KENNER, La. – The new terminal at Armstrong International Airport will be bigger when it opens, but it won’t open until later than planned and without a larger price tag.
In a news release issued Thursday afternoon, the city said the terminal, which will have 35 gates, is now expected to open in February 2019 at a cost of nearly $1 billion.
The city said the addition of five new gates is behind added cost and revised construction timeline.
The new terminal was first planned to be completed and in operation by October 2018 but will be several months behind and cost another $178 million because of the additional gates and other design modifications.
Some of the extra cost comes from accommodating recent traveler growth, which has swelled from what was projected when the new terminal was first planned, according to The New Orleans Advocate.
The newspaper reported that more than 11.1 million passengers, including those who landed and left, made their way through the airport in 2016. That’s the highest number of passengers in the airport’s history.
When the new terminal opens in 2019, officials expect the number of passengers to be about 18 percent higher than expected during the planning stages in 2013.
New Orleans Advocate reporter Richard Thompson contributed to this report.
