BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Airport expansion is big, and a big deal. It also affects your bottom line in a big way.
To try to keep up with increasing demand for flights, the Boise Airport expansion is actually four expansion projects in one. One is already done: the recently opened public parking garage, with 1,100 new spaces. There's the five-level 700 stall employee parking garage set to open any day now. There's also the seven-level 950 stall rental car garage and lobby that crews are just getting going on, and all that clears the space for the main concourse expansion, which will have ten brand new gates.
The idea is for all that to bring in more flights, especially direct flights, to and from the City of Trees. The airport expansion will certainly affect you if work there, or if you're flying in or out of Boise. But it really affects all of us in more ways than that.
Boise Airport is a huge economic generator for the entire region. It's estimated to make a billion-dollar annual economic impact. Besides following growth in the area, it also plays a big role in inspiring growth.
Airport Director Rebecca Hupp said, when businesses are making expansion decisions, they're looking at the airport, "When area businesses are looking at either expanding in Boise or bringing new businesses to Boise, of course, the airport is a critical component of that. When people are locating here, whether it's personal or business, people want to know that they have the ability to get the places that they need to go and where is important to them. And so, the airport plays a critical role in that the airport is often the first and last place that visitors see of our community: their first and last impression. And for people who are based here, they leave and then they come back to Boise, and we recognize how important that is for our community. And we want to make sure that it's a positive experience."
Director Hupp said the final phase of the expansion, the new concourse, will hopefully be done in five years. Again, everything else needs to get built first elsewhere to clear the space for it. The second chunk of the expansion, that new employee parking garage, is set to have the ribbon cut by the end of the month.
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