Nashville International Airport Development thread

[Sean blackdog]

Today this morning from Facebook BNA. 

Our brand new Concourse D opens this summer. We can’t wait for this rendering to become reality with Southwest Airlines at Gates D1-D6! #FlyNashville #BNAVision 

[Sean blackdog]

More pictures from https://mobile.twitter.com/DougKreulen
 

[markhollin]

Feature and interview on challenges facing Nashville International Airport and its President, Doug Kreulen, due to Covid19.  Here are some highlights:

On a normal day last year, BNA had a little more than 50,000 people moving through the airport. Today, BNA has around 2,000 people, according to Kreulen.

Financially, Kreulen said BNA is losing anywhere from $9 million to $10 million a month. By the end of June, the end of BNA’s fiscal year, Kreulen estimates BNA will be down $36 million to $40 million. Prior to Covid-19, BNA expected $160 million in revenue for fiscal year 2020.

“It doesn’t help you sleep too well,” Kreulen said.

On the other hand, BNA borrowed all the money for the next phase of BNA Vision in December, selling$920 million in bonds. That means BNA Vision is proceeding as planned. With minimal passengers roaming the hallways, there are 3,000 construction workers working throughout the airport’s campus on BNA Vision projects and preventive maintenance.

What are some of the things you’re working on during this time? We’re doing a lot of budget analysis and cutting of budgets. We’re assuming different scenarios over the next couple of years. How do we get to where everybody feels healthy and the flights come back up? That’s taking a lot of time. The second part is, we’re really trying to figure out what we can do to accelerate different construction programs that we have going on while nobody is here. With it being so quiet, there’s a lot of work we can get done.

What are you doing to save the business? Probably the biggest thing we’re doing right now is taking care of the employees and taking care of the budget. I give our employees weekly updates. They’re all happy and well. We want them to be able to work out here without fear. We’re spending extra time cleaning. We’re keeping them informed about what’s going on. We’re strong enough to be able to take care of our employees and take care of business. Now, we’re not hiring new employees right now. We’ve developed plans over the next two years to cut about $26 million from the [2021 and 2022] budgets to make sure we can operate in a positive environment.

 

What are some of the things you’ve cut back on? There’s two types of budgets we have to work on: capital improvement budgets and the operating budgets. For capital improvement budgets, we have delayed different construction projects that we had worked on through the airlines, things like fixing taxiways or improving baggage handling systems. When I cut programs like that from the budget, the baggage claim system will continue to operate, but we won’t put in faster processors until the passengers come back. What that does is keep our costs really low so the airlines still want to come to Nashville. Right now, we’re one of the lowest-cost airports in the United States, so they can get in here pretty cheap. On our side of the house, we’ll do things like reducing construction on different types of facilities that would help the employees out. Not doing pay raises means we don’t have to terminate people. So we’re making tough decisions like that.

How is the airport positioning itself for a restart of the economy? We’re ready to go. It’s the cleanest airport you’ve ever seen in your life. … All of the preventive maintenance that we would’ve done over a several month period, we’ve been doing over the last few weeks to make sure everything is up and running. We still exercise all the jet bridges. The airlines are still flying. There’s just not a lot of passengers on them right now. When we’ve talked about the recovery with different economists, we have three different scenarios: we have a 12-month, 24-month and 36-month recovery. We’re sort of shooting the gap with the 24-month recovery. If we recover faster than that, we’re ready to go. If it’s slower than that, that’s something we’ll have to deal with. We’re trying to build what I call a “survival budget” to make sure we keep our costs to a minimum, and try to encourage the airlines to bring all those flights right back to Nashville because we’ve kept our costs under control.

Has BNA Vision been impacted by all this?  We have five different projects going on right now. BNA Vision is still moving ahead. We’re still planning to hit all five major goals that we had for this year — things like opening up the new garage, opening up both ticketing wings, opening up the admin building. We’re running almost nonstop construction during the daylight hours. 

What’s your best-case scenario? The people who are looking at a six-month scenario are probably overly optimistic. A 12-month is hopeful. I’m planning on 24 months to recover, but that’s because I’m looking at it from the CEO perspective of, “How do I budget the dollars that we have?” If it comes back sooner than that, that’s awesome. That means the airport is making more money and we don’t need any help. The good news for the city is we had all that damage at John C. Tune and we’ve had a large amount of damage to the revenue accounts at the airport, but we don’t receive any local tax dollars so we’re not asking for any help from the city of Nashville. That’s our responsibility to take care of business out here. That’s why I keep saying that my job is to make sure this airport is ready to go so that as Nashville is ready to have more concerts and open things up again, we’re here to have the passengers come through.

