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Despite Overcrowding and construction Salt Lake City International Airport soars to number 2 in quality ranking.

By Lee Davidson, The Salt Lake Tribune - https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics...-overcrowding/

Salt Lake City International Airport was designed for 10 million passengers a year, but it now handles nearly 27 million. The result? Parking lots fill. Waiting areas often have more passengers than seats. It has few lounges. Concessions are crowded. But the airport still just flew to a No. 2 best overall ranking among America’s 30 busiest airports — and was just barely edged out of the top spot. And the ranking comes amid a massive ongoing $3.6 billion project to rebuild the airport. “It’s amazing,” said Bill Wyatt, airport director for the past year. “As a relative newcomer, I’m amazed at how well this place operates.”The Points Guy, a travel website, released its annual Best Airports report Thursday, and it ranked Salt Lake City as No. 2 behind only Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The No. 3 ranking went to Portland, Ore., where Wyatt was director before taking the Salt Lake City job.The bottom rankings in the new report all went to three airports serving New York City: John F. Kennedy International at the bottom, followed by LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International. The rankings are based on such things as on-time flight statistics, amenities, how accessible it is to the city, the cost of an Uber or Lyft to get there, the number of restaurants versus the number of passengers, and more...

...Where could it do better? “Salt Lake could use a few more restaurants for the number of passengers it sees, and it has negligible lounge presence,” Kheel said. “It also needs to catch up to most other major U.S. airports in implementing environmentally friendly initiatives.”
Wyatt said the airport is already well on the way to doing all of that and more as it is building a new terminal, concourses and a parking garage to replace existing facilities — and is doing that on site without disrupting operations. The first phase of the new airport is scheduled to open in fall 2020. “It is going to be a genuine state-of-the-art facility — and will be operated by the same people who are already getting us this No. 2 award. So maybe No. 1 is on the horizon,” Wyatt said.

Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune The new Salt Lake City International Airport expansion project, Monday, Oct. 22, 2018. The first phase construction of the $3.6 billion project is due to open in 700 days.
Nearing completion is the new concourse for aircraft gates, an enclosed terminal, the steel skeleton of a new "gateway" building, a five-story parking garage and elevated roadways.

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