Gainesville Regional Airport begins terminal expansion

By November 27, 2019 January 16th, 2020 News

A growing Florida hub, Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV) has broken ground on its passenger terminal expansion and improvement project. It is expected to take up to 23 months to complete.

The project, which will cost in the region of $16m, will include the renovation and expansion of existing restrooms, the wiring of existing seating to charge portable devices, a new glass TSA partition wall to better accommodate a second screening lane and provide a more pleasant environment. The roof is also being replaced over the existing building  and a second food and beverage area is being added. More efficient LED lighting as well as a children’s play area and outoor pet relief area are also part of the airport’s master plan.

” This project is paid for by a combination of state and federal grants, along with passenger facility charges, or PFCs collected by our airlines,” said Allan Penksa, GNV’s CEO. “Most importantly, there is no local tax involved. It is the second of four phases of terminal investment, and it won’t be very long before we get going on these final phases, adding two new passenger boarding bridges to connect to this expansion, a new outbound baggage screening/ handling system and additional airline operations space to better accommodate existing and future carriers.”

The expansion is the latest in several milestones reached by the busy North Central Florida airport. In the last year the airport has added nonstop service to Dallas-Fort Worth, a second screening lane and TSA Pre check, along with increased parking capacity. In addition, the airlines are adding capacity to existing flights by using larger aircraft. By the end of October 2019, year-to-date traffic at GNV was close to surpassing its all-time record of 476,396 passengers in 2018.

Grace Horvath, Gainesville Alachua County Regional Airport Authority (GACRAA) chairwoman added that the community is truly respondign to the airport’s enhanced service. “We are resonating with more and more people, who are discovering how uncomplicated and stress-free, and yes, how economical flying from GNV can be.”

The majority of construction improvemetns in the existing terminal will take place outside business hours, so interruptions to flight operations and passenger expereince are expected to be minimal.

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