Charlotte Douglas International Airport served 53.6 million passengers in 2025 — its second-busiest year on record — and is now proposing a major new capital program, CLT Beyond, tied to a fresh Airline Use and Lease Agreement with five carriers. The proposal goes to Charlotte City Council on Oct. 12, with a vote at a later meeting.

The five signatory airlines are American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. The agreement would set the framework for capital development, airport financing, airline operations and infrastructure maintenance for years ahead.

Airport officials have not disclosed an overall cost estimate or construction timeline for CLT Beyond. Details are expected to emerge as the proposed agreement moves through the city approval process.

What would CLT Beyond build?

The program lists concrete projects:

• Expansion of Concourse C
• A new passenger tunnel linking the main terminal to the expanded concourse
• Renovations to international arrivals facilities
• Airfield infrastructure improvements
• Upgrades to electrical and other essential airport systems
• Planning for additional international gates
• An expanded terminal atrium

CLT Beyond would build on the airport's Destination CLT program, a roughly $4 billion series of terminal renovations, concourse expansions and airfield improvements carried out over the past decade.

That earlier program's results are already in service. The $241 million Concourse A Phase II expansion, completed in September 2024, added 10 gates. A fourth parallel runway is under construction and scheduled to open in 2027.

Why does the lease agreement matter?

American Airlines operates its second-largest hub at Charlotte Douglas and accounts for approximately 90% of the airport's passenger traffic. That concentration makes the carrier's terms in any use-and-lease agreement the decisive factor in how the airport finances and sequences capital spending.

For the four other carriers — Delta, Frontier, Southwest and United — the agreement governs their cost base at a hub-dominated airport where they compete against a dominant incumbent. Use-and-lease agreements typically fix how capital costs pass through to airlines, which directly affects gate access, facility priorities and per-passenger cost structures.

Negotiations have continued under an extension of the existing agreement, which was originally scheduled to expire June 30. The extension signals both sides saw value in avoiding a lapse while terms for the next development phase remained unresolved.

How much traffic is the airport handling?

Beyond the 53.6 million passengers in 2025, Charlotte Douglas recorded more than 574,000 aircraft operations. The fourth runway opening in 2027 addresses that airfield demand; CLT Beyond's terminal-side work — the Concourse C expansion, tunnel and international arrivals renovations — addresses passenger-side capacity.

The sequencing matters. The airport delivered Concourse A Phase II in September 2024 with 10 gates and has the runway in construction, meaning CLT Beyond would layer new terminal capacity on top of airfield capacity arriving within two years.

What happens next?

Airport officials present the proposed agreement to Charlotte City Council on Oct. 12. A council vote follows at a later meeting, and only then will the cost envelope and construction schedule for CLT Beyond become clear.

Until the council acts and the airlines sign, CLT Beyond remains a proposed framework rather than a funded program — a distinction that will define Charlotte Douglas's capacity trajectory beyond the 2027 runway opening.