"Locally Designed Terminal at Norfolk, Va., Airport Triples Baggage Capacity"

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Locally Designed Terminal at Norfolk, Va., Airport Triples Baggage
Capacity
The Daily Press, Newport News, Va.


NORFOLK, Va.--The new arrivals terminal at Norfolk International Airport
opens Monday, nearly tripling the airport's baggage-claim capacity and
allowing the airport to double its ticket-counter space.

The new terminal, designed by Shriver and Holland Associates of Norfolk,
the same firm that did the main terminal, uses Italian marble columns
similar to the main terminal and is designed to maintain the main
building's look and feel.

"It's made to look like it belongs with the main building,"said Regina
Haggerty, an airport marketing and public relations representative.

But the new terminal's vast open space and large windows covering almost
an entire side of the building give it a more modern look.

More than three years in the making, the $133 million project is
designed to accommodate the airport's growing ridership, which has
topped 3 million passengers in recent years.

The project includes the 243,000-square-foot terminal, a nine-story
parking garage with more than 3,000 spaces, and a pedestrian bridge
connecting the arrivals terminal to the main terminal.

Passengers landing at the airport will arrive at the same gates they do
now, but those who need to retrieve checked baggage or connect with
ground transportation will cross the pedestrian bridge to the arrivals
terminal. Passengers also will cross the bridge to get to the parking
garage, which is adjacent to the new terminal.

The five oval-shaped baggage carousels which cover much of the 897-foot
length of the new terminal nearly triple the baggage-claim space.

"This will alleviate a lot of the congestion,"Haggerty said.

The new terminal will house the airport's eight rental-car companies as
well as a meditation room, an information booth, an armed-forces lounge
and rental office space.

Moving the baggage-claim area and the rental-car companies will allow
for additional ticket-counter space in the main building. Most of the
airport's operations will stay put.

The airport's 24 gates and concourses will remain as they are. So will
the airport's restaurants and food concessions, stores, security offices
and conference facilities.

A customer who does not check baggage and who is being picked up may not
need to use the new terminals.


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