The construction of a new baggage checking and screening system at Bradley International Airport — now about 50% complete — got a new financial boost, securing an additional $6 million in federal grants to help pay for the estimated $188 million project.
The Connecticut Airport Authority, which oversees Bradley’s operations, said the funding comes on top of $31 million already awarded to Connecticut’s largest commercial airport in previous years from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Terminals Program.
The program, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2021, is helping fund terminal reconstruction, development, accessibility and energy efficiency at 125 airports across the country. Bradley has been successful in securing the competitive grants in each year they have been offered, according to the CAA.
“ Bradley Airport is a critical piece of Connecticut’s economy,” Chris DiPentima, president and chief executive of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said, in a statement. “Businesses and their workforces need to be able to move around the state and the rest of the country to attract businesses and individuals to the state. These improvements will help make Bradley, and Connecticut, an even more desirable experience.”
CBIA is Connecticut’s largest business lobbying association.
Kevin A. Dillon, the CAA’s executive director, praised the efforts of Gov. Ned Lamont and the state’s federal delegation, including U.S. Sens, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, for their efforts in securing the latest round of grant funding.
The new system will remove baggage checking and screening from the terminal lobby and move it to an new addition by way of a conveyor system. The change will open up space to expand ticketing counters for airlines already at Bradley and make room for additional ones in the future.
The 80,000-square-foot addition for baggage screening — tucked behind the Sheraton hotel — also will accommodate an expansion of the terminal on an upper floor of the addition with two new gates, concessions and restrooms. The gates are expected to open when the addition is finished, most likely in early 2026.
All passengers — business and leisure — will benefit from the new system because it will be easier and less cumbersome to check bags. The system now being built at Bradley is already standard at most airports across the country, CAA officials have said.
In addition to federal funding, the construction is being financed by a combination of passenger facility charges and other airport revenue. The facility charges, up to $4.50 per passenger boarding an aircraft, are allowed at airports such as Bradley that are controlled by public agencies. The CAA is a quasi-public agency.
The new baggage system is part of more than $240 million in major projects at the airport.
A companion project to the baggage screening system is the construction of two additions to the east and west ends of the terminal. Those additions, expected to be completed in late 2025, will connect the concourse and baggage claim areas.
The $58 million project aims at the relieving the congestion at the existing central stairwell and will create a new lounge areas for people waiting for and seeing off travelers at Bradley. The central stairwell will be eliminated, allowing for an expansion of the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, passenger checkpoint.
The FAA grants to Bradley through the Airport Terminals Program are part of the larger, nearly $100 million in federal grants that are helping to finance major improvement projects aimed, the airport says, at improving the passenger experience at Bradley.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [email protected].
©2024 Hartford Courant. Visit courant.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
