Terminal expansion underway at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport
LATROBE, Pa. (KDKA) -- Construction is taking off at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, and soon, the waiting and ticketing area will look a lot different.
The project has been in the works for years and will feature new ticketing counters, waiting rooms, and security screening areas.
Gabe Monzo, Executive Director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, says it's been over 25 years since the airport's last expansion, and this new space will give the airport more room to do what they do now but in a better way.
"What drove this project from the beginning was TSA requirements on two lanes of screening," said Monzo. "I don't know if you have been out on a flight, but we line them up pretty far back in the terminal building when we are screening passengers, and that is not good. You want to contain the area and make it comfortable for people, and that's exactly what we are going to do."
Currently, the airport offers once-a-day daily direct flights on Spirit Airlines to Orlando, Florida, and seasonal daily direct flights to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This newly expanded terminal will allow the airport to land and load two aircraft at once, all without passengers being on top of one another.
Despite Spirit Airlines filing for bankruptcy protection last month, Monzo says that having an expanded terminal only helps with their Spirit partnership, and it may even lure another airline to come and set up flights.
"If Spirit flourishes, if someone else comes in, Breeze, Allegiant, whoever it might be, that's great," said Monzo. "We're ready for it. At least now, we don't have to tell somebody [who] says I want to come in tomorrow, we don't have to tell them no. They can do it."
The construction is the first of three phases, and the price tag for this new and improved space is around $22 million, which has been cobbled together from tax dollars, local, state, and federal funds, and grants.
This first phase of construction will likely be done around this time next year and the entire project will be completed within the next three years.
