Tucson airport eyes terminal makeover to meet changing demands of air travel
By David Hatfield
Walk into the departures level of the terminal at Tucson International Airport these days and among the most obvious features are the airline ticket counters — the empty counters.
Despite the overall modern look from the last renovation completed eight years ago, it’s obvious this is a terminal that was designed to accommodate airlines that once made Tucson a regular stop, including Aeromexico, America West, Arizona Airways, Braniff, Continental, Frontier, Hughes Airwest, JetBlue, Northwest, PSA, Reno, Republic and TWA. Some withdrew service from Tucson, but most, nine of them, are airline names that no longer exist.
Assuming regulators approve, another name will begin to fade away by year’s end when US Airways is combined into American, leaving it, Alaska, Delta, Southwest and United as just five airlines serving the airport.
This is also an airport terminal designed before Sept. 11, 2001, and the security measures that came afterward.
And one other important contributing factor is how airlines have adapted to technological advances that now allow passengers to get boarding passes on their smartphones and to use self-bagging and tagging services.
All of which means its time to start looking at a Terminal Renovation Improvement Project (TRIP). The Tucson Airport Authority is currently soliciting requests and from firms to provide phasing, programming, design, cost estimating and construction documents and administration. The plan is to award a contract by the end of May.
Lorraine Behr, manager of architectural services for the airport authority, says the project is the result of nearly two years’ work on a terminal optimization study focusing on four areas:
• Improving passenger flow.
• Enhancing customer service levels.
• Optimizing space.
• Increasing revenue for the airport.
“Since 9/11, most passengers want to come in to the terminal, get through the security checkpoint and then get to a place where they can relax,” Behr said. “In our case we’ve found that we have way too much space in the areas pre-security and not enough space post-security.”
Key to the changes being contemplated in the preferred design concept are moving the security checkpoints from “the throat of the concourses,” as Behr puts it, and putting them at the far east and west ends of what are now the airline ticketing counter areas. For those with memories of when these areas were used by airlines, the security entrance to the A Concourse would take the place of the vacant counters last used by ExpressJet and Frontier Airlines and the security area to the B Concourse would take the place of the counters last used by Northwest Airlines and JetBlue.
The security checkpoints are envisioned to have four to six lanes.
In preparing for the renovation, Behr said airport officials reviewed mechanical and technical drawings dating back to when the terminal was originally built in 1962. Some areas behind the airline ticket counters have remained largely untouched since then.
All but those who remember using that original terminal back in the 1960s and 1970s might be surprised to learn the south wall of the terminal facing over the airfield features glass, which could come into use again. Once passengers pass through the security checkpoints they would walk behind the airline ticketing offices along a glassed-walkway to the concourse.
“From the entrance to the back of the terminal building it will be sunlight to sunlight, opening the whole area up,” Behr said. “This should be gorgeous when we get it done.”
Currently, the construction budget for the renovation is anywhere from $3 million to $12 million but that will be refined based on final designs and how they impact the terminal building and its infrastructure, Behr said. Yet to be determined is how much of the projects will qualify for funding from federal and state entities.
A goal of TRIP is to make changes that will serve the airport for at least the next 20 years. Included in the preferred design concept are:
• Boosting concession space on the cramped A Concourse by 3,100 square feet, or 40 percent, from the existing 7,500 square feet. About 1,600 square feet, or 20 percent, would be added for concessions on the more spacious B Concourse, which currently has more than 8,500 square feet already being used.
• More space will be made available for kiosks, both for airlines and for things such as ATMs.
• Space will be made available for ticket counters to be reconfigured into a pier concept airlines are finding more efficient. These piers would extend further out toward the front entrance to the airport. (Basically, instead of walking up to a counter and then having to back-track afterway, the pier system has passengers walk up to a kiosk to start the check-in process, then move forward beyond the kiosk to check a bag if necessary, continuing to move forward through the system.)
• Even in the pre-security areas, food, beverage and retail concessions would be relocated closer to where people congregrate. Most likely the Jet Rock restaurant and lounge and the Paradies Desert News and Gift Shop on the mezzanine level would be closed and moved to the ticketing level. One idea is to have the airport authority move its administrative offices into the mezzanine area, allowing for the lease or sale of the current administration building, 7005 S. Plumer Ave.
There’s no timetable for construction, although Behr thinks it could start within a year. She said the phasing will be crucial and making sure each tenant at the airport buys into the plan.
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