Fast Company - Rob Verger
The Transportation Secretary talks to us about his favorite airports, what makes a well-designed terminal, and what’s in store for the future of domestic air travel.
Now arriving at more than 100 airports in the United States: more money. The money, which totals $970 million in grants for various projects, is thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and represents the third installment of funding for airport terminals out of a $5 billion allocation.
The projects vary in scope, from small to large. An airport in North Dakota is getting $700,000 for a new building, while Chicago O’Hare’s Terminal 3 will receive $40 million for work that includes making a central corridor wider. All told, the money is going to 114 airports for projects that include nuts-and-bolts upgrades to infrastructure and equipment like baggage handling systems, restrooms, HVAC systems, and the passenger boarding bridges that connect buildings to planes. “Some of this stuff is relatively unsexy,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tells Fast Company. “It’s the power plant, it’s the jet bridge, the bathroom, the mechanical and electrical—but that’s really important, and that’s part of what has been underfunded over the years.”
That historical underfunding has certainly started to show.
[Read more: Pete Buttigieg on the future of air travel (fastcompany.com)]
