Eleven Alaska Airlines airport terminals all across rural Alaska will be able to see an update as a $30-million renovation project is being planned. The project will include both major and minor renovations. The major renovations will be done in Kotzebue, Kodiak, and Barrow, among others, while small changes will be done in Cordova and Yakutat, among others.
Other terminals who do not need major renovations will undergo aesthetic changes as well to reflect Alaska Airlines's recent branding update.
News Observer stated that the Seattle-based company has a timeline of three to five years for the said project.
"In the years since 9/11 . there's just more space taken up by screening equipment than there used to be," Alaska Airline spokesman Joe Sprague said. "We need to make changes at some locations to better accommodate TSA, and for customers."
This project is part of a three-part investment happening between the company and Alaska. The company will also spend about $50 million on a new hangar in Anchorage. It will also replace its five combination passenger-cargo planes with three all-freighter aircraft.
"We really view those internally as one sort of overall effort to really re-invest in the state of Alaska," Sprague said. "The whole thing is probably reaching $100 million. At a time when the oil and gas companies are reducing their footprints in the state of Alaska, we want folks to know we're very committed to the state."
However, doing the renovations won't be an easy feat. Only one of the 11 airport is accessible by road - in Deadhorse - making the project more difficult than it looks. Also, the locations of other airports would make shipping construction materials difficult and expensive. Lastly, some of the construction will only happen during summer in some of the colder locations, making the renovation period longer.
Alaska Airlines is the company behind several airport terminal facilities in Nome, Petersburg, Kotzebue, Bethel, Kodiak, Barrow, Deadhorse, Yakutat, Cordova, Gustavus, and Wrangell.
