Travelers to see changes this summer at Spokane International Airport

Travelers cycling through Spokane International Airport for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend are about to find some surprises, especially if they plan to use hourly parking next to the main terminal.

Crews this month closed off the area that provided hourly parking, which spans the area west of Concourses A and B and the southwest of separate Concourse C, used by Alaska Airlines.

The closure, and other traffic redirections, are necessary to allow crews from Garco Construction to begin staging equipment necessary to begin work on the next main phase of construction. That project will add a Central Hall Facility that finally connects travelers from all three concourses.

“I think the coolest part of the plan is that we, for the first time in history, will connect the A, B and C concourses post security,” said Todd Woodard, director of marketing and public affairs for Spokane Airports.

“So, if you wanted to see your brother off on Southwest on (Concourse) A and you were going to Anchorage on Alaska out of C, you guys could actually meet up and have a beer or lunch or whatever,” he continued.

Currently, the airport has two separate security checkpoints, one for Concourses A and B and another for C.

Once patrons enter through security, they are locked into the respective, separate, concourses.

However, the Central Hall will eventually consolidate all baggage claim on the ground, or first, floor and all the security on the second floor.

But it also means travelers will be able roam to all the different restaurants and vendors rather than being isolated to whatever is located on their travel-gate concourses.

“You might not like the food offerings on C and you want to go … into the A-B area. So, it does provide a lot of economies of scale,” Woodard said. “It provides the concessionaires a better utilization of their facilities.”

That’s the good news. However, that work cannot get done without some minor or major disruptions.

“All the major utilities in this project are located right here where the Central Hall project will be located,” Woodard said. “I mean sewer, water, gas everything. It’s like the perfect storm.

“In order to do that,” he continued. “We need to be able to close off parts of the area so the contractor can work safely and efficiently.”

But it’s not the only thing going on.

Airport officials are also preparing to unveil on May 26 previous work as part of the Terminal Renovation and Expansion, or TREX, project.

“We are getting ready in just a few weeks to open up the new gates on the C-East expansion,” airport spokeswoman Alannah Toft said. “That includes gates C1 through C3.”

That opening is the capstone of the first phase of TREX. Airport officials in 2024 opened the first phase of TREX, which updated gates C-7 through C-9.

All that work will then be connected to the rest of the airport with the eventual completion of the Central Hall expansion.

Parking changes

Garco Construction crews and engineers were scheduled last week do to a walk through of the site. The area that had been used for hourly parking will now permanently be closed.

In the short run, that area will provide Garco crews an area to stage construction equipment, Woodard and Toft said.

Eventually, the area once used for hourly parking will be covered and used as a staging area for taxi cabs and shuttle buses.

For now, folks seeking hourly parking will be directed to outside parking or the parking garage.

However, the construction area will require some walkways to be closed. Travelers who use the parking garage will mostly be directed to use the second-story skyway passageways to cross from parking to the main terminal.

The closures to the hourly parking and certain walkways are expected to last into the first three months of 2027.

“The biggest change for passengers, I guess going into 4th of July time frame, is that the normal route they used to take from the parking garage or the economy lot, from their car to the terminal, may change,” Woodard said. “The sidewalks will still be open, but they may have been relocated.”

In August, along with more crosswalk closures, crews will construct a vehicle bypass through the former hourly-parking area, which is about to become the staging area for Garco.

“We’re trying to do this in four bite-sized phases,” Woodard said. “These are the new changes. This is a lot to absorb over the next four months.

“We’d like to come back … and say, ‘OK. We got through the summer and this is what’s going to happen.’ Because we are going to know a lot more.”