With 10 million passengers per year trooping through your halls, trampling your carpets, and using your restrooms an airport terminal tends get a bit long in the tooth – especially if it was built back in 1985. That’s the case with Las Vegas McCarran International’s Concourse C. The longtime home to discount airline Southwest, the airport’s prime tenant, is due for some serious renovation.
“Even the best of facilities wear down over time,” says Randall H. Walker, director of the Clark County Department of Aviation.
Ten months after renovation work began, Gates C-1 through C-7 on the east side of the C Concourse are being reopened. They’ll be in use for the first time since July 2101. They were shut down so worn asphalt out on he tarmac to be replaced.
Next up for closure will be Gates C-8 through C-18 during phase two of the project. Phase three sees replacement of asphalt on the northwestern side of C.
Exciting stuff? No, but stuff you need to know nonetheless if you’re running to catch a plane in Vegas. Here’s the upshot for you: until all this sorts itself out a number of Southwest flights will depart from the B Concourse, and that’s a bit of a walk if you’re connecting between C and B.
While all this exterior work is going on McCarran is freshening up C’s quarter-of-a-century-old interior. There will be new ceiling panels and lighting, more efficient window tinting and air conditioning to keep things cool, better signage to tell you where you’re going, new carpeting, refurbished jet bridges, and – thankfully – upgraded restrooms.
None of this is sexy – just solid blocking and tackling, the kind of thing that makes your passage through the airport a bit more pleasant. And that’s enough.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Joe JX)
