Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport is getting a new terminal — in 12 years. Why it'll take so long
A new terminal will be built at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego announced during her State of the City address on April 23.
But it will be a while before passengers can use it.
Because of rigorous and lengthy review processes, city aviation officials don't expect construction will begin on the West Terminal at Sky Harbor Airport until the early 2030s.
Jordan Feld, Phoenix's deputy aviation director; and Jay DeWitt, chief development officer of aviation, are working on the new terminal. Feld gave a presentation at a recent City Council meeting that revealed the terminal would be built west of Terminals 3 and 4, will have 40 to 60 gates and will begin construction in 2032 after design planning and an environmental review that will take at least six years.
The Arizona Republic interviewed Feld and DeWitt about plans for the West Terminal. Here's what they shared.
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Environmental review required for new Phoenix airport terminal
The main reason it will take so long to build the new Phoenix airport terminal is a six-year environmental review process. Sky Harbor staff estimated that work will take place from 2025 to 2031.
The process starts with an airport layout plan review, which involves assembling a complicated regulatory map that the Federal Aviation Administration must approve before the environmental review can start. The airport layout plan takes about a year to complete.
Next, airport officials must complete a benefit-cost analysis, which Feld described as a detailed study that justifies the project and explains the design parameters that will likely be used.
After that comes the environmental impact statement, which is the longest part of the process.
Most of Sky Harbor's projects go through a shorter regulatory process, an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act, Feld said. But larger projects like new terminals require an environmental impact statement, which involves regular check-ins with regulators and extensive public outreach.
"When you add it all up, you get to five, six years pretty fast," he said. "There's no shortcut (for) EIS. In fact, the five-year timeframe for an EIS is actually relatively quick."
EIS reviews are typical for new airport terminal construction and other large-scale airport investments. Feld said Tucson International Airport had to go through the EIS to build new runways.
Feld and DeWitt estimate the West Terminal's construction will begin in 2032 and it will at least partially open in 2036.
New Phoenix airport terminal will be similar to Terminal 4 in size
Passengers can expect the West Terminal will have a similar size and layout to Terminal 4, including eight concourses, Feld said. Right now, the exact square footage is unknown.
The new terminal will have parking in its upper levels and a connection with the PHX Sky Train, which is free to ride and connects Terminals 3 and 4 to economy parking lots, the Valley Metro light rail and the Rental Car Center.
Additional parking beyond a terminal garage is part of the plan for the West Terminal. Feld floated the possibility of converting the surface lot at the 24th Street Sky Train Station into a garage, which would add more parking spaces.
The design of the terminal will be modular, which will allow staff to build more concourses as the need arises, Feld said.
"It's reasonable to expect the type of aircraft will get larger and larger and the technology will continue to get better and better," Feld said. "This seems like a great thing (with) a more seamless process so you can get planes in and out of the gates quicker and move through the airfield more efficiently."
One way terminal gates at Sky Harbor have evolved is how queuing for flights happens against the wall, allowing more room for seating, DeWitt said. This will be how the concourses in the West Terminal, as well as a new concourse under construction in Terminal 3 expected to open in 2027, are laid out.
Staff won't know until further in the process what airlines and planes will use the terminal. They base their plans on assumptions about the future market needs and what trends they anticipate. Feld envisions larger aircraft and higher passenger occupancy being the prevailing trend at Sky Harbor and other large hub airports in the U.S., things that must be factored into the design of the terminal.
"You don't want to miss a huge opportunity," he said. "It's like putting all your money into LaserDiscs and then you find out about DVDs in a couple of years."
Existing baggage system would exceed capacity in late 2030s
Feld told the Phoenix City Council in May that demand at Sky Harbor's existing terminals will exceed capacity by 2038. A chart displayed during the meeting showed the airport's baggage system would be incapable of handling the forecasted demand.
The baggage system is "very space consuming," he told The Republic. The only way to improve baggage operations is with newer facilities that will improve the system.
"There's only so much you can do to the baggage system ... you can optimize the facility, you can make some investments, you can try to expand it, but there's limits to it," Feld said. "If we continue to grow without improving functions like baggage, you wouldn't be happy with how long it would take to get your bag."
Airport staff plan to address the need by building a high-tech baggage system in the West Terminal that connects to Terminals 3 and 4, allowing bag processing to be shared between terminals, he said.
New customs facility would improve international flight needs
One of the first details to emerge about the West Terminal was it would have a state-of-the-art customs facility for processing international travelers more efficiently.
“Our forecast for international demand is continuing to grow," Feld said. "If you experienced the international facilities in Terminal 4, they're nice. But it would be hard to see how they could accommodate double that activity 20 years from now."
The impact of greater demand for international travel is evident at Sky Harbor through new routes, like Tijuana via American Airlines and Los Cabos via Frontier Airlines; new planes like Condor Airlines' Airbus A330-900neo for its flights between Phoenix and Frankfurt, Germany; and new airlines, like Air France's newly launched nonstop service to Paris and Canadian carrier Porter Airlines announcing flights to Toronto.
Airport staff think an improved customs infrastructure will help attract new international flights, including long haul. Feld said the new customs facility will build resiliency into the airport's operations, as the existing Terminal 4 customs facility will continue operating.
How much will the new Phoenix airport terminal cost?
The total cost for the West Terminal construction is not yet known, but DeWitt thinks the scope of the project is comparable to Salt Lake City International Airport, where a new terminal was built to replace aging concourses, opening in phases in 2020 and 2023. The terminal cost $4 billion to build, according to Salt Lake City documents and Feld's City Council presentation.
Salt Lake City officials sought to meet fast-growing tourism demand as more people flew in, particularly during ski season. Transportation Security Administration officials stated the old airport was built to accommodate 10 million passengers per year, but was handling up to 26 million passengers before the new terminal's debut.
The goal with Sky Harbor's West Terminal is similar: Develop a state-of-the-art terminal that's better equipped to handle larger airplanes and more travelers.
Sky Harbor intends to apply for federal and state funding to help pay for the terminal construction, DeWitt said. He said grant funding historically wasn't available for airport terminal projects, but the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021 changed that.
A $20 million grant from the infrastructure law supported the construction of 16 gates in the new Salt Lake City terminal. In Arizona, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in east Mesa received $14.4 million under the infrastructure law to build a new six-gate concourse, which opened in February.
Money for most of Sky Harbor's projects comes from airport cash, bonds and passenger facility charges, fees that air travelers pay any time they buy a plane ticket. Airport projects are not paid for using tax dollars.
Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who’s covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as The Arizona Republic’s consumer travel reporter aims to help readers navigate the stresses of traveling and get the best value for their money on their vacations. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @salerno_phx.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix airport's new terminal will take 12 years to open. But why?