Cost jumps for Sanford airport’s expansion
$60.6M project will add gates, baggage carousels
The cost of a long-planned Orlando Sanford International Airport expansion project that will add new gates, baggage carousels and garage entrances has soared to $60.6 million, nearly 40 percent higher than previous estimates.
Airport officials attribute the higher cost to the region’s booming economy and last year’s hurricanes that have led to a labor shortage, scarcity of materials and inflation. They add that since mid-2015, when the airport first announced plans for the terminal expansion, the project has gone through a redesign with additional improvements that account for the steeper price tag than the $43 million originally projected.
Those additional improvements include extending an exterior canopy to accommodate passengers when they are being dropped off or picked up at the airport’s entrances, adding better lighting and directional signs in the terminals, constructing
bathrooms and nursing centers for mothers, building alternate entrances into the parking lots and garage and erecting new traffic signals.
“Over time, as the planning process moved forward and the design evolved, various additional improvements and additions were identified and incorporated into the design as part of the modernization of the terminals,” said Diane Crews, the airport’s president and chief executive officer. “We want to do as much as we can and as efficiently as possible to provide a better service for our passengers.”
The expansion project includes four new gates, bringing the total to 16. It also will add three baggage carousels and more security lanes to speed up the boarding process for passengers.
The latest designs also require the airport to increase its electrical capacity, adding to the project’s cost, officials said.
Construction is expected to start this year and should be completed by 2020, airport officials said. The project will be paid for with funds from the state Department of Transportation and revenue from passenger facility charges, a $4 fee tacked onto every ticket into and out of the airport.
Crews said the expansion is needed to accommodate the surge in passengers using the airport — which sits just south of State Road 46 and north of East Lake Mary Boulevard — on Sanford’s east side.
Last year, for example, the airport handled more than 2.6 million passengers, a nearly threefold increase from 901,862 passengers in 2012.
Allegiant Air is the dominant airline at Orlando Sanford, flying to 78 destinations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Other airlines at the airport include Via Air, which flies to eight destinations in the U.S., and Surinam Air, which travels to Aruba, Guyana and Surinam.
At a Feb. 6 Sanford Airport Authority board meeting, Crews said “the last thing we want to happen” is a new airline showing interest in setting up operations at the Sanford airfield but backing out because of the lack of infrastructure and gates.
It’s not just the Sanford airport that is paying big bucks to grow. Airports across the country are trying to keep up with soaring passenger growth by expanding their facilities. Those projects come with high-flying price tags.
Orlando International Airport, for example, recently began a $2.15 billion expansion project that will add a new terminal with 16 gates when it opens in three years. Airport officials last year also approved increasing the cost of that project from $1.8 billion.
Elsewhere, Tampa International Airport is undergoing a $1 billion expansion of its main terminal, rental-car space and automated shuttle.
Salt Lake City’s airport is building a new terminal and other facilities at a cost of $3 billion. And Miami International is currently renovating its concourses and other terminal space for $1.5 billion.
Another issue in the increasing costs locally is a tight labor force.
More than $3 billion worth of large construction projects are in the works in the region, said Mark Wylie, president and chief executive officer of the Central Florida chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors Inc. That has led to a dearth of skilled laborers — including electricians, pipe fitters, plumbers, steel workers and carpenters — for upcoming projects, thereby leading to higher costs.
For example, Central Florida airports’ expansion plans come at the same time as the $2.3 billion rebuild of 21 miles of Interstate 4 through the Orlando area, school districts constructing new facilities and “tons of new apartments being built,” he said.
“Any economist will tell you that a shortage of labor will make prices go up,” Wylie said. “It’s all drawing from the same pool of manpower.”
Lauren Rowe, a spokeswoman for the Orlando Sanford International Airport, said the expansion is needed to modernize the rapidly growing facility.
“The airport considers the use of public funds very seriously,” she said. “We’re not building a Cadillac. We’re building a Chevy. … When you’re one of the fastest-growing airports in the country, your passengers expect to easily find their way.”