BWI Officials Ask For $60 Million To Fund Southwest Expansion

RadioOnFire.com - The agency that runs BWI Marshall Airport is asking for $60 million in state money to expand Concourse A, part of Southwest Airlines' hub operations there.

In documents filed ahead of the Board of Public Works' July 19 meeting, Maryland Aviation Administration officials asked for an expedited procurement for the five-gate expansion, now in the final design phase.

In total, the extension would add 55,000 square feet to Concourse A's total footprint, with 24,000 square feet of new building. That will include five new hold rooms big enough to handle Boeing 737 MAX8 aircraft and 5,000 square feet of new retail and food and beverage space. It would also include an elevator and new restrooms.

Officials say the concourse must grow to "meet existing and projected demand" for Southwest during renovations and expansions of the A/B connector and baggage handling system. While the baggage handling system is overhauled, Southwest will lose the five gates on the A/B connector, so Concourse A needs to be expanded to allow Southwest to maintain the same capacity and operations.

The design for the expansion is expected to be ready in August, and officials want the money soon, since construction must start by January of next year to be ready by July 2020, when they're expected to break ground on the A/B connector and baggage handling system work.

Southwest has had a significant presence at BWI for a number of years. In 2005, the airport opened an expanded, renovated and linked A and B concourse. More recently, those concourses were connected with Concourse C, where Southwest also has flights.

Of the money requested by the Maryland Aviation Administration, just over half would come from the transportation trust fund, while the rest would be taken out as a bond to be paid back with passenger facility charges.




Source WBAL