs that allow non-ticketed guests to go through airport security lanes to shop, dine and spend more time with friends and family.
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.
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.
Why ask fake passengers to test airport terminals?
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.
San Diego International Airport’s new terminal
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.
What did Kansas City International Airport learn from its test?
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.
Views galore
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.
Cool concessions
New Terminal 1 at San Diego International Airport opens with 5 specialty stores and a dozen food and beverage outlets.
