New Airport Accentuates Pittsburgh's Key Attributes

If you’re an old-time Pittsburgher who’s resistant to change, you fondly recall Forbes Field, even with its tiny seats and occluded views of the field. You long to shop in Jenkins Arcade one more time. You cherish the memories of your trips to Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, with its inviting observation decks and concession stands that sold those giant all-day suckers, and you’ve only recently accepted, with great reluctance, the phenomenon of the “new” Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).

Prepare for a shock. The Allegheny County Airport Authority (ACAA) is hard at work on a “new” new airport, a $1.57 billion development that will feature a completely reimagined landside terminal, expanded parking, shorter waits at security check-ins and baggage pick-up, an expansive “Meeter/ Greeter” area and outdoor patios — with terraced lawns — for relaxation. The brand new facility is set to open on an unspecified date in 2025.

Grassy oases at the airport? Sounds great, but why? Why is it all necessary? PIT, after all, is only 32 years old. Chicago O’Hare International Airport, which handles many more flights and passengers than PIT, has been going strong since 1944. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the nation’s busiest in terms of passenger load, is 99 years old and doing well, thank you. And how about the New York dowagers? LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport have a combined 170 years of service. (Which is not to say that these venerable airports haven’t undergone facilities upgrades.)

Yet, the new PIT clearly is necessary, for reasons important but not necessarily self-evident. Until 2005, PIT was a hub for US Airways. In 1997, its busiest year ever, PIT handled about 20.7 million passengers, but roughly 80 percent of them were connecting to other flights. The pressure on passenger-serving facilities was relatively mild.

An architectural rendering of Pittsburgh International Airport’s new landside terminal and parking complex. The modernization project will provide a shorter walking distance from curb to gate, three times more covered parking, and advanced technology and automated systems.

Now, with PIT’s role as a hub ended, the situation is almost reversed. ACAA projects that PIT will handle approximately 10 million passengers in 2024, most of them originating or ending their journeys here. PIT’s facilities weren’t designed to handle that load.

That’s particularly true of security check-ins. The emphasis on security following 9/11 is a second major driver of the Terminal Modernization Program (TMP), as the development is called. PIT couldn’t comfortably or quickly accommodate the influx of passengers checking through security, resulting in frequent bottlenecks there. Says Paul Hoback, ACAA executive vice president and chief development officer:

“Our existing airport was built in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and parts of it were built many years before that. But it was built for a different time, a different industry. This facility was built to be a major hub for US Airways.”

Thus, in 2021, ACAA launched the construction phase of TMP to align the airport with current uses and needs. As part of TMP, the landside terminal will be demolished and replaced by a new terminal cheek-by-jowl with the airside terminal. Hoback is clear about TMP’s most important objective.

“We want to do everything we can to have stable and predictable costs for our airline partners,” he says.

When the “new” new airport debuts, it will introduce a number of welcome improvements to the passenger experience. Among them:

SHORTER WAITS AT SECURITY
CHECK-INS AND BAGGAGE PICK-UP

Eliminating slowdowns at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints is a top priority of the project, and ACAA expects to accomplish that by operating more efficiently rather than by throwing space at the problem. The number of passenger lines will remain virtually the same, but some of those lines will be dedicated. For example, lines will be reserved for first-class passengers and for those travelers who need more time to negotiate the process. Significantly, another line will be reserved for employees of ACAA and its airline partners, who currently must be cleared by TSA each time they leave and return to a secure area.

New technology also should speed things up. No more removing bottles and laptops. Smarter scanners will okay them and let them through.

A rendering of the new passenger departure area, which will lead to ticketing and check-in counters and the TSA checkpoint.

Similarly, baggage pick-up should be quicker. Currently, PIT operates and maintains eight miles of baggage conveyor belts; with the upcoming proximity of the two terminals, that number will fall to three miles, which makes for a shorter trip for your baggage and operating efficiencies for ACAA.

