This fall, passengers at Pittsburgh International Airport will take their last ride between terminals on the airport’s tram — the final remnant of Skybus, an autonomous transit system Pittsburgh abandoned in the 1970s.
Instead, in a new terminal, passengers will go through security and then walk over a bridge and through a tunnel that opens up into a great hall.
Construction on the airport’s $1.57 billion upgrade is more than 80% complete, according to the Allegheny County Airport Authority, the agency responsible for the project. It features a new landside terminal, more parking, shorter waits at security and baggage-claim areas, and landscaped outdoor plazas to pass the time before flights.
The Terminal Modernization project, as it’s called, has been underway since 2021 — designed to make a more efficient airport for those who start and end their trips in Pittsburgh.
“We're an airport now that was designed for a different function,” said Paul Hoback, executive vice president and chief development officer at ACAA.
“We needed to do some type of renovation,” he said. “And the renovation that makes the most sense — which actually meets our No. 1 priority with this project, which is stable and predictable airline costs — is the fact that we're reducing our costs to operate here by $23 million a year with this project alone. Not only that, it's improving the passenger experience.”
The current Pittsburgh airport was designed in 1992 as a hub for what was then called US Airways. Most of the passengers at the airport went from one flight to another, connecting through the airport. But once PIT stopped being an airline hub in 2005, its needs changed. Last year, more than 9.7 million travelers started and ended their flights at PIT, which is the highest number of non-connecting passengers in the airport’s history, according to Blue Sky News, the airport’s publication.
More passengers starting and ending their trips at PIT created bottlenecks at TSA security checkpoints. In the new terminal, more security lanes will be open at the same time to keep things moving. Smart scanners will be added to security, eliminating the need to take out laptops or empty water bottles. All passengers will be able to take a first pass through security with their shoes on.
The current airport baggage system consists of a web of 8 miles of conveyor belts that run from check-in to planes and then from planes to baggage claim. The new system is cut down to 3 miles and includes larger carousels to speed up luggage pickup. Testing on the carousels is underway now.
And the airport is adding 6,000 new parking spaces, including a nearly completed garage with overhead lights that guide drivers to open spots.
The new terminal has more space for people to pick up and drop off loved ones inside the building. Workers are building four outdoor terraces with lush green lawns — two of them before security and two more after security. When the airport opens later this year, two of them will be open for visitors to sit outside and have a drink before jetting off.
The outdoor terraces and the rest of the new terminal — with constellation lighting on wood-like wavy ceilings, steel supports that look like trees and huge windows admitting lots of light — take their design cue from nature.
“I could count on my hand probably the number of airports in the entire world where you can go outdoors after you get through security, and I think [in] every one of those spaces you have to be a VIP airport lounge passenger in order to get to the outdoors,” Hoback said.
“I don't think there's any that are designed like these, which are beautifully landscaped in one of the ecosystems of the Western Pennsylvania region,” he said.
The ACAA funded the project through a variety of sources, including airline leases and fees, as well as other fees levied on rental car companies, bonds and federal grant money.
Opening day is still up in the air, but the ACAA is targeting this fall. It’s hoping to wrap up most of the major projects by the end of June.
After that, it will put the new terminal to the test for a few months — including a trial when 1,200 volunteers will come to the new terminal “to try to break the system and try to make sure that the airport's gonna operate on day one as it should,” Hoback said.
There are no plans to demolish the old landside terminal, and the ACAA is looking for a new tenant for the building. The airport tram will be decommissioned when the new terminal opens, according to Hoback. Its future is uncertain.
