The Gallatin Airport Authority has embarked on a significant expansion of the airline terminal building. This expansion is the largest airline terminal expansion ever in the state of Montana. Unfortunately, this expansion will not come without some impact on our customers. The Gallatin Field Airport handles approximately 700,000 passengers every year. Of these passengers, 300,000 use rental cars, 100,000 use buses, taxis and shuttles and 300,000 are either dropped off at the terminal or use the pay parking lot. In order to minimize the impact on all of our customers, we have phased the construction so that a majority of the impact during the two year construction will occur during the summer of 2009.
Because all of the terminal construction will occur where the rental car parking lot is located, the rental car parking lot must be relocated to a portion of the pay parking lot for three months beginning in July 2009. This impacts our pay parking customers by increasing their walk to the terminal but only during mostly favorable weather conditions. In September 2009, once we have completed construction of a new rental car lot, most of the short term parking will return to the pay parking lot.
In August, the rental car counters will be relocated into the existing baggage claim lobby and the passenger boarding bridge serving Gate 4 will be relocated to allow excavation to be completed for the terminal addition. These relocations, along with the temporary relocation of the rental car lot into the pay parking lot, are the major impacts that our customers will see during the construction. Our goal is to have all of these relocations completed before the winter of 2009 so that our customers continue to have the experience they expect at Gallatin Field through the rest of the construction period.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience and understanding as we endure three months of inconvenience to enhance the travel experience out of Gallatin Field for the next twenty years.
