Some airlines will be moved during PIT modernization
Pittsburgh International Airport airlines may soon be playing a game of musical chairs, thanks in part to a planned $1.1 billion terminal modernization project and lease negotiations.
Airlines like JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier and Southern Airways Express likely will be relocated from their current spaces in the C and D concourses of the airside building to create room for work associated with the modernization, which includes a new building for ticketing and security tucked inside those two concourse arms.
Other airlines may be moving because they no longer need or want the
space they currently have under their airport lease, which expired in May. A new shortterm lease is in the works and could be finalized soon, Christina Cassotis, the authority’s CEO, said Thursday.
One airline looking to give up gates is American. The airline includes the former US Airways, which ended its Pittsburgh hub in 2004 and dramatically scaled back its operations at the airport before merging with American several years ago.
“This is a chance for us to create a different airside experience for passengers and airlines,” Ms. Cassotis said.
The authority board awarded a $12.9 million contract to Dallas-based Jacobs Project Management Co. Thursday to serve as project manager for the modernization, which includes a new 3,000-space parking garage in addition to the $783.8 million ticketing and security, or landside, building.
With more than 50,000 employees, including about 120 in Pittsburgh, Jacobs is one of the largest program management firms in the country. It was chosen from six firms that competed for the work.
In all, about 12 gates will be eliminated on the C and D concourses facing the current landside building as part of the modernization.
That means that Spirit and JetBlue will have to be moved from that side of the D concourse. In addition, Frontier, Southern, and international charters in the C concourse will have to be relocated to clear the way for work to start on the new landside building.
The authority hopes to begin that project next year. Space also is needed on the D concourse for Jacobs’ offices so it can oversee the construction.
All of those airlines could end up being moved to the opposite side of the C and D concourses or to another space. That has not been determined yet, authority spokesman Bob Kerlik said.
Airlines on the A and B concourses — Southwest, American, United, and Air Canada — also could be candidates for relocation as part of the lease negotiations, given whatever future space and gate requirements they may have.
“We may be shifting others because of the [lease] expiring and because of gate givebacks and space givebacks and new entrants who have come into the market,” Ms. Cassotis said.
Even without the modernization, relocations would have been necessary under the lease negotiations as airlines seek to “right size” their space, Ms. Cassotis said. Given that, it made sense to also start to clear space for the construction.
“It’s the two things together that are driving this,” she said.
The authority hopes to have a new short-term lease, retroactive to May, in place within the next couple of months. It would run until the end of 2019.
Once the short-term lease is signed, negotiations will start on a longterm agreement, in part to help cover the cost of the modernization.
The short-term lease, with some “tweaks and updates,” would basically be the same as the one the airlines agreed to during construction of the midfield terminal, which opened in 1992. It requires the airlines to share in the cost of operating the airport.
With the expiring lease, debt payments associated with the midfield construction have dropped significantly, from an average of $65 million a year — $57.4 million in 2017 — to $24.7 million in 2018 and $17.8 million next year.
Both the 2018 and 2019 numbers also include debt from a 2012 bond issue for airport capital projects. In all, the airport is carrying $107.9 million in debt, all of which the authority hopes to have paid off before the new landside building opens in 2023. That construction will require a new bond issue.
The$1.1 billion modernization also will involve the closing of the current landside building, termination of the tram that hauls people between it and the airside building, and a reduction in the numberof gates from 75 to 51.