By Lauren Young

Staff Writer

As the Syracuse Hancock International Airport finishes its $65 million terminal improvement project and holds its grand opening Nov. 1, the executive director said the airport, which earns about $15 million in revenue, has experienced record-setting growth over the past year.

“2017 was a really good year,” said Executive Director Christina Callahan. “We’ve never had this kind of growth before … 2018 was phenomenal, it will go down as being one of our best years since the airport was first opened a long time ago.”

Since 2017, the airport, which first opened to the public in 1949, has unveiled multiple customer service enhancements, such as a pet therapy program, a pet relief room and a quiet space for families traveling with children before boarding a flight.

The airport has also brought a new airline, Frontier Airlines, to the market, which hasn’t happened since 2014, said Callahan.

Frontier Airlines currently serves six cities — Denver, Raleigh-Durham, Chicago, Orlando, Fort Myers and Tampa.

“We now have service to 24 cities — this is a record. We’ve never had service to 24 destinations,” said Callahan. New routes this year, she said, include Denver, Fort Myers, Nashville, Orlando, Punta Gorda, Raleigh-Durham and Tampa.

Last April, the airport introduced its newest fixed-base operator Million Air, a $10 million facility that introduces competition on the airfield said Callahan, which the airport hasn’t seen “in a very long time.”

“This is the first time we’ve seen private investment at the airport in over 10 years,” she said.

For those suffering from construction fatigue and wondering when the airport’s terminal improvement project will finish, it will finally come to an end on Oct. 31 and open to the public on Nov. 1.

The airport competed in and won a $35.8 million grant from New York State to revitalize the terminal building, a $65 million project located in the Town of DeWitt, with renovations including a new grand central staircase, new grand hall, new lighting, gutted and renovated restrooms and installation of a new terrazzo floor. In the center terminal, the front wall was also removed and replaced with a floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall.

“It really opens the space up,” said Callahan.

Other renovations included gutting and remodeling the first floor from terminal A to B, new flooring, new ticket counters, new lighting, new treatments and repainting.

“The best part of this project is that they gave us the opportunity to replace aging systems,” said Callahan, which includes escalators, elevators and other systems 30 years old.

“Undertaking a project of this magnitude, with an accelerated schedule where we turned over a good portion of the terminals to the contractor, meant that we need to take better care of our passengers,” said Callahan.

In response, a customer service program was launched where employees volunteered to work shifts starting at 4 a.m. until midnight in key areas of the airport to ensure passengers always had access to someone wearing an “Ask me, I’m happy to help,” button to “help guide passengers during construction,” said Callahan.

The airport has also remodeled and renovated the concourses, located post-security where passengers board the aircraft and deplane. Torn seating was replaced with functional seating with two plugs for every other seat, and worktop stations were incorporated so passengers can work while they wait to board. Restrooms were also renovated in the terminal A concourse.

One of the airport’s big initiatives, said Callahan, is to replace all the jet bridges with modern glass jet bridges that connect the concourse to the airport and provide coverage in inclement weather.

As for future projects, Callahan said the airport’s parking garage may be next, as it is a “35-year-old structure that has lived 35 years’ worth of upstate weather,” and “needs work.”

“I think once we finish our terminal building and think about finances … we intend to completely renovate, rehabilitate the garage building,” she said, which includes creating a small facility for the rental car operators and removing them from the garage, freeing up about 500 spots.

An $8 million de-icing collection and treatment system project will also begin in spring 2019, funded by the federal airport improvement program.

For more information about the Syracuse Hancock International Airport, visit Syrairport.org.