LATROBE, Pa. — With temperatures in the mid to upper 60s on Wednesday, crews were busy at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport working on the new passenger terminal project.
“You’re seeing the foundations being poured, the walls being built,” said Gabe Monzo, executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority.
The airport is going through a $22 million, 32,000 square foot expansion that will double the size of the flight waiting areas, add a second passenger gate, and a new TSA security gate.
“It’s pretty much a redo of what we originally had,” Monzo said. “There are times we’ll have 600-700 people at a time in this building, and right now, we just can’t handle that.”
But all of those passengers will have to wait a little longer to use the new terminal.
“It got a little challenging. We got a little bit behind,” Monzo said.
The winter weather of the last few months pushed contractors back about two months, with the opening of the new terminal not expected until early next year.
“These guys are pretty good at it; they’ll catch up,” Monzo said.
Despite the delay on the new terminal, the airport is seeing an increase in daily flights from Spirit Airlines.
Last week, the airport announced Spirit Airlines flights to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will resume on May 8, twice a week. There will also be daily flights to Myrtle Beach starting on May 7, and the flight to Orlando, Florida, is back to a daily flight from running just four days through the fall and winter months.
“That’s a great sign, that’s a great place to be as far as Spirit is concerned,” Monzo said. “We’re hoping they recognize us as a good resource for them, and we’ll definitely do what we have to do to make sure they’re happy.”
The first phase of this expansion project is now expected to be completed in February 2026.
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