Fort Lauderdale airport’s new upgrades to make travel easier
Get ready for a more pleasant travel experience at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Just in time for the holidays, there are more places to eat and shop in Terminal 4. There’s also new seating and charging stations, spacious restrooms and — coming soon — changes to the Customs area that will make life easier for international travelers.
Here is what you can expect to see in the next year at the airport, which is predicted to be the nation’s fastest growing over the next 20 years.
— An expanded U.S. Customs and Border Protection baggage claim area will open in Terminal 4 by the end of January, which along with other Customs improvements, should more quickly clear international travelers after their arrival. Terminal 4 services Spirit Airlines, Jet Blue and a number of international airlines.
— A half-dozen gates opened Dec. 19 in a new section of Terminal 4’s Concourse G, along with a coffee shop, newsstand and gift store. The concourse now has high ceilings, plenty of natural light and a modern architectural style. By the end of 2018 there will be more new restaurants — a Burger King, Kafe Kalik and A Taste of the Caribbean.
— Planned Terminal 2 and 3 renovations will be underway next year to bring many more shops and restaurants and modernize those terminals.
The projects are part of an ongoing $2.3 billion capital improvement project that included the runway expansion over Federal Highway that was completed in 2014. As the current projects wrap up over the next few years, the airport is plotting out plans for the future that could include a hotel next to the terminals, an elevated tram for visitors to get around the airport, a reconfigured airport roadway to reduce traffic congestion in front of the terminals and a much larger cell-phone lot for people waiting to pick up arriving passengers.
Another longer-term project would create corridors connecting the airport’s four terminals so passengers who have cleared security can move about freely among the different terminals. The change would also allow passengers to make transfers without having to exit a terminal and pass through security again in a different terminal.
The first connector, between Terminals 3 and 4, opened in November 2016.
“This walkway makes all the difference in the world,” said assistant aviation director Mike Nonnemacher.
It makes gate access easier and expands the number of shops travelers can visit while they’re waiting for their flights, he said.
The $450 million in improvements to Terminal 4 are being funded with grants, airport revenues and general fees paid by the airlines.
While the airport tries to minimize traveler inconvenience during construction, the improvements are still a work in progress.
Passenger Cynthia Sinclaire, who came from San Francisco and was waiting Thursday in the newly opened section of Concourse G in Terminal 4, was disappointed there was no duty-free shop in the terminal and no signs to the one in Terminal 3.
“I have to wait four hours, so I’m very disappointed,” Sinclaire said. “You’d think they’d want you to do some shopping.”
Terminal 4’s duty-free shop has been closed for repairs since a broken fire sprinkler pipe flooded it in August, Nonnemacher said. A temporary duty-free shop is expected to open within the next week, he said.
Officials could have waited until all the bugs were worked out before opening the new concourse section, but officials said that might not have been best for passengers.
“Do we wait and not open it up for the holidays?” airport spokesman Gregory Meyer asked. “It takes some of the stress off the other areas.”
lbarszewski@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4556 or Twitter @lbarszewski
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