Baltimore/Washington World Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) is in a position and keen if Southwest Airways finalizes its much-hinted-at plan for airport lounges.
That used to be the message from Maryland Aviation Management Govt Director Shannetta Griffin as she stood within the light-filled central atrium of BWI’s new connector, which provides a brand new — and extra spacious — hyperlink between concourses A and B.
If Southwest does make a decision so as to add a community front room, because the service has hinted at, BWI has the distance for it.
“We’re for sure hoping for [a Southwest lounge], and if you should communicate to Mr. Jordan, I’d admire it,” she stated, regarding Southwest CEO Bob Jordan.
Jordan has hinted again and again during the last yr that the airline may upload lounges, a top quality product and even long-haul global flying. On lounges, he informed CNBC previous in December that Southwest used to be “actively pursuing” the speculation.
BWI is Southwest’s third-largest base by way of each seats and departures, and its biggest within the japanese U.S., time table information from aviation analytics company Cirium displays. And, whilst the airline is in the course of probably the most dramatic adjustments in its historical past, the airport stays a essential dot on its path map and one that would transform much more vital if it comes to a decision to release transatlantic flights at some point.
As for that $500 million A-B Connector, which BWI claims is its biggest challenge ever, it’ll make stronger the enjoy for Southwest flyers.
It provides 142,000 sq. toes within safety, reclaiming house from 5 gates to open up a right away path on a unmarried degree between concourses A and B. In the past, passengers needed to stroll again to the principle terminal space after which climb as much as and traverse the meals courtroom when connecting between the concourses. It used to be all “airside” — or previous safety — however used to be just a little of a circuitous adventure for passengers.
Put otherwise, vacationers connecting between concourses A and B adopted one thing of a “U” formed trail. The brand new connector hyperlinks the 2 ends of the U.
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The 5 gates that the brand new house changed have been driven out to the west and rebuilt in keeping with each concourses A and B, a unmarried facility BWI opened for Southwest in 2005 for $264 million, or $440 million in these days’s greenbacks.
BWI opened a $48 million five-gate extension of Concourse A for Southwest in 2021.
“Southwest appreciates the management from the Maryland Aviation Management and the State of Maryland to deliver the airport’s biggest capital challenge up to now to fruition,” a Southwest spokesperson stated. “The A/B Connector challenge will make stronger the passenger enjoy and make allowance us to serve much more consumers with our unrivaled hospitality and reliability.”
The spokesperson declined to touch upon whether or not Southwest used to be taking into consideration BWI for a front room.
“We’ve gotten a dedication from Southwest that we will be able to proceed to be their biggest East Coast — and so they don’t essentially use the phrase ‘hub,'” stated Griffin, on the lookout for the suitable phrase for the airline’s huge base at BWI. “However their East Coast supplier.”
Southwest carried 71% of the 26.1 million vacationers who handed via BWI all through the yr finishing in September, the airport’s newest site visitors information displays.
The spotlight of the brand new connector is the central atrium, the place a tumbler ceiling covers an open house out to the gate spaces. Whilst no longer completely column-free, it’s an expansive vista this is uncommon at BWI, an airport higher identified for its low prices and capability than surprising structure. The gap will function retailers of native concessions by way of subsequent summer season, airport officers stated.
“When folks come into the airport, that is the primary position they arrive and the closing position they see after they come again from their travels,” stated Griffin. “Ensuring our passengers are protected, they’re comfy [and] then they have got this open house now this is very other from the rest they’ll see within the airport.”
And, simply to verify vacationers know they’re in Maryland, 3 ducts spanning the whole lot of the brand new glass atrium are wrapped within the state’s flag.
There’s a lot to love concerning the new connector: Ground-to-ceiling home windows give vacationers an expansive view of the runways past. The restrooms are in step with BWI’s award-winning same old. And the jet bridges are in part glass, a rarity at U.S. airports.
Beneath the brand new connector is a brand new luggage processing gadget that may take care of as much as 3,200 luggage an hour for Southwest, stated the airport’s challenge supervisor, Robert Kleinman. The present gadget can handiest procedure 2,100 luggage an hour.
