CLEVELAND — The city’s billion-dollar plan to overhaul Cleveland Hopkins International Airport still needs buy-in from airlines before travelers can expect to see major changes in the coming years.
Councilman Kerry McCormack said the planned changes are necessary to allow for the growth the city wants to see at one of the country’s oldest municipal airports.
“No one’s hiding behind the fact that it needs an update—a significant update,” said McCormack, who also chairs the council's Transportation Committee.
Traffic in and out of Hopkins is already up and on track to reach 10 million passengers this year. At a city Transportation and Mobility Committee meeting on Wednesday, Cleveland Port Control Director Bryant Francis said it’s a sign airport travel has almost fully recovered since the pandemic.
A total of 10,040,817 passengers used the airport in 2019.
“The travel rebound has been strