$243M+ in projects are unfolding at a CT airport. Here’s how they set stage for future growth.
Two major projects at Bradley International Airport — including $185 million for modernizing on how baggage is checked and screened — are expected to be completed by early 2026, setting the stage for future expansion at Connecticut's largest commercial airport, officials said Wednesday.
Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority , which oversees Bradley , said the new system will remove baggage screening from the lobby, opening up space to expand ticketing counters for airlines already at Bradley and make room for additional ones in the future.
"We are starting to run into some capacity problems in terms of our ability to accommodate airline growth and future airlines," Dillon said. "So, this is a much-needed project to free up that capacity and free up that queuing space in the ticketing lobby."
Dillon's comments came ahead of a media tour Wednesday of the construction sites at the airport, putting on display $243 million in new building at the airport.
A companion project to the baggage screening system is the construction of two additions to the east and west end of the terminal. Those additions will connect the concourse and baggage claim areas.
The $58 million project aims at the relieving the congestion at the existing central stairwell and will create a new lounge areas for people waiting for and seeing off travelers at Bradley.
Both the projects broke ground in early 2023, with the additions complete in the fall of 2025 and the baggage handling system soon after in early 2026.
The improvements will come less than four years after the opening of Bradley's $210 million ground transportation center. The transportation center consolidated all rental car companies in one place and added more parking — all connected to the terminal. The project eliminated the need for time-wasting shuttle bus rides.
Dillon said the two new projects will both modernizing the airport and providing more convenience to travelers.
"It's all with an eye towards improving customer service, right?" Dillon said. "We know, at the end of the day that's really what Bradley is selling. We're never going to have the route structure of a Boston or New York, but they'll never have the convenience that we can offer here at Bradley, so we constantly want to stay ahead of that curve."
The projects are being financed by nearly $100 million in federal grants, including funds from the federal infrastructure legislation. The balance of $143 million is being paid for by passenger facility charges. Those charges, up to $4.50 per passenger boarding an aircraft, are allowed at airports such as Bradley that are controlled by public agencies. The CAA is a quasi-public agency.
Dillon said Bradley is one of the last airports in country that screens baggage in the lobby.
With the new system, luggage will be sent to screening via the conveyor system at the ticket counter. Passengers won't have to take the separate step of bringing them to the screening machines in the lobby.
"People are uncomfortable sometimes just leaving the bag in the screening location and walking away," Dillon said. "So you get people standing there, waiting to see, 'Does the bag go through here?' "
"What happens in the future is you'll just go to the airline ticket counter," Dillon said. "It'll be tagged. The airline agent will take it away, put it on a conveyor system that will take it to a separate location.
The screening will take place on the lower level of the new 80,000-square-foot building tucked in behind the back of the airport's hotel. An upper level is expected to be used for future gate expansion, essentially the beginning of a second terminal that could be built on where the now-demolished Murphy terminal once stood. A "mezzanine" above that may be used for offices and mechanical equipment.
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