CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Anyone who has traveled through the Charlotte Douglas International Airport recently has no doubt noticed all the construction.
Destination CLT, the $3.1 billion capital investment into the airport, is made up of many different projects to improve capacity. The one passengers will notice first is the expansion of the terminal lobby.
That project started in 2019 and is now halfway done, still on track to open in 2025.
Up until now, that work may have been a slight inconvenience, but airport officials are asking for patience as the next phase will impact travel plans.
“This part of the project is definitely one of the most challenging for us as far as managing the operation every day, the passengers coming through the building and the construction all at the same time,” Jack Christine, Chief Infrastructure Officer for the airport said.
Security checkpoint B will close on March 17 and stay closed through the busy summer travel season.
Right now, there are five security checkpoints at the Charlotte airport. Once the addition of 175,000 more square feet of terminal and lobby space is completed, there will only be three.
Those three checkpoints will have the same amount of security lanes, airport officials said that makes it more efficient.
“It takes them less employees to operate a checkpoint with more lanes than it does multiple checkpoints with less lanes,” Christine said.
Throughout this phase of construction, people should plan to arrive earlier than usual and anticipate longer wait times. They plan to have checkpoint B back open by the winter holidays, equipped with a few of the automated screen lanes already in checkpoint E.
“We had to deal with the construction schedule as well as the customer impact and we can manage this better over a summer push rather than the super peaks that we see during the holidays,” Christine said.
Officials also encourage people to consider TSA pre-check. They said it can help alleviate some of the pressure while the checkpoint is closed.
Contact Chloe Leshner at cleshner@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.