Burlington airport expanding for bigger planes and more passengers with revamped terminal

SOUTH BURLINGTON ― The transformation of Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport from a 1950s-era terminal with narrow hallways and cramped jetways will continue next summer with the start of a $34 million project to build a new north terminal. The existing north terminal will be demolished, according to Aviation Director Nic Longo.

“This (existing) terminal has four jetways attached to it with a hallway about the width of this room,” Longo said, sitting in a small conference room near his office. “So what is that, 25 feet or so? You’re talking 600 to 700 people on these four aircraft in a skinny hallway. This was designed in a different aviation industry when aircraft were smaller. They might be flying more frequently but had between 10 and 25 seats on them. Now we’re averaging closer to 100 to 125 seats on a plane.”

A schematic of the structures that will be demolished and built as part of revamping the terminal at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport.

The existing north terminal juts out from the main terminal building, unlike the planned new terminal, which Longo said will be built in line with the existing main terminal, streamlining access by jets and people. Longo expects it to open by fall or early winter 2025.

“We need more space, we need that elbow room,” Longo said. “We need a better experience for our passengers. So that’s why you’re going to start seeing this linear building.”

Consolidation of security screening was first phase of airport renovation

Phase 1 of the airport transformation was to consolidate Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening lanes into a two-story, 30,000-square-foot, $19 million expansion of the terminal that opened for passengers at 4 a.m. on Oct. 11, 2022. The four-lane security checkpoint utilizes the latest screening technology and includes expanded seating for passengers.

An artist’s rendering of what Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport will look like after planned renovations to the terminal are completed.

The Federal Aviation Administration paid 90% of the cost of the consolidated security checkpoint and will do the same for the new north terminal.

“It’s very rare for a small hub airport to receive terminal funding,” Longo said.

Construction of airport hotel may commence in the spring

Another long awaited project that Longo hopes gets underway soon is the hotel planned for the airport. Initial discussions for the hotel − a joint project of DEW Construction Corporation, based in Williston, and Colwen Hotels, a hotel management company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire − began in 2016.

“There was lots of negotiation,” Longo said. “We got it almost right before the pandemic to start. Then the pandemic hit and everything stalled.”

An early rendering of the hotel planned for Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, which will be next to the parking garage. Seven years have gone by since the hotel was first proposed in 2016, but construction may begin next year.

DEW and Colwen are going through the permitting process now − including an Act 250 permit − and hope to begin construction in the spring, according to Longo. Act 250 is Vermont’s law governing development that requires meeting a wide range of criteria, from environmental to aesthetic, and has been known to hold up, or even terminate, projects in the past.

Longo said it will take at least a year to build the Marriott SpringHill Suites hotel planned for the airport, meaning a best-case scenario of opening in the spring of 2025, if permitting goes smoothly. The hotel will have close to 125 rooms, according to Longo, and will sit right next to the parking garage.

“Very convenient,” Longo said.

Parking garage construction will be suspended for holidays

And what about that parking garage? Visitors to the airport have been baffled and frustrated by the ongoing $2 million upgrade to the lighting and fire alarm systems in the garage, with parking spaces taped off-limits seemingly at random as the work progressed. Longo said the entire operation has been shut down for the holiday season, opening up all parking spaces, except for about 100 on the exposed southside third level of the garage. Snow removal proves too difficult around parked cars.

The entrance to security check and gates at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, as seen on Nov. 8, 2023.

“During the holidays we see lots of peak days where capacity reaches 97% full, so we’re going to open up those spaces and shut down the project,” he said. “Plus, it’s very difficult to work in the winter. We’ll reopen (the project) in the spring.”

Longo said completion of the parking garage project is still another year away, once construction resumes. The garage is one of Patrick Leahy BTV’s largest sources of revenue. The airport is a nonprofit operation owned by the city of Burlington, and Longo is a department head who answers to the mayor of Burlington.

“The role out here financially is to be as self-sustaining as possible, which we are and we have been for a long time, not always, but for a long time,” Longo said.

Airport in the black and nearly back to pre-pandemic numbers

Going back to 2018, before the pandemic struck, Patrick Leahy BTV has ended every year in the black:

Another view, rendered by an artist, of the terminal at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport after planned renovations are completed.

Longo said the airport is still finalizing its audit for fiscal 2023 and can’t yet provide numbers, but he expects another year with a positive net operating income. The jump in income in 2022 reflects the recovery of passenger traffic at the airport, which dropped precipitously during the pandemic to 5,000 to 7,000 outbound passengers weekly. The usual number for the airport is 17,000 to 20,000 people outbound every week.

“We have not exceeded our pre-pandemic number (of passengers),” Longo said. “However, we’re at between 94% and 96% of those numbers.”

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Burlington airport readies for more passengers, bigger planes