Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2025

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

PLAYING CATCH-UP Jacksonville International’s New Concourse Expected To Ease Crowding In High-Demand Environment

BY CAROL WARD

ditor’s Note: Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) is expanding. After putting the project – called JAX Beyond – on hold during the pandemic, the airport is now well on its way to project completion, with a new Concourse B, a new parking garage and other improvements slated for completion by the end of 2026. The Concourse B project will add six new gates to the existing terminal’s 20 gate configuration. This summer, JAX is releasing RFPs for three concessions packages, encompassing a total of approximately 16,000 square feet of new restaurant and retail spaces. Mark VanLoh has been at the helm of JAX since 2019, serving as CEO. He met up with AXN’s Carol Ward at the American Association of Airport Executives conference in Atlanta in June. VanLoh, along with JAX Director of Business Development Paul Gerrety, shared their vision for the redeveloped and expanded JAX. E

WARD: I know JAX has a lot going on. Before we dig in, can you give me a state of play for the airport? VANLOH: Well, like most Florida airports, when Covid hit our traffic exploded. We’re still all trying to catch up with capacity issues – everything from roadways coming into the terminal, to the parking, to concessions to gate space, to apron space, you name it. [In terms of passengers], last year we had the most passengers in our history. This year we’re leveling off and going down just a little bit. The international traffic is down, especially Canadian traffic. We are feeling the pain. WARD: When did you launch the JAX Beyond capital program? VANLOH: Actually, we started design on our new terminal before Covid but we pulled the plug. We came to a dead stop. Of course, I’d love to go back in time and keep going [with construction]. We’d be in the terminal by now. But we stopped everything, and then the [presidential] administration changed and we had to redo our environmental [report], which took another year. We were a little surprised. We also started a six story parking garage that’s under construction currently. Both projects will be in tandem and will be completed in December of next year.

WARD: Can you give me a bit of flavor on the new facilities underway? VANLOH: The new concourse has been sorely needed for many years just because of parking aircraft. Like everybody else, we have banks of flight. With that first flight in the morning, it’s a parking lot out there and the gate space has been constrained. With this new addition we’ll have six new gates and five of those gates are going to be taken by American Airlines . We’re building an expanded club upstairs at the mezzanine level, and Delta Air Lines is building a bigger and better Crown Room also – it’s probably triple the size of what they have currently. The project gives us the amenities for passengers, more food and beverage options and more parking spaces for airplanes. WARD: As you were envisioning the new concourse, were you looking to be innovative with technology or customer service or something else? What were your conversations centered around as you devised this plan? VANLOH: We were in such a rush to get this completed because of the demand on our existing facility that we really just wanted to mirror what we have. We’ll let the concessionaires do the technology bit. And we have a brand new checkpoint with facial recognition and everything you need

Above: Mark VanLoh, CEO, Jacksonville Aviation Authority

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AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2025