Austin airport proposes new plan to nearly double in size in largest expansion ever

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is rolling out a new multimillion dollar expansion plan, the largest expansion in its history.

AUS is poised to nearly double in size with the expansion, which is part of the Journey with AUS Project.

AUS has seen an increase in passengers, with more than 20 million travelers walking through its doors every year since 2022, says the airport. The Journey with AUS project aims to accommodate those millions of flyers as the numbers increase.

"At the end of it, we will have double the airport in size and made room for more passengers, more airlines and, of course, our air service to offer to our passengers," said AUS public information officer specialist Lelsy Ramirez.

ABIA is in the beginning phase of creating a new arrivals and departures hall.

"The firms that have been selected for the design of the hall have been already posted for council approval, so September 26th is when it will be officially approved by council," said Ramirez.

According to AUS, the new addition will expand the ticketing area, check-in area, security checkpoints and add more space for concessions and baggage.

"That will essentially bump out the front of the terminal up to where the current Red Garage is right now so that Red Garage will be demolished in order for the arrivals and departures garage to be able to be built out," said Ramirez.

AUS says the short-term projects in the works are the West Infill and TSA Checkpoint 3 expansion, an outbound baggage handling system, and the West Gate terminal expansion, all set to be complete by 2026.

Long-term projects include a 20-gate Concourse B and a connector tunnel. A groundbreaking for the taxi ways connected to the concourse will happen this month. All of those will be complete by 2027.

"The current taxi ways sit where our concourse is going to go, so we need to build out new taxi ways to have other taxi ways to free up that space where the Concourse B is going to go," said Ramirez. "With that process of having to double our airport in size that will come with some changes which they have slowly started to see with these near-term projects."

The arrivals and departure hall is estimated to be complete by 2030 at the latest.