Sacramento International Airport sets passenger record amid $1.3B expansion
Sacramento International Airport had its busiest month ever in June with 1.3 million travelers passing through, the county reported, as officials forge ahead with a $1.3 billion airport expansion.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the airport served 13.8 million passengers — another record. The airport has direct flights to 52 destinations, and recently added nonstop flights to Kansas City, Baltimore and Anchorage, as well as Morelia and Puerto Vallarta. In a news release, Stephen Clark, the deputy director of commercial development for the Sacramento County Department of Airports, said that “securing SMF’s first transoceanic flight remains a top priority.”
The county has broken ground on an airport project expected to cost $1.3 billion. The county plans to add new parking spaces, a new pedestrian bridge and six new gates in Terminal B. The 5,500-spot parking lot and the pedestrian bridge between Terminal B and the concourse are under construction.
In 2011, the last major overhaul of Terminal B was completed. The project to replace the old terminal was nicknamed the Big Build. In 2009, The Sacramento Bee reported that it was “a monster, with a $1.1 billion budget.”
For the current SMForward project, the county has budgeted almost $400 million just for the new parking lot, or around $72,727 per parking space.
Sacramento residents have complained for decades about the lack of a train to the airport, but there has been little political will to move forward with a light rail expansion. In 2015, Sacramento Regional Transit said it would take about $800 million to $1 billion to extend light rail to the airport.
