Aug. 25--Many changes have taken place -- or are about to -- for Yeager Airport's in-person and online visitors.
The airport's second security screening lane should be up and running today. The lane will be open in the early and midmorning and in midafternoon to help travelers make their way through the process.
Airport Director Rick Atkinson estimates passengers will spend 15 minutes or less walking through security and having their carry-on bags scanned, compared with 25 minutes it took before the second lane was installed. Passengers still must arrive at the airport an hour and 15 minutes before their flight takes off to check bags and go through security, he said.
Atkinson also unveiled the airport's redesigned Web site at the governing board's monthly meeting Wednesday. Anthony Gilmer, a freshman at Capital High School, designed the new site, which still features live flight arrival and departure information.
Gilmer created a map that shows each city served by planes that fly out of Yeager, as well as where passengers can then connect. He also added the number of daily flights each airline offers to each destination, plus the number of total seats.
"Our former site was functional but not very attractive," Atkinson said.
Meanwhile, construction has begun on the terminal expansion project. The $90,000 project includes adding four more gates, 120 more seats and another jet bridge so passengers can walk from inside the airport to their plane without being exposed to the weather.
Delta will use one of the gates. The airline now operates eight daily flights to Atlanta and Cincinnati out of one gate, and some of the flights leave close to the same time each day. The airline cut its 9:18 p.m. flight to Atlanta for September and October but will add it back to the schedule in November, said Brian Belcher, director of air service development.
The three other gates will be available for future airline growth. The expansion should be finished by Jan. 12, Atkinson said.
Passengers will also have another flight available to Washington's Dulles Airport in October. Colgan Air, which flies for US Airways Express to Pittsburgh and Washington's Reagan National Airport, will operate the new flight for United Express. The midafternoon flight begins Oct. 1 and brings the number of daily flights to Dulles to seven.
