The recent onslaught of travelers during Masters tournament caused a special meeting of the Augusta Aviation Commission committee.
The meeting of the Air Services Committee was to do an airport-wide critique of services that directly impacted arrival and departure operations.
Committee chairman Randy Sasser told ABD he called the meeting to find opportunities for improvement in airport operations, adding air travel continues to grow, and Augusta needs to keep pace.
At no time is that more obvious than the two weeks when golf fans from around the world arrive for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA), Drive, Chip and Putt, and the Masters Tournament itself.
“Each year, the airlines, their operation, they’ve grown. Each year, both airlines bring more bigger flights here,” said Airport Executive Director, Herbert Judon, Jr. “I think one of the challenges this year was that there were more mainline flights. Especially some of the departure days were really concentrated, so there were two or three mainlines going out at the same time.”
A project that will ultimately improve how quickly departing travelers move through the airport is the terminal checkpoint modernization project. It will add a third lane to the Transportation Security Administration security clearance. Construction started in 2025.
Elizabeth Giles, the airport’s Senior Construction Project Manager, told committee members there has been a slight delay with the project, but it has been resolved.
“The dates they’re giving us now, we feel like they should be able to hold, and that means punch out and everything done in November,” she explained. “So, a delay, but that gives us a ton of time before next Masters to have all the bugs worked out and really figure out how we want to set it up for Masters and see how it flows.”
Judon said the airport is planning to add a fourth security checkpoint, but has not yet secured the equipment from TSA.
The airport is also looking at ways to accommodate more passengers awaiting departure in the hold room or gate area.
“What we are looking at, and Mead and Hunt (design and engineering firm) is starting preliminary design on, is a full expansion,” said Giles. “We have that whole gate expansion we might do in the future, but then we could build it in little chunks, and the first chunk of that would be a very simple hold room expansion that gives us a lot more seating, milling around room, and space as well.”
Giles anticipates that the project could be completed within the next two years.
Sasser also sought input from the airport’s partners. Margie Asselin, station manager for American Airlines, said a challenge can be getting baggage checked in quickly on days with large departure passengers.
“We just overflow out into the lobby with checked bags, but there’s no solution for that, based on where the bag scanning is,” she said. “They talked about in-line scanning, but we get overrun just trying to process that amount of bags.”
Sasser said getting input from partners like American Airlines and staff can help find solutions to ongoing challenges. However, said Judon, the airport size is a main source of the challenges.
“I think there are some things we can do to mitigate the size of the building,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t designed for that amount of capacity.”
