Salt Lake City airport completes $5.1 billion redevelopment

By Sophie Lindqvist

Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) has completed a $5.1 billion redevelopment after 12 years of construction, opening the final seven gates in Concourse B-east on Oct. 27.

The opening completed the fourth and final phase of The New SLC Redevelopment Program. The approximately 132,000-square-foot addition contains five gates for United Airlines, two common-use gates and six new concessions.

What does completion change for passengers and airlines?

The project replaced three aging terminals with a centralized terminal, two linear concourses and an expanded network of passenger facilities. New parking and rental car facilities, roadway improvements and tunnels connecting the concourses now form part of a single airport campus.

At Concourse B-east, five gates serve United Airlines. Two additional common-use gates provide shared positions rather than gates dedicated to one carrier, while six concessions add commercial space within the new concourse.

Across the airport, SLC now has 94 aircraft gates, four hardstand positions and 101 concessions. Hardstands are aircraft parking positions outside the passenger-gate areas, providing additional space for aircraft movements and parking.

For airlines, the immediate change is a larger centralized operating base at SLC, with more gates and shared access through Concourse B-east. For passengers, the redevelopment replaces a three-terminal complex with one connected campus linked by tunnels.

The completed airport can accommodate approximately 34 million passengers annually. That figure represents design capacity rather than guaranteed traffic, but it gives SLC room to support continued growth in the Salt Lake City region.

Funding without local taxes

The $5.1 billion program drew on several funding sources:

• Airport operating revenues
• Passenger facility charges
• Rental car customer facility charges
• Airport revenue bonds
• Federal grants

No local tax dollars were used. The financing structure therefore distributed the cost across airport activity, passenger and rental-car charges, borrowing and federal support rather than requiring a direct local tax contribution.

Construction continued through 12 years of airport operations

Work began in 2014, and the first phase opened in September 2020. SLC then opened subsequent phases incrementally, allowing the airport to continue operating throughout most of the redevelopment.

Salt Lake City airport executive director Bill Wyatt said: “The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.” He attributed part of that performance to accelerating construction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reduced passenger traffic during the pandemic allowed the airport to demolish older facilities sooner than originally planned. That faster removal made more of the construction sequence available while the airport retained its operating schedule.

The Department of Airports reported that nearly 25,000 craft workers contributed more than 18 million hours of labor. The labor total establishes the scale of the construction effort, although the airport has not specified how far it finished below budget.

Future capacity remains a planning question

Airport officials are already considering a potential Concourse C and runway improvements intended to accommodate additional airline service. Both remain future possibilities rather than completed elements of the redevelopment.

A third concourse would extend SLC beyond its present two-linear-concourse configuration, while runway work could support additional aircraft operations. Either project would require further planning and investment before airlines could rely on that future capacity.

The operating baseline is now a 94-gate airport designed for 34 million passengers each year. The next test is whether traffic growth makes a third concourse and runway improvements necessary for the airport’s regional network.