SAN ANTONIO --
Airport officials and city leaders showed off their plans for future expansion at the San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday evening at an open house.
The plan lays out needs through the year 2050 and calls for $191 million in capital improvements over the next five years.
"We like to say that it's a road map for what we're going to look like," said Rich Johnson, a spokesman for the airport. "How many gates we're going to have, how many runways we're going to have. You know, really the long-term projection for the airport."
According to Johnson, the master plan, known officially as the Vision 2050 Airport Master Plan, isn't just a wish list.
The Federal Aviation Administration encourages airports to develop master plans every 10 years to plan for future airport growth.
Johnson said the last time the airport created a master plan was in 1998, and it included a recommendation for a new terminal. That terminal opened in November.
The plan includes long-range projects that reach into the year 2050, but also includes several short-term goals that could be under construction in fewer than two years.
Two of the biggest items in the Vision 2050 plan call for renovations to Terminal A and a new, one-stop rental car center.
"Just the look and the feel of Terminal A, we want to modernize it. It's 25 years old, so we want to bring that up to Terminal B standards," said Johnson. "The other is the consolidated rental car center. It's going to be a single location, and in the plan, they are calling for a six-story garage that will house every rental car agency."
If the master plan is adopted by the City Council, those projects could break ground in the next 18 to 24 months, according to Johnson.
The goal is to present the plan to council in March.
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