Plan for New Cleveland Hopkins Airport, with $2 Billion Price Tag, to be Revealed Next Week
May 11—CLEVELAND, Ohio — A years-long process to envision a new Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is coming to a close with a recommendation for a rebuilt terminal that is half new and half old.
Details of the plan will be unveiled next week at a public meeting. But this much is known:
Among the plan's many features: larger, more light-filled ticketing, concourse and gate areas; a more centrally located customs facility; expanded security screening areas; and an on-site rental-car facility.
At a meeting last fall, consultants shared three different possibilities for the airport redesign, including one that remodels the existing facility and another that builds everything new.
City leaders have settled on the third option — maintaining some of the existing structure, but adding new concourses and other spaces in a phased-in approach, based on numeric benchmarks as passenger numbers increase.
The process of envisioning a new airport began several years ago, an effort to reconfigure the facility to better suit its new mix of passengers following the closure in 2014 of the United Airlines hub.
After an initial drop in air traffic following the hub closure, Cleveland Hopkins rebounded, attracting new airlines offering lower fares and drawing more local passengers to the airport.
In 2019, the airport saw more than 10 million passengers, the highest number in more than a decade.
In October 2019, the city hired Florida-based RS&H consultants to lead the once-in-a-decade master plan process, a federally-mandated assessment of an airport's infrastructure needs.
Consultants began the process by asking local travelers and community leaders what they wanted in a redesigned Hopkins airport.
Then, in March 2020, the bottom dropped out of the travel industry, as the coronavirus pandemic brought air traffic to a halt.
Eventually, however, air travel is expected to rebound. In March, 478,754 passengers passed through the airport — the highest number in more than a year, and about 56% of the March 2019 volume.
The current terminal at Cleveland Hopkins is a hodgepodge of construction, some of which dates back to the 1950s. It is generally perceived to be a dated, cramped facility, which typically scores poorly in customer service surveys.
The final public meeting in the master plan process runs from 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 19. It will be held virtually. To register: clevelandairportmasterplan.com/workshops.php.
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