The airport expected 6,500 local passengers arriving Tuesday, or about 21% of the pre-COVID normal. So not having 30,000 coming through the front door on opening day was helpful,” the number of local passengers that had arrived pre-COVID. Noting that the security checkpoint backed up a bit as it opened initially - but smoothed out fairly quickly - Wyatt said, “It’s really the first time we’ve exercised it with passengers. Wyatt said a silver lining of the pandemic is that smaller crowds made the transition easier as everyone started using new systems ranging from new-generation security scanners to the seven miles of new conveyor belts for baggage. He added that the new roads - including an elevated road to the drop-off area - are safer and easier to understand than the often-changing lanes amid construction of recent years. Wyatt said the airport “plans to go overboard for a while” in having plenty of extra people to help passengers find their way around. But someone was there to help.” Collins also said he had to get used to finding his way in the new airport, “but I just followed the signs and it was fine.”

as some of the final switch-overs were happening, and his cabdriver was confused by the changed road configuration. “But there was nothing that was a showstopper.”įor example, John Collins of Wellsville arrived in a taxi about 4 a.m. Wyatt said a few technical glitches appeared here and there. “It took a year and half just to plan all that.” “It was like a symphony watching all the planning come together and teams making everything happen quickly,” he said, including painting new stripes on the airport road, changing all the directional signs and moving aircraft over to the new concourse. Tuesday was a smooth takeoff for the first phase of the new airport that is called a “cathedral of transportation” and the state’s largest-ever public works project.Īirport Executive Director Bill Wyatt was among those who spent a long night shutting down the old facilities - which closed about midnight - and quickly opening up a shiny new terminal, concourse and garage a few hours later. She found it so smooth sailing that the official number of that first flight to Atlanta didn’t even bother her: Delta Air Lines Flight 2020 - specially named for the year the new airport opened, but it has generally been a hard year with the COVID-19 pandemic and its many associated disasters.

New salt lake city airport