New SLC airport opens September 15th, 2020
#466
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Posts: 9,957
The first flight from Concourse B at Salt Lake City International Airport took off early Tuesday morning bound for Oakland, California, via Southwest Airlines departing just after 7 a.m.
Concourse B opened with 21 gates to be used by Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest and United. Last month, the majority of the facility — dubbed The New SLC — officially began operations with Delta Air Lines occupying 25 gates in Concourse A-west, including six international gates.
It is the culmination of years of planning and billions of dollars of construction work, as well as the end of an era, officials said.
“It’s a fine day. It’s mixed emotions because we’re saying goodbye to this really remarkable old airport, which served this community so well for so long, so many memories for the people of Salt Lake and Utah. On the other hand, we have this brand-new state-of-the-art airport,” said Bill Wyatt, executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports. “Today is like icing on the cake. It’s been six weeks since the successful opening of The New SLC and today we welcome all of our airline partners to their new home in Concourse B, which completes Phase I of the project,”
To commemorate the completion, the city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony prior to the inaugural flight departure at gate B17. As of midnight, aircraft stopped loading and unloading passengers in the former airport concourses C, F and G. All airlines serving the airport are now operating out of entirely new facilities, Wyatt added.
“We have terminated use of the old airport, which will soon be demolished in anticipation of the next phase of this airport,” he said. “So very exciting. It’s great to see real people here, masked up, social distancing, about to get on an airplane for the first time in this concourse.”
Concourse B will include three new local restaurants and five new shops. More dining options and retail are expected to come online as passenger volume increases, he said.
Concourse B opened with 21 gates to be used by Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest and United. Last month, the majority of the facility — dubbed The New SLC — officially began operations with Delta Air Lines occupying 25 gates in Concourse A-west, including six international gates.
It is the culmination of years of planning and billions of dollars of construction work, as well as the end of an era, officials said.
“It’s a fine day. It’s mixed emotions because we’re saying goodbye to this really remarkable old airport, which served this community so well for so long, so many memories for the people of Salt Lake and Utah. On the other hand, we have this brand-new state-of-the-art airport,” said Bill Wyatt, executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports. “Today is like icing on the cake. It’s been six weeks since the successful opening of The New SLC and today we welcome all of our airline partners to their new home in Concourse B, which completes Phase I of the project,”
To commemorate the completion, the city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony prior to the inaugural flight departure at gate B17. As of midnight, aircraft stopped loading and unloading passengers in the former airport concourses C, F and G. All airlines serving the airport are now operating out of entirely new facilities, Wyatt added.
“We have terminated use of the old airport, which will soon be demolished in anticipation of the next phase of this airport,” he said. “So very exciting. It’s great to see real people here, masked up, social distancing, about to get on an airplane for the first time in this concourse.”
Concourse B will include three new local restaurants and five new shops. More dining options and retail are expected to come online as passenger volume increases, he said.
#467
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#468
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2013
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#469
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Posts: 9,957
A 990-ft. long tunnel--originally built in 2004--connects concourses A and B. Passengers will be delighted to see the four seasons of Utah represented as they make their way through the tunnel. Salt Lake City-based artist Tracy O'Very Covey painted summer and fall, while Texas-based artist Daas painted winter and spring.
Additional facts about Concourse B:
Demolition on the former airport parking garage is underway in preparation for the Phase 2 build out of The New SLC. The new parking garage has twice as many stalls and a introductory rate of $20 per day through 2020.
Additional facts about Concourse B:
- The 21 gates have been allocated as follows: Alaska-1, American-2, Delta-7, Frontier-1, JetBlue-1, Southwest-4, and United-2. In addition, there are three common use-or city gates-that will be used by various airlines as needed.
- Gates B21 and B24 will serve as access points to a hard-stand operation for primarily regional aircraft.
- Electronic plug-ins are available at each seat in the gate area.
- Aircraft gates that employ the SAFEGATE Aircraft Docking System to provide pilots active guidance to support safe, efficient and precise automated aircraft parking during all operating conditions.
- Eight restrooms (seven with private lactation rooms) with deep bathroom stalls and unique Whimsy Wall artwork. Passengers are never more than 150 feet away from the next restroom facility.
- Ability to add 8 gates in a second phase, and 15 gates in a third phase.
