Sep 12, 2024 - Travel

$241M concourse expansion at Charlotte airport opens this month

Ashley Mahoney

Concourse A phase II expansion at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. — The 5,000-pound DC-9-82 T-Tail was salvaged from Roswell, New Mexico. Photo: Ashley Mahoney/Axios

Charlotte Douglas International Airport's Concourse A phase II expansion opens Sept. 17, adding 10 more gates. The concourse's phase III expansion is already in the works.

Why it matters: Airport officials were asking themselves where the airport's next gates would come from even before CLT's record-breaking summer for passenger traffic. The airport will now have 124 gates.

Catch up quick: Concourse A's $241 million phase II expansion, which was delayed due to the pandemic, began construction on May 10, 2022. It sits on a former rental car site, which was demolished in 2016.

What they're saying: "We are a very high-volume airport here," CLT chief infrastructure officer Jack Christine told reporters Thursday. CLT gates see eight, nine, and sometimes 10 planes at a gate per day, known as turns. A gate is considered fully utilized if it sees four to five turns a day.

"We have the need for additional capacity here," Christine says.

What to expect: Seven of the 10 new gates will be used by Delta and two by Frontier. One will be a common-use gate. It's a 10-minute walk from the terminal lobby and a 22-minute walk to Concourse E.

The 200,000-square-foot expansion brings the terminal, including the terminal lobby, to roughly 2.2 million square feet.
The expansion includes two pieces of public art — a Wright Brothers exhibit and a reimagined MD-82 plane tail by MotoArt.
Delta Sky Club plans to open its first Charlotte location in December. The nearly 15,000-square-foot lounge will seat more than 250 people.

[Go deeper: CLT lounge guide]

The space also includes auto-tinting window glass for temperature and sunlight control inside the concourse, seats equipped with charging capabilities and restrooms.

Dig in: Charlotte-based Great Wagon Road Distilling Co. has a bar in the new section. Dunkin's third CLT location is also here, Market Place for snacks, plus Crown Diner, which will serve all-day breakfast, burgers, sandwiches, salads and cocktails.

What's next: CLT will add six to eight more gates to Concourse A during Concourse A expansion phase III. Phase III is about four years out and the cost is expected to be similar to phase II, Christine told reporters Thursday.

There are also future expansion plans for Concourse B and C, which will add another 20-24 gates total (10-12 gates each) over the next 10-12 years, Christine tells Axios. Concourse C would expand first.
"It takes a little while to design and build these kinds of projects, but we're already thinking about what's coming next," Christine says.

Zoom out: Phase II is the latest project the airport has completed this year. Others include:

Opening a new $8 million airport overlook in June.
Unveiling two skybridges connecting the hourly parking deck and car rental facility to the terminal lobby, which opened in July.

What we're watching: In addition to CLT's ongoing $608 million terminal lobby expansion which is expected to wrap up next year, progress on a new $1 billion runway that will open in September 2027 and renovations inside the terminal, the airport is working to transform its "front door."