Pensacola International Airport has received $9 million in federal funding toward its $113 million terminal expansion, part of a near-$1 billion grant round the Federal Aviation Administration announced on May 18.

The award closes out a five-round distribution of $5 billion in airport funding Congress authorized under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Pensacola's grant is the latest contribution to a program that broke ground last year and remains at the 60% design stage.

What does the money pay for?

The expansion adds 50,000 square feet to the terminal. The scope includes:

• An enlarged security screening area intended to cut passenger wait times
• A new passenger concourse with additional dining options
• Five new gates capable of servicing larger aircraft

Separately, the airport is expanding its ramp to accommodate more aircraft and rehabilitating one of its runways under a standalone $20 million project. That ramp work is out for bid or about to be, with construction set to begin in July.

How is the project financed?

The city holds authorization to bond up to $110 million for the terminal program. Every grant dollar reduces the amount Pensacola must borrow, and Mayor D.C. Reeves framed the $9 million award in exactly those terms for local taxpayers and carriers.

"(What) that means for a citizen using the airport is, if we receive these $9 million, that's less that has to be bonded, which keeps costs low," Reeves said. "The more dollars we have to bond at the airport, the higher the charges could end up being, and that's what's made Pensacola so competitive."

The mayor's cost logic is a direct one for airlines serving the field: debt service on airport bonds flows into the rates and charges carriers pay, and higher charges can erode the fare competitiveness that Pensacola has used to attract service.

Airport Director Matt Coughlin said the airport has now secured $32 million in state and federal grants toward the expansion.

What comes next on the schedule?

Coughlin described the program as broader than a single concourse build, and he laid out a construction sequence that begins with airside pavement and moves to the terminal itself.

"This is an expensive program, it's not just a new concourse, it's a complete modernization program of the terminal," Coughlin said. "And so just to give you an update on the project itself, we're at 60% design. We're going to be getting much better cost estimates. We're going to be starting construction here. The ramp is out for bid right now, or it's about to be. And we'll start construction there in July, and then it's going to move towards the building, starting with the security checkpoint, pedestrian walkway, and then finally the concourse."

The sequencing matters for capacity planning. The five new gates equipped for larger aircraft, paired with the expanded ramp, would let Pensacola handle additional and bigger flights once the terminal work is complete. The security checkpoint expansion addresses a constraint that directly affects passenger throughput during peak banks.

The 60% design milestone also signals that the $113 million estimate may still move. Coughlin noted that better cost estimates will arrive as design matures — a standard point in capital projects where pricing firms up and contingencies narrow.

The May 18 award was the fifth and final round of the $5 billion in airport grants authorized under the 2021 law, meaning Pensacola's expansion will draw on the remaining state and local funding tools already in place, including the city's bonding authority, as construction on the ramp begins next month and terminal work follows.