Mayor Ralph Becker announces plans to rebuild Salt Lake City International Airport

SALT LAKE CITY — Mayor Ralph Becker announced Tuesday plans to demolish and completely rebuild the Salt Lake City International Airport to address seismic risks and accommodate its emergence as a regional hub.

"The Salt Lake City International Airport was not built to be a hub," Becker said during his State of the City address at the Salt Lake City-County Building. "Today, as the number of passengers has increased annually to (more than) 21 million, it is by all measures a large hub airport, and it must be redeveloped to meet the needs of our region."

City and airport officials have proposed a $1.8 billion phased rebuild of the airport that would take at least eight years to complete. The project is expected to get under way sometime next year.

Because the airport operates as an enterprise fund and its budget is self-sustaining, no taxpayer dollars would be used on the reconstruction. Passenger facility charges and rental car fees would finance much of project, said airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann.

The airport also has no debt and more than $250 million in reserves to put toward the project. Delta Air Lines, which accounts for roughly 75 percent of flights at the airport, also has committed funding to the renovation, as have other airlines operating at the airport, city officials said.

"It's a real exciting opportunity for us, as the crossroads of the West and a major hub for Delta Air Lines, to redevelop our airport in a way that meets today's needs," Becker said prior to his speech.

As now envisioned, the airport would feature just one terminal and 12 fewer gates than it does today, but it would use the space more efficiently, Gann said. All 74 gates would be able to accommodate all sizes of aircraft, each with bridges to the respective planes, eliminating the need for outdoor staircases.

The driving force behind the rebuild was the need for seismic upgrades to airport structures, the oldest of which date back 50 years, including Terminal 1 and concourses A and B.

Rather than retrofitting those areas, city and airport officials decided to tackle operational problems, improve customer service, accommodate growth and maintain competitive costs by completely rebuilding the airport.

"Visitors to the airport should experience a wonderful gateway to Salt Lake City, to our state and to the Intermountain West," Becker said.

Design of the project is expected to get under way later this year. The goal, the mayor said, is to improve the overall passenger and visitor experience.