MORE PARKING, SMARTER PARKING
The project will add 6,000 parking spaces, including 3,300 in the garage, to raise the total number of spaces to roughly 21,000. Moreover, smarter technology plays a role here as well. Overhead signs will tell you how many spaces are available on each garage level and direct you to the most convenient space.

INTUITIVE WAYFINDING
Maze-like almost by definition, most airports post wayfinding signs to help confused travelers navigate their trips through terminals and concourses. The new PIT will provide such signs. But when you enter the new landside terminal after your drop-off at the curb, you’ll see every step on your hike stretched out before you in linear fashion. No trains, people movers or escalators necessary.

“You’re really staying on one level,” Hoback says. “That should make for an improved passenger experience.”

As part of its commitment to the principles of Nature, Technology and Community, the architectural team designed the new terminal to reflect the natural beauty of western Pennsylvania. The terminal’s 36 tree columns — steel beams painted brown — represent wooded areas throughout the region, and the wood-like ceiling contains 4,000 constellation lights.

When you’re ready to cross to the airside terminal through a 140-foot tunnel, you’ll be treated to panoramic views of the facility, including plane departures and arrivals. Hoback likens it to that breathtaking view of Pittsburgh one enjoys when emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel.

NaTeCo
This acronym may be awkward, but it stands for Nature, Technology and Community, the guiding design principles for TMP that are reflected in a number of features. Overhead lighting, for example, resembles a starscape that narrows to help guide you to the terminal-connecting tunnel. The steel support beams are painted brown to resemble trees stretching skyward.

MEETING & GREETING AL FRESCO
Of the new “Meeter/Greeter” areas, Hoback says, “In Pittsburgh, we don’t take Ubers or taxis. We love to pick up our loved ones.”
In recognition of that, the new terminal will include an expansive indoor Meeter/Greeter area. Even more exciting, ACAA is developing four outdoor patios with terraced lawns — two each pre-security and post-security — where you can await arriving loved ones or exchange extended good-byes with those leaving on a jet plane.

Sipping a drink in a lovely, terraced, outdoor plaza while awaiting your family? That’s an experience few other airports can offer.

AIRSIDE TERMINAL — MEET GEORGE JETSON
Notes Hoback: “Our airline partners said it best: We don’t want people to walk through the landside terminal and feel like the Jetsons, then walk through the airside terminal and feel like the Flintstones.”

To prevent that, $339 million of TMP costs are allocated to airside terminal upgrades, including a new fabric ceiling and larger carousels that will display more luggage than the current units.

TMP will bring still other passenger-centric benefits, such as expanded areas for restaurants and other retailers, a shorter hoof for international travelers, and a dedicated Ground Transportation Center.

Perhaps best of all, Hoback estimates the project will extend the life of the facility by 40 years.

A $1.57 BILLION BUDGET WITH NO TAX DOLLARS NEEDED
TMP also is providing a welcome boost to the local economy. More than 13,000 direct and spinoff temporary jobs have gone primarily to local contractors These include Gensler and HDR, the two firms that formed a joint venture to head up project design.

While those entities are headquartered elsewhere — San Francisco and Omaha, Nebraska, respectively — both were operating offices in our region before their PIT contract awards.

More than 1,000 contractors descend on PIT every day. If you regularly motor to or near the airport and haven’t been stuck in construction-related traffic snarls, you can thank an ingenious project wrinkle. To minimize disturbances to local vehicular traffic, ACAA converted a jetway to a dedicated entrance/exit for project workers. At the completion of the build, the jetway will resume its normal use.

But the long-term economic impact is even more significant. ACAA projects TMP will produce:

-Approximately $2.5 billion in economic activity;
-Roughly $1 billion in direct labor income; and
-More than $27 million in new state and local income tax revenue.

Lest you think ACAA is raiding your pocketbook to accomplish all this, no local tax dollars are being spent on TMP. Instead, ACAA is tapping a variety of spending sources, including revenue from airline leases and fees, federal infrastructure improvement funds, and the proceeds of several bond issues. If you’re an airport user, you’re already contributing to project funding through passenger facility charges and rental car fees passed along to PIT for capital improvements.