KENNER, La. - It is the gateway to New Orleans for travelers flying into the region. Over the years, Armstrong International Airport has seen its share of updates, but now it's about to get a major facelift.
"The big picture is, we're going to modernize the whole airport," said New Orleans Aviation Board Chairman Dan Packer.
On Wednesday, the Aviation Board unveiled the first plans in a series of improvements for the airport. The $350 million project will include renovations, an expanded concourse, new eateries and possibly a hotel inside the airport.
"When you step off a plane and you got to an airport, you immediately feel good or bad about your surroundings, and certainly this is an economic engine, not only for the city of New Orleans, but indeed, this entire region," said Jefferson Parish Council Chairman John Young.
Work is already underway to expand Concourse 'D,' which will add six gates. The concourse expansion is expected to take about 18 months and should be finished by September of next year. The hope is that the improvements won't just lead to more visitors coming to the city, but also help attract new airlines.
"Of course, to attract the larger conventions, if we're going to be hosting meetings of 30,000 people or more, many of those people come from countries all over the world," said Kelly Schulz, spokesperson for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. "So, it's important to have more flights coming into the city and, once they do get here, they're going to have a good start to their trip by seeing our new modernized airport."
The money for the capital improvement projects comes from passenger facility charges-- a fee that travelers pay on each plane ticket in and out of Armstrong International. Hurricane Katrina, though, put a major dent in the number of travelers coming through the airport.
Before the storm, in 2004, the airport saw 9.35 million passengers. However, in 2006, after the storm, the number fell to 6.22 million. It's rebounded since then, with 7.78 million travelers coming through in 2009-- but that still falls short of the pre-Katrina numbers.
"We've been climbing slowly," Packer said. "Maybe not as much as we'd like, but certainly more than most of the airports in the United States."
Now, there is a race against time to get the airport ready, as the city prepares to host the Superbowl in 2013 and with New Orleans set to celebrate its tricentennial five years after that.
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