Demolition on the former airport parking garage is underway in preparation for the Phase 2 build out of The New SLC. The new parking garage has twice as many stalls and a introductory rate of $20 per day through 2020.
#471
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I will be interested to see if Delta increases the minimum connection time at SLC. All of Deltas B gates are at the two ends while the tunnel is in the middle. From one end of A to one end of B is well over half a mile, longer than the longest walk between Delta gates in the old terminal. If you factor in busing, that even further eats into a 30 minute connection.
#472
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I will be interested to see if Delta increases the minimum connection time at SLC. All of Deltas B gates are at the two ends while the tunnel is in the middle. From one end of A to one end of B is well over half a mile, longer than the longest walk between Delta gates in the old terminal. If you factor in busing, that even further eats into a 30 minute connection.
#473
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Tahoe
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Posts: 474
When I flew thru on Sunday morning, I can tell you that the de-ice operation was nowhere near what it was in the old terminal. Specifically in a A321 we waited an hour and 40 minutes and then only had one truck. There was confusion moving the planes around too. Part of this might have been because it was October and maybe they didn't have staffing, but the snow was predicted well in advance.
Kind of soured the otherwise very nice experience in the new terminal. Reminds me very much of DTW but "mountain modern" in style. Which is a compliment. They just need to fix the operational issue!
Kind of soured the otherwise very nice experience in the new terminal. Reminds me very much of DTW but "mountain modern" in style. Which is a compliment. They just need to fix the operational issue!
#474
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: SJC/YUL
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I will be interested to see if Delta increases the minimum connection time at SLC. All of Deltas B gates are at the two ends while the tunnel is in the middle. From one end of A to one end of B is well over half a mile, longer than the longest walk between Delta gates in the old terminal.
I don't think so, it's a small number of flights and it's predictable selection of flights. Makes way more sense to pad those few flight times rather than change MCT for everybody. The huge majority of DL passengers at SLC are never going to see a bus so why would you give them an MCT based on bussing.
#475
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As I asked out the last time this came up, isn't DTW A longer and still only MCT of 30 minutes? And according to its MCT thread, JFK T4 is 35 minutes, and only 40 if changing T2<->T4.
#476
Join Date: Mar 2005
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I connected through SLC yesterday morning. My flight from RDM parked at new gate B2, and my onward flight to DCA left from A18. My actual destination was the SkyClub, which is at the east end of new concourse A. It took me a solid 15 minutes of continuous walking to get from the west end of B, down through the tunnel located near gates B10 and A14, then up the tunnel and going east toward the SC. In the old days, I could get from gate D13 to gate C13 in about 8 minutes if I tried.
The SLC airport authority did a good job in constructing wide, spacious concourses. Hopefully the lockdowns will end soon and we'll get back to normal, and we'll then see how good the new airport can be.
As far as the SkyClub is concerned, it is now fully opened. The second bar (which is closer to the Sky Deck) opened at 10 a.m.; the first bar was in operation when I was there (between 8:45 and 9:45 am). Also, the seating area at the southeast corner of the club is now open (it was closed in September when I was first there). I really like this club and look forward to working out more of my west coast trips to connect through SLC.
As far as demolition is concerned, I stood on the Sky Deck watching the start of demolition of the former "Terminal 2" building which is immediately to the east of the new Concourse A.
#477
Join Date: Mar 2005
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FWIW, I passed through MSP last week when they received an early season snow storm and the deicing situation was the worse I've ever seen at that airport. Normally, MSP is second to none when it comes to winter operations, but I suspect Covid cutbacks and it being the first winter event of the year combined to make a messy situation. At SLC, I would assume it's a similar story. I would expect deicing operations to improve at SLC once it becomes part of the daily routine, my only concern being understaffing due to Covid.
It took 2 hours to get the situation resolved (looking back on it, I wouldn't be surprised that the captain sprung for the deicing on his personal credit card). For me, the worst part of the delay (other than missing out on my upgrade to SMF) was that the FA on this flight wouldn't serve more than one PDB per passenger. As it turned out, I got to SMF only about four hours late. The concierge in the Concourse E Crown Room upgraded my ticket bucket to a full Y ticket, which got me to the top of the upgrade lists, and put me on an ATL-SLC-SMF routing. I got upgraded after getting on board ATL-SLC, and then got upgraded SLC-SMF, so all was well that ended well.
#479
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