Mobile's Airport Terminal Project Stays on Budget Despite Delay

Like a flight held briefly at the gate, Mobile’s new airport is experiencing a delay.

Officials, including the city’s mayor, say it’s nothing to be upset about.

The five-gate terminal, once expected to open by spring 2026, is now scheduled for fall of that year.

“We were pushing, all along, a really aggressive timeline,” said Luckett Robinson, chairman of the Mobile Airport Authority, following Tuesday’s meeting. “We had to decide whether being on budget or being on time was more important. The mayor and I agreed that completing it on budget was the biggest priority. We didn’t view a few months delay as a big deal.”

Despite the shift in schedule, the project is still cruising at its $381 million budget. The budget was established last summer and is viewed as a critical number that Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and the authority do not want to exceed to prevent excessive borrowing or requests for more support from local and state governments.

“The passenger terminal at Mobile International Airport will have a transformative impact on the entire region, and MAA is making great progress every day,” Stimpson said in a statement. “If delaying the opening is necessary to keep this critical project on budget and moving forward, I believe that’s the best course of action. This is a massive undertaking, and I appreciate MAA’s commitment to getting it done right.”

Milestones ahead

It hasn’t been easy to keep the project at the $381 million threshold.

Robinson said the authority performed value-added engineering on the terminal earlier this year and decided on scaling back on some of the airport’s features including cameras and interior finishings.

“The end result was that there was way too much in those (earlier) packages than what was originally conceived like having too many cameras,” Robinson said. “We are in the process of repackaging it to the right scale and will reissue it. But there is no redesign, so to speak.”

James White, southern region vice-president with Hoar Program Management, the construction managers for the job, said they are targeting a milestone later this month of having the terminal enclosed, and protected from adverse weather.

“It will be nice and dry inside,” he said. “When we start the other work, it will be less dependent on the weather.”

Other milestones include:

• A parking garage with 1,250 spaces and an elevated roadway will be completed by March 2026.
• The completion of the infrastructure work will allow crews to easily access the terminal as interior construction continues. The work is expected to be completed by September 2026.
• The first flight from the airport is expected in either October or November 2026.

“It’s an exciting time,” Robinson said. “We believe the terminal will be really successful. It will provide a great gateway for business and leisure travelers to come.”

Service swap

The airport, only a few miles from downtown, is a rarity in commercial aviation in the United States with a complete swap of services from one airport to another.

It’s even rarer considering that the airport swap involves moving commercial air service from a suburban area closer to a city’s downtown. The new terminal, once completed, will be located less than five miles from downtown Mobile.

Stimpson, throughout his term, has made the airport swap a priority project. Officials have long said the location of Mobile Regional Airport – far from an interstate and more than a half-hour drive to downtown Mobile – makes it difficult to compete with neighboring Pensacola International Airport and Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport.

Once the new terminal opens, the airport’s legacy carriers—Delta, United, and American Airlines – will shift their operations from Mobile Regional Airport to the airport closer to downtown.

The new airport, while starting with five gates, will have enough room to expand to 12 gates which would make it the same size as Pensacola. However, Pensacola International Airport is preparing for an expansion project itself that would add another five gates.

Robinson said efforts are just beginning on recruiting other airlines to Mobile. The authority’s chairman emeritus, Elliot Maisel, told AL.com in December that Southwest Airlines is the No. 1 priority.

An ad hoc committee, called the “Spirit of Mobile,” has also been formed and is charged with providing interior amenities that embraces Mobile’s cultural history.

“The mayor really wanted the airport to have a local feel, and show the architectural and cultural history,” Robinson said about the group’s purpose that includes offering suggestions on the type of artwork that should be incorporated into the terminal.

An existing two-gate terminal that opened in 2019 will continue to operate and service low-cost airlines.

Robinson said that work continues to find a way to utilize the Mobile Regional. He said that a group of local officials will visit the Paris Air Show in France next week to focus on possible tenants.

“That will be a big project,” he said. “It’s a lot of acreage. It has a big runway. We are seeking businesses that will move there.”

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