The Tennessean
Hadley Hitson
22 Feb 2026
The Metro Nashville Airport Authority has spent years planning for growth, projecting passenger demand through 2037 and a second terminal by 2070. It's the immediate problems, critics said, demanding more attention.
MNAA moved to reexamine its traffic mitigation plan in 2025, including an ongoing $300 million roadways expansion and emergency response timelines.
MNAA President and CEO Doug Kreulen likened the complicated nature of renovating the airport while continuing regular operations to the Tennessee Titans trying to build their new $2.2 billion Nissan Stadium while playing games daily.
Following the series of major traffic disruptions in 2025, airport officials reevaluated plans.
MNAA reported 116,047 passengers on its busiest day in 2025, Oct. 5, and about 8,000 travelers arriving and departing from BNA per hour in peak times. Meanwhile, airport roads can handle 3,500 cars per lane each hour, and there are two lanes for most of the drive from I-40 up to the terminal.
That means the number of passengers trying to come in and out of BNA during peak hours in 2025 exceeded car capacity by up to 1,188, according to MNAA data.
Airport officials said those numbers could be manageable in the right circumstances with constant movement, multiple passengers per vehicle, no excess rideshares on site and no car accidents. But if anything goes wrong or continues to interrupt traffic for an extended period of time, it results in gridlocks like those that occurred Sept. 15, Oct. 5, Oct. 9 and Nov. 30...
Nashville airport plans road expansion amid traffic gridlock - The Tennessean - 22 Feb 2026
