So, in early 2022, lease conversations with Delta began again. Funding these additional gates required another look at the airlines’ master lease agreements. Department of Airports staff got to work on completing preliminary architectural and engineering plans for Phase 4 of the airport’s redevelopment plan: construction of 16 gates on the east side of Concourse B.

It was clear that to accommodate steadily growing passenger traffic, future expansion needed to happen now. Their answer was an unequivocable yes, which helped pave the way for the construction of our world-class airport.įast-forward to September 2021, one year after the opening of The New SLC, and post-pandemic recovery at SLC Airport was pacing ahead of all other U.S. As SLC Airport’s largest carrier, those lease-extension conversations began first with Delta. At that time, we were on the cusp of securing funding to support the $4.1 billion replacement of the old terminal and concourses, and I knew that confirming and/or extending existing airline leases would be key in bolstering the Department of Airports’ bond rating. I got my first hint of how invested Delta is in Salt Lake after joining the Salt Lake City Department of Airports (SLCDA) in 2017. But when you drill down to the significant role Delta plays in the airport’s vitality - and, in turn, how the airport contributes to the state’s economy - the benefits of Delta’s presence in Utah extend well beyond on-time departures. SLC Airport can attribute its third-in-the-world ranking for on-time departures largely to Delta, which operates 70% of SLC’s 300-plus daily departures.Īs such, it’s easy to see how some might consider Delta’s renewed commitment to SLC Airport as business as usual.

In January 2023, it received a number-one-in-North America ranking by Cirium Aviation Analytics for both on-time departures and operational performance. You don’t have to dig deep to find examples of Delta’s excellence. It’s human nature to take for granted what runs well, and Delta runs extremely well. For many of the 26 million passengers who travel through Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) annually, the announcement earlier this year that the airport’s largest carrier, Delta Air Lines, had extended its lease agreement through at least 2044 may not have seemed newsworthy.

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