Pensacola International Airport will host a public open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. today. The public can review preliminary concepts for the passenger terminal expansion project. It will take place in the large conference room in the Airport Administration Office. This is on the second floor of the airport terminal.
WHY ATTEND: Those who attend can view the interior and exterior concepts. The project team for the airport expansion answer questions and gather public input.
- Parking for the event will be free for the first hour in all the airport’s surface lots.
For ‘(we don’t) color on the dog,” Mayor D.C. Reeves shared all the airport parking lots were full over Thanksgiving weekend, including the new one on Tippen Avenue.”We have an airport built for one and a half million people that’s now accommodating over 3 million.”
The mayor said several Florida airports have seen their volume grow. “We’re not the only outlier,” he said. “Why are we seeing more air travel? I don’t know. It’s a good question. But we are shattering through, and it’s at least somewhere between 12% and 15% higher than the all-time record the year before. That’s just where we are. Not 1%, not 5%. We’re talking 10, 12, 15%. And remember, when you see those jumps year over year, it’s over an even higher bar.”
Adding to the increase has been airlines using planes with more seats and additional flights to other destinations. He said, “We are grateful to hear recently that it sounds like Delta’s planning kind of a pilot in April to Boston nonstop.”
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT AN OPEN HOUSE? The public will be able to see some general concepts, ideas, and variations of the new terminal. The mayor said, “I think they’ll be excited about what they see, whether it’s a larger area for TSA with potentially more lanes, as well as the open airiness that a new terminal offers, and the expectations of how people congregate, where they get their food and drink, and all those elements you find in some of these bigger airports cities.”
To learn more about Pensacola International Airport, visit flypensacola.com.
