With new terminal, airport set to take off
For many reasons, terminal development at the San Antonio International Airport did not keep up with the city’s economic development over the past two decades.
Our airport plays an outsize role in first impressions, but when visitors land here, they get little sense of our city’s rich history and culture.
The airport should also be an economic development engine. We are one of the fastest-growing cities in the country with a bustling tourism and convention business, but up until this point, we’ve grown without the airport as a catalyst.
We are changing that and moving quickly to make our airport a centerpiece of an economic rebirth.
This week, the San Antonio region will take its first look at the future San Antonio International Airport as the city of San Antonio’s Aviation Department presents the results of a year’s worth of planning for a new terminal.
This is a pivotal moment for San Antonio, as the work to design a new terminal complex begins in earnest.
Some recent history: In 2017, Mayor Ron Nirenberg created the Air System Development Committee, which I chair, to make the airport a public policy priority.
The committee comprised business and community leaders with the goal of answering one question: Will the existing airport facility be big enough to facilitate future growth?
The answer was an unequivocal “yes.”
Three principles guided our process and recommendations:
• Any future terminal should focus on the passenger experience and provide a positive impression for first-time visitors.
• Our future airport must communicate a “sense of self,” meaning our city’s rich history and culture.
• Our future terminal should embrace technology and design trends that one would expect in a world-class airport.
At the outset, I promised the committee we had a year — maybe two — of focused work to get the job done. I was wrong.
Almost six years and a pandemic later, the airport team is poised to share with City Council design concepts for a new airport terminal that are jawdropping. The new airport terminal will spark excitement in our community and reassure many who hinge our future on charting a new course with the airport.
Success has many fathers and mothers — credit for our accomplishments can be shared by many.
Nirenberg demonstrated vision by putting the committee together and making the airport a public policy priority. His leadership has helped us weather political crises that might have derailed a lessfocused elected official.
City staff and their consultants are bringing this vision to life. Our public servants are deeply committed to fulfilling the vision of building a worldclass airport.
City Manager Erik Walsh has been personally involved in this project, immersing himself in every detail of the design and finances.
Jesus Saenz, the city’s aviation director, has assembled a talented team of aviation experts who know how to build world-class terminals and how such facilities attract nonstop flights.
We are making up for lost time. We have the right team and components in place, and we have momentum for a 2024 groundbreaking of our new terminal.
We are on the precipice of doing something special for our city and building an airport that will propel our region for the next century, taking a perceived economic development liability and changing it to an economic-development crown jewel.
This city deserves a worldclass airport.