Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL/KFLL), FL, USA

Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, Florida, is located in Dania Beach, Florida between the cities of Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood in Broward County, 21 miles (33.7km) north of Miami.

The airport has experienced unparalleled growth in terms of travellers using the facility in the last few years. In 2005, the airport played host to 22.39 million passengers and was, in 2006, the fastest-growing airport in the US. It is the 23rd busiest airport (for passenger traffic) in the US, and is one of the 50 busiest airports in the world.

The airport is a key base for Delta Air Lines and domestic low-cost carriers Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue. To avoid overcrowding and to capitalise on the growth trend (whether sustainable or not), the airport management is to invest in further expansion of the facility.

TRAFFIC GROWTH

While the other major airport in Florida (Miami International Airport) has developed into a sizeable international gateway, Fort Lauderdale Hollywood is gaining favour with domestic travellers seeking easy access and lower fares.

The airport has a transcontinental service to the West Coast, as well as a frequent domestic service throughout the Eastern Seaboard. International flights have also increased with new services introduced by South African Airways and Air Jamaica.

The airport strategy is to continue building a frequent airline service spread among a large group of airlines to increase options and keep fares competitive for travellers. By 2015, the number of travellers using the airport is expected to have doubled, offering the possibility of significant revenue increase.

CAR RENTAL FACILITY

The multi-level consolidated rental car facility was completed on schedule in 2004. The new facility will house 12 rental car companies in a nine-storey facility that will accommodate 9,000 cars, as well as a full range of rental car concessions and visitor parking. The design of the garage integrates with the airport surface transportation systems, providing easy terminal access as well as convenient access to and egress from the airport.

Connections to the terminals are achieved with a pedestrian bridge and a dedicated busway for shuttle buses. The design provides for a future automated people mover, and for the addition of one floor of parking.

The garage consists of five storeys of rental car concessions and four storeys of airport public parking on the top floors. Public parking floors will accommodate 1,200 cars per floor, giving a total of 4,800 passenger parking spaces.

Level one of the facility includes a maintenance area (quick turnaround area) with fuelling, washing, vacuuming and staging for up to 1,000 rental cars. Levels two, three and four include customer counter areas and 'ready' spaces (ready return area), with 1,000 cars per level.

Level five includes additional storage and an overflow area to accommodate 1,100 to 1,200 cars. The facility was designed by DMJM H and N Architects.

NEW FEATURES

The airport project is a $364m investment and is well under way. The following are some of the new features to be found at the airport:

Terminal 1 – Terminal 1 (356,000ft²) opened in April 2001. Two additional concourses with additional gates are planned. The terminal is bright and spacious with extensive use of glass. Airlines that moved to the new terminal are America West, Continental, Gulfstream International Airlines, Northwest and TWA.

Parking – the new parking garage opened in September 2000. The garage has 4,900 parking spaces. Travellers can either walk or ride free shuttles from the new garage to the airport's terminals.

Roadways – major roadway improvements have taken place, including double-decking the roadway in front of the new Terminal 1.

Terminal refurbishment – renovation work was completed on terminal 4 in mid-2005 and similar refurbishment has begun at terminals 2 and 3. Most of the work is being carried out at night to avoid passenger inconvenience.

With the new work completed, the facility will nearly double the size of the terminal complex from 39 to more than 70 gates, and increase parking from 9,061 to 19,000 spaces.

The project will lengthen runway 9R/27L from 5,300ft to 9,000ft to accommodate air carrier aircraft. Airport roadways will be improved, including a new entrance roadway, and a new air cargo and maintenance centre will be built on the west side of the airport. The project costs to 2012 are expected to be more than $1bn.

FUNDING

The main funding sources are the federal and state grants, passenger facility charge and airport bond revenues. No property tax or other general tax revenues have been used to finance the project.

CONTRACTORS

FSH General Concrete Contractors Inc (Miami, Florida) was awarded the contract for the layout of perimeters and interior concrete paving. Jacobs Consultancy Inc (formerly Leigh Fisher Associates) was engaged by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners in 2006 to assist the Broward County Aviation Department in creating an Airport Development Plan Definition (ADPD).

The ADPD is the first part of a two-phase update process for the airport masterplan, which addresses the expansion of terminals and ancillary facilities from 2010–2020.

The ADPD process will provide county decisionmakers with a range of potential future scenarios for the full build-out of landside and terminal facilities. It will also provide a clear understanding of the technical issues associated with that build-out. Projections are indicating that 79 gates will be required in the next ten years and by 2020 the airport should have terminal facilities with over 90 gates along with attendant infrastructure for parking and passenger transit around the airport.

Click here for printable version