New $4 Billion Salt Lake City Airport Opens

As life-long Utahns, we couldn't be more excited to finally have our new airport open and to welcome the world to this incredible new showcase of Utah.

From KSL.com article:
The massive, $4.1 billion replacement of the old Salt Lake City International Airport, which is slated to be demolished and built over starting by the end of the year, opened its doors to travelers for the first time Tuesday. Passengers walked into an airport they've never seen before, with a new massive central terminal and its first concourse, Concourse A.

The airport's new linear design — with one central terminal and two concourses parallel to each other — is considered the 'gold standard' for hub airports, and is designed to be more efficient than the wheel-and-spoke layout. The linear design is meant to eliminate aircraft bottlenecking and idling, and also allows for easier expansion at the east ends of the concourses.

To Lorrie Schmanski, of South Weber, the new airport has been a bright spot in an otherwise panic-stricken and gloomy year.

"It's nice to see something happy and exciting," she said as she waited at gate A21 to board Delta Flight 2020. "I feel like every time you turn on the news or open a newspaper, it's been so depressing, sad, full of drama and chaos and stress and tension. It's nice to see something to celebrate."

Schmanski, who was headed to Atlanta for a business trip, said she navigated the new airport with ease, even though she also did not expect to go to a brand-new building. She also was impressed by the futuristic technology at the large new, 16-lane security screening area, which provides each passenger a partitioned area where they pick up a bin from a slot underneath. The conveyor belt system automatically returns bins, so travelers don't have to stack their own bins anymore.

Schmanski said it's a strange time, amid COVID-19, to open a new airport, but she credited airport officials and airlines with making passengers "feel safe", appreciating the hand sanitizer stations at practically every corner.