Power outages and equipment failures affected Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA), and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
New York’s LaGuardia Airport also got hit. And so did John Wayne Airport in Orange County, CA, Philadelphia International Airport, and McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. New Orleans International Airport lost power twice due to high winds associated with Tropical Storm Olga.
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) was one of those airports. And in 2019 PIT declared its intention to become the first major U.S. airport to create a self-sufficient energy system – or microgrid. Their plan includes using only energy sources (solar and natural gas) from its own property.
PIT made good on its promise and this week, becoming the first airport in the world to be completely powered by natural gas and solar energy from its own, now-live microgrid.
Crews started construction in July 2020 and completed the project on schedule even as the pandemic stalled the aviation industry last year.
— Pittsburgh International Airport (@PITairport) July 14, 2021
The power generated at PIT by its microgrid is now the primary power supply for the entire airport.
This includes the terminals, the airfield, a Hyatt hotel, and a Sunoco station. The microgrid will generate power from onsite natural gas wells and 9,360 solar panels across eight acres.
The airport remains connected to the traditional electrical grid as an option for emergency or backup power if needed.
We are declaring this our Airport Amenity of the Week.
The Voices of MIA program launched in 2019 and featured the voices of local celebrities including Miami Heat stars Alonzo Mourning and Udonis Haslem, celebrity chef Adrianne Calvo, Grammy-winning producer Emilio Estefan and telenovela star Jencarlos Canela.
The refreshed 2021 series of celebrity welcome messages includes rapper and singer Flo Rida; actor, singer and composer Carlos Ponce; celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein; rapper and TV personality Trina; and celebrity chef and TV personality Chef Pepín. Listen for the messages on MIA’s address system around the clock on a rotating basis.
And if you’re traveling through Miami International Airport, or have friends or family meeting you there or dropping you off, keep in mind this is one of the airports hosting a free COVID-19 vaccination site through July 31.
#TravelAdvisory: We will be offering COVID-19 vaccinations daily from 7 am-7 pm in the International Greeter’s Lobby in CC J through July 31.
MIA’s Military Hospitality Lounge recently reopened as well.
📢 Our Military Hospitality Lounge has officially reopened! Military personnel, veterans, and their families now have one more place to rest and relax during their travels. ✈️
(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.”
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s 1970s-era North Satellite is undergoing a much needed, multi-year makeover to create a state-of-the-art facility to serve Alaska Airlines flights.
Phase One of the project brought us a swanky new Alaska Airlines lounge, restaurants and shops, and bright new gate areas.
Phase Two includes the two gates that opened today in advance of 10 more gates that will open at the end of June. This upgraded space has a mezzanine area and a central atrium that will offer a live performance stage, lots of seating, and great views out to the airfield thanks to a giant wall of windows. And new dining and retail options will include PF Chang’s, Beecher’s, SEA Roast Coffee House, and a branch of Seattle-based outdoor store Filson.
This is our home base airport, so we were excited to mask up and take a tour.
First: Cookies. All Airport Events Must Have Cookies.
Passengers riding up the escalator from the train level at SEA’s North Satellite are now met with an impressive sculpture titled “Boundary.” Seattle-based artist John Grade created this life-sized portrayal of the expanding root structure of an old-growth Western Red Cedar.
The work is 40 feet high, extends 25 feet out from the wall, and stretches 85 feet across – a distance, the airport notes, is equal to the wingspan of a Boeing 737.
Blackleaf, by Montana artist Deborah Butterfield is cast in bronze from pieces of driftwood.
Courtesy Port of Seattle
Bathrooms that use rainwater to flush toilets
We are disappointed that the newest restrooms in the North Satellite don’t have that much-appreciated red light/green light feature found in some SEA lavs that let you know which stalls are empty.
But we are pleased these restrooms make use of rainwater collected off the roof to flush the toilets. That will help save 2.8 million gallons of potable water annually – the equivalent of 4.5 Olympic swimming pools.
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.
