SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Regional Airport Authority (SRAA) on Friday formally opened the new exit portal in terminal B at Syracuse Hancock International Airport.
The project cost about $1.5 million, Jason Terreri, executive director of the Syracuse airport, said in a late-morning ceremony at the facility.
“What you see here is the first phase of it. Right now, the other side of the airport, the other exit is being worked on. That will be completed before the Thanksgiving rush,” Terreri noted.
In the past, passengers had complained to airport officials that the exit portals were too slow and they saw it as something the facility would have to fix.
“So, we had been planning on doing an exit-portal program replacement and then the pandemic hit, which dramatically reduced all of our traffic here at the airport and put a stop to most of … our projects,” Terreri said.
The airport had to fix its exit-lane technology “for a couple reasons,” the airport director noted. The facility needed to provide a “more efficient and a safe” option for people traveling out of the airport. And officials at the Syracuse airport wanted to make sure they provide the “best customer experience for everybody.”
In April, the federal government awarded Syracuse Hancock International Airport a $13 million grant through the CARES Act.
“[Without that], this project would not have been possible as well as just the normal continued day-to-day operations as our numbers have been down,” Terreri said.
Even as the pandemic continues, passenger traffic “is returning” to the Syracuse airport, he said. Each month, the facility is adding new flights and more capacity back into the market and the airport is “ready to welcome passengers back in.”
In 2019, the Syracuse airport had about 2.5 million passengers come through the facility, Terreri said. “That’s a three-decade record,” he noted.
The new exit portal has increased capacity at the airport, so as the traveling public returns and “we exceed the 2019 levels that we had, we will not have any delays of passengers coming out of the airport,” Terreri contended.
The exit portals have “often been a conversation piece,” Jo Anne Gagliano, chair of the SRAA board of directors, said in her remarks.
“Now, we have a way to be secure and also provide convenience for people to move through” the airport more freely and efficiently, she said. “We are extremely appreciative … of the CARES Act that allowed this project to take place as it was planned this year,” Gagliano added.