The refreshed wing sits in harmony with the existing terminal and a contemporary finish, wood ceiling, increased natural daylight, terrazzo flooring is a modern interpretation of the existing building. Materially, the airport authority wanted the airport to offer a world-class experience yet feel like it belonged to the community of Oklahoma City. Part of the modernization of an airport is to provide facilities which can be enjoyed by the customer of today and the future.” A lot of these inconvenient dwell moments on a journey are being slowly removed by technology, which leaves the customer with time to enjoy and time to spend in concessions and retail. There’s no longer going to be queues at the baggage check because everyone is going to be checking their own bags in the future. There’s no longer long queues at ticketing because everything’s automated. “When we think about ‘modernize’ from the customer experience at an airport,” Jenkinson said, “it’s all about leveraging technology to streamline the process so that traveling becomes a pleasure. In additional to more breathing room, the expansion design incorporates new technology. The second reason is the authority wants to be ready to be able to provide direct international service, which could be a seasonal service.” “One is to be able to accommodate a diverted flight from a neighboring airport (due to weather or what have you).
“The reason why the airport wanted to create this opportunity was twofold,” Jenkinson said. The one gate configured for common use and built with a customs area underneath could be used by any airline and is capable of accommodating an international flight. It’s just a little bit more space to give a little bit more enhanced experience and some flexibility for the future.” “We want to avoid that and provide gate lounges that have the capability for today and for the future to be flexible spaces that can be occupied by people that are multi-tasking at the gate – whether they’re dwelling or working a little bit or grabbing a bite. “We’ve all seen it where you walk down the concourse and people are queuing across the concourse and blocking circulation,” he said. HOK and local architect FSB worked with contractor Timberlake Construction and civil engineer of record MacArthur Associated Consultants on the project.īy providing a little bit more space, William Jenkinson, HOK’s regional leader of aviation and transportation, said the expansion provides a little more breathing room, particularly in areas like the gate lounges. “The beauty of this project is it was a true extension of what the airport had,” said Mark Timbrook, FSB aviation market principal. For instance, what had been the two screening areas are now large meeter/greeter lobbies. The project also repurposed some existing spaces.
“The expansion really expanded the queuing space, the capacity to the checkpoint so that definitely helped the situation that the airport had had for a long time,” Mulder said. Of that total, the expansion was 133,000 square feet. The 151,000 square feet represents the total project.
“So the airport really had been struggling with security lines and not enough space,” he said. The building was updated in the early 2000s, but he said the updates didn’t accommodate post-9/11 security screening procedures for both passengers and baggage. “Our peak here was in 2019 with 4.4 million passengers,” said Jeff Mulder, Oklahoma City’s director of airports.Ī driving issue for the expansion was the need for a larger, consolidated security checkpoint with more pre- and post-security space, Mulder said. When design plans were approved for the concourse in 2015, the airport was seeing more than 3.8 million travelers per year and demand continued to grow. Altogether, the airport now has 24 gates and room to add six more. Three of the gates are leased to Delta Air Lines and a fourth can accommodate wide-body aircraft. The $90 million expansion, with four new gates on a new east concourse and an eight-lane consolidated security checkpoint, adds capacity and helps put the “world” in Will Rogers World Airport. The modernized MEM concourse opened in February. The OKC expansion opened in September 2021. Take a look at a $90 million terminal expansion at Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) and a $245 million concourse modernization at Memphis international Airport in Tennessee (MEM). While there are some universal challenges and solutions, such as creating new spaces creates new possibilities, no two solutions are exactly the same. How does an airport, through a building project, create a more pleasant passenger experience? That’s the multi-million-dollar question.
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