Airport Experience® News - ACDBE Issue 2025

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

We are also breaking ground on our first enabling project for our new concourses, which is a ramp expansion that will begin in June, and in August we will break ground on a new utility plant, which will power two new concourses, which are the main focal point of our MoreRNO program. It’s 100% gate replacement. We will build two new concourses, largely at the same time on the outboard of our existing two concourses. We will ultimately tear down all of our existing gates. They are old, undersized, antiquated and just do not fit the region’s growth. This is a big project for an airport of our size, [costing] $650 million. We will have three years of construction and 100% displacement of all airlines here at some point. It’s going to be a very challenging project, but it’s also the right project.

This is a really big program that is challenging us to our absolute limits of resources and financial reserves. But we’ve got a plan and we believe in our plan. This is not a build it and hope they will come situation. I hope when we get to 2030 we have built enough, but if we haven’t, we’ve built as much as we can afford. WARD: Have the tariffs or threatened tariffs changed the scope of the project, or changed the projected cost? GRIFFIN: There probably will be an impact, it’s just a question of how do we manage through that, and how much impact are we talking about? Can we buy early and secure some of these products, just to try and have price certainty? We’re in an active conversation and analysis with industry partners. We’re getting ready to hire the builder for the concourses, and I think they will really help inform [the process]. Some strategies might help

Top: RNO’s $1 billion infrastructure project includes two new concourses that will provide more space, particularly in gate-hold areas, to accommodate larger passenger volumes. Above: While plans for the new concessions program aren’t finalized, Griffin hopes to incorporate concessions and gaming into or adjacent to the gatehold areas to maximize exposure.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2025