American Airlines opens portion of $3 billion DFW Airport Terminal C expansion - Dallas News

American Airlines and DFW International Airport opened an extension of Terminal C on Monday that will help revolutionize the Fort Worth carrier’s operation at its largest hub. The 115,000-square-foot pier expansion brings five rebuilt gates and four new ones. American started using two of the gates, Gates C33 and C34, in the new extension “a couple of months ago,” Jim Moses , the airline’s senior vice president of hub operations at DFW Airport, said in an exclusive interview. “Getting into those gates early allowed our team members to get used to working in this new environment,” Moses said. “There is a lot of new technology in there, right? So there was a lot of change management, a lot of understanding new processes, new ways we’re going to operate in this facility.” The other gates in the pier expansion will be phased into flight operations, American told The News . Related: American Airlines rolls out futuristic electronic boarding gates at DFW Airport’s new Terminal C expansion The new pier extension features a range of unique elements, such as sustainable windows that change with the sun level, a range of seating options, including sofa-like seating and in-seat power available at every seat. Lighting on the ceiling also indicates which areas are for boarding and which areas are for seating. Included in the terminal expansion are American’s new electronic boarding gates , which it has been piloting in Terminal A since last year . “C pier gives us that look into the future of what the rest of Terminal C will ultimately start to look like,” Moses said. “When you look, it’s fresh, it’s new, the lighting, the seating. The innovation with electronic boarding gates. The new concessions, new restrooms, really with a focus on our customers.” Moses said that the opening of a new pier will allow American and the airport to close some of the lower C gates “to start working on that.” “We’re getting more gates here, putting these new gates. Close some of the older gates so we can start construction on those.” American Airlines accounts for more than 80% of the market share at DFW Airport. Its largest operation at the airport is at Terminal C, where it has been flying nearly 200 daily departures during construction. Moses points out that if Terminal C was a standalone airport, it would be American’s fifth largest hub by departures. “The workhorse of DFW Airport for American Airlines is Terminal C,” Moses said. “DFW Airport is the economic engine of this part of the country, of this region. American Airlines is the fuel to the engine, right?” The pier expansion also gave the airport an opportunity to test an innovative way of construction to accelerate the project. Modular construction of the pier meant building the facility off-site in sections and moving it to the airport. “We constructed this in six separate sections that were moved across the airfield overnight, over a span of about two weeks,” said Tammy Huddleston, DFW Airport’s vice president of design code and construction. “So we actually built the terminal on the other side of the airfield, moved it across the airfield and put it into place. And the reason why we do that is it allowed us to get this in place about 7½ months earlier … which means 7½ earlier to revenue generation.” The Terminal C extension is the first phase of a terminalwide revamp, which is part of a $12 billion capital improvement project known as DFW Forward. Terminal C’s improvements were previously valued at approximately $3 billion. The project also involves an extension of Terminal A, expected to open later this year, and will also deliver the first new terminal at DFW Airport in more than 20 years, Terminal F . In total, the project is set to add or refurbish 68 gates.