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2020/05/15/kreulens-flight-plan-turbulence.html?iana=hpmvp_nsh_news_headline

[Sean blackdog]

Yesterday evening & today this morning from Facebook Sky5. 

[markhollin]

NBJ has a slide show of construction at airport.  Some samples below.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2020/05/15/construction-proceeds-at-bna-amid-covid.html?iana=hpmvp_nsh_news_headline
 

[LA_TN]

April 2020 total passengers:

62,533

Yes, that is for the whole month. Basically, the volume of a busy day last year

Down 95.8% from last year

[downtownresident]

52 minutes ago, LA_TN said:

April 2020 total passengers:

62,533

Yes, that is for the whole month. Basically, the volume of a busy day last year

Down 95.8% from last year

Wow. 

[Armacing]

18 hours ago, LA_TN said:

April 2020 total passengers:

62,533

Yes, that is for the whole month. Basically, the volume of a busy day last year

Down 95.8% from last year

Definitely an interesting statistic.  Does that mean that only 4.2% of normal air traffic into Nashville is "Essential"?  The remaining 95.8% appears to be discretionary.

[AUNash]

I travel a lot for work, and we have cut off virtually all travel for the last few months. Travel will resume at some point for us but probably it is still going to be a few months.

[Nash_12South]

I'll chime in that almost all business travel has stopped with no plans for a restart, just what I hear from my company and clients.

I heard a story where an expert said that, actually, travelling in the plane was pretty safe with air changes. It's the security lines, and busy concourses and sitting areas that are far worse. Of course you can't get to the plane without going thru all the rest.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Nash_12South

[markhollin]

 

[Sean blackdog]

Today this evening from Facebook BNA. 

#BNAVision is reshaping Nashville International Airport in many ways, including a major roadway overhaul & parking lot expansions. Congratulations to Superior Construction, which has been awarded our terminal access roadway improvements project!
>More: bit.ly/2WMnhKv

 
$137 Million Project Will Expand Airport Roadway System and Surface Parking Lots.

NASHVILLE – The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) Board of Commissioners today selected Superior Construction Company Southeast, LLC for Nashville International Airport (BNA)’s terminal access roadway improvements project. The board approved an initial $18.4 million contract for pre-construction services at today’s meeting, with additional funding for construction to be approved as the project progresses over the next three years. The design-build contract, estimated at $137 million, is for a key component of BNA Vision, the airport’s dynamic expansion and renovation plan. Roadway construction will begin in spring 2021 with completion anticipated in late 2024.

“Today’s board approval kicks off a critical infrastructure program, another step forward for BNA Vision and the world-class airport we’re building for Nashville and the region we serve,” said Dr. A. Dexter Samuels, Chair of the MNAA Board of Commissioners. “We congratulate Superior Construction Company Southeast on being selected for this project and eagerly anticipate moving forward.” 
The project includes a goal of more than $25 million in contract opportunities for small, minority and woman-owned business enterprises (SMWBEs) and will create approximately 150 jobs.

“To build a bigger, better airport requires a more strategic roadway system to improve traffic flow,” said Doug Kreulen, MNAA president and CEO. “This project is essential as we look to the future and prepare for growth over the next 20 years. We are now entering the most transformative phase of our expansion with the terminal renovation underway and the launch of the roadway improvements project. With continued support from our Board of Commissioners and our construction partners, the best is yet to come.”

This project will dramatically enhance BNA’s roadway system by adding a new outer loop roadway and realigning and widening existing roadways to build greater capacity and improve traffic circulation. It will be executed concurrently with the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Donelson Pike relocation project, slated to begin in early 2021 with completion anticipated in late 2023.

Additionally, the roadways project entails significant parking enhancements, including the expansions of Terminal Lot A and Economy Lot B, improving access to Economy Lot C, building a consolidated toll plaza for the airport’s Terminal Garage complex and enlarging the airport’s cell phone waiting area and ride share driver waiting area.

“The Superior team is proud to have been selected for this critical infrastructure project,” said Pete Kelley, president of Superior Construction Company Southeast. “Our team is committed to working with Nashville International Airport to provide the most cost effective, efficient solution that will enhance BNA’s infrastructure. We look forward to a successful partnership.”

Superior Construction Company is a fourth-generation, family-owned U.S. construction firm based in Jacksonville, Florida, with operations throughout the Southeast and Midwest.  The firm’s Nashville office will manage the design and construction of BNA’s terminal access roadway improvements project.

Launched in July 2016, BNA Vision is the dynamic expansion and renovation plan for Nashville International Airport. By 2023, completed projects will include a three-phased terminal garage parking expansion, new Concourse D, additional space for ticketing and baggage claim, renovated terminal lobby, expanded security checkpoint, a state-of-the-art International Arrivals Facility, a variety of dining, retail and service amenities, airport administration building, pedestrian plaza, hotel and potential transit connection.

Completed projects include upgrades to the existing interim International Arrivals Building, a six-level Terminal Garage with 2,200 parking spaces and a dedicated Ground Transportation Center, and phase 1 of the Terminal Apron and Taxilane Expansion. Projects nearing completion and opening this summer include a second six-level Terminal Garage with 2,800 spaces and a new Valet parking center, and the new Concourse D.

As with all other airport capital improvement projects, no local tax dollars will be used to fund BNA Vision. Take a virtual 360-degree tour, view renderings and watch the BNA Vision video at BNAVision.com.

With nearly 18.3 million passengers in 2019, Nashville International Airport (BNA) has been one of the fastest growing airports in North America. According to a recent study, in 2018 alone, BNA generated more than $7.1 billion in total economic impact, supported more than 67,000 jobs in the region, and produced more than $392 million in state, local and federal taxes. BNA receives no local tax dollars. For more information, visit flynashville.com. Follow us on Facebook: @NashvilleInternationalAirport, Twitter: @Fly_Nashville and Instagram: @FlyNashville. Learn more about BNA Vision, our growth and expansion plan for the airport, at BNAVision.com.

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by Sean blackdog

[markhollin]

I believe these are a couple new airport renderings:

 

[nashvylle]

Kinda looks like the Thompson Hotel. 

[Sean blackdog]

Check out Instagram. 

 

[Sean blackdog]

 

[rolly]

10 hours ago, Sean blackdog said:

Check out Instagram. 

 

Woa, Double Rainbow!

[jmtunafish]

12 hours ago, Sean blackdog said:

 

There's going to be a dog park at the airport?  Is that a thing?  I mean, are there other airports with dog parks?  I guess it's for service dogs?  I've never seen that before at an airport, and I think it's pretty neat.

[donNdonelson2]

3 minutes ago, jmtunafish said:

There's going to be a dog park at the airport?  Is that a thing?  I mean, are there other airports with dog parks?  I guess it's for service dogs?  I've never seen that before at an airport, and I think it's pretty neat.

I’ve noticed several airports that have signs posted for “pet relief areas,” often marking a door within the secured portion of the terminal. (Probably leading to a tiny fenced grassy area.) In my travels I haven’t noticed anything of this scope.

[MLBrumby]

It appears that people will need to step outside security to use this one.

[smeagolsfree]

23 minutes ago, jmtunafish said:

There's going to be a dog park at the airport?  Is that a thing?  I mean, are there other airports with dog parks?  I guess it's for service dogs?  I've never seen that before at an airport, and I think it's pretty neat.

At least there is not a snake pit for those people saying they have a support snake. You would really have problems when peoples support snakes start eating other people's suppot frogs.

[Sean blackdog]

Today this morning from Facebook BNA. 
 

A view you can't see from the terminal: We're building a tunnel that will connect the new International Arrivals Facility (IAF) to the Ground Transportation level of the main terminal, beneath your feet if you're at the Security Checkpoint. 

We're digging 20 feet down to build this passenger tunnel, which will be around 190 feet long. Making progress as we work toward opening the new IAF in 2023! #BNAVision

https://bnavisionnashville.com/site/web/assets/2017/01/IAF-Fact-Sheet-Nov-2018.pdf

[LA_TN]

On 5/20/2020 at 5:54 PM, Sean blackdog said:

... Congratulations to Superior Construction, which has been awarded our terminal access roadway improvements project!

>More: bit.ly/2WMnhKv

 

From Superior Construction, today

[Sean blackdog]

Today this morning from Facebook Sky5. 

[markhollin]

The new Rental Car counters are now open as of yesterday. Moved from Level 1 up to Level 2 (North end, past baggage carousel 8 and the United baggage service office).