Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Corridors will let travelers explore Lauderdale airport
Broward commissioners have approved building more passageways that will link the Fort Lauderdale airport’s four terminals, allowing travelers to explore shops and restaurants on various concourses, rather than being confined to a single terminal.
Once travelers clear security, they will be able to move throughout the terminals without having to be screened again.
Currently, visitors at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport wanting to get from one terminal to another must exit security, go outside and walk or ride to another terminal, then go through security again.
The corridors won’t have moving walkways, but will include additional seating and public art. They might have merchandise sold from freestanding kiosks.
The first connector, linking Terminals 3 and 4, opened in November 2016. Commissioners approved the money April 10 for the other two connec-
tors, which are expected to be complete by March 2022.
The $129 million connectors are part of an ongoing $3.2 billion expansion and development program at the airport. The projects are being funded by grants, airport revenues and general fees paid by the airlines.
The changes so far have added shops and restaurants, improved customs areas, increased airline gates, added parking and improved baggage screening and other security measures behind the scenes. In Terminal 1 alone, five new concessions opened in February and March, and another five are scheduled to open in April and May.
Of the country’s 29 largest airports, Fort Lauderdale had the largest percentage increase in passengers in 2017, up 11.3 percent, officials said. The annual number of passengers at the airport has increased by 9 million since 2013, reaching 32.5 million in 2017.
Airport Director Mark Gale expects the growth to slow this year because the airport is bumping up against its current capacity. That’s why the expansion projects are so important, he said.
Some of the gates don’t have enough seats for passengers, who are being packed into fuller planes. Gale said some popular plane models, such as the Airbus 321, can have very different seating capacities, depending on which airline ordered the craft. The A321, for instance, can have anywhere from 145 to 228 seats.
“We used to plan a hold room that would handle, let’s say, 145 passengers on the aircraft and now there are 80, 90 more per aircraft, so we are feeling that pain,” Gale said.
Airport officials recently met with JetBlue officials to see whether concessions on Concourse F of Terminal 3 could be rearranged to allow more sitting room for people boarding flights there, while also making the shops more accessible to passengers.
“In the end, it’s going to come down to square footage,” Gale said. “We need more square footage for the airport.”
Gale said he will make that case in more detail when presenting a new airport master plan to commissioners in May.
“When somebody has to wait an hour and a half with their kids, having those available seats is an important aspect,” County Commissioner Tim Ryan said.
The airport is also making changes to accommodate higher-end travelers. It is considering plans for a lounge that first-class travelers on all airlines would be able to use.
“Two signatory airlines have lounges that are pretty much dedicated to their passengers alone, but there isn’t a place where — as you see in other airports that if you’re a card-carrying member of, let’s say, American Express or somebody else — that you could avail yourself and go into a firstclass common-room lounge,” Gale said.
Officials are looking at Terminal 3 as the first place for such a lounge, Gale said.
The airport changes are good for local residents and to the tourists so important to the region’s economy, said Ina Lee, owner and publisher of Greater Fort Lauderdale hospitality magazine Travelhost. Those visitors are going to remember the atmosphere at the airport and things like how well they were treated, the quality of the food options, how easy was it to get their baggage and how long they waited in customs, she said.
“At the end of the day, for most of our visitors, it’s their first experience and their last experience [with Fort Lauderdale],” Lee said. “You have to treat your visitors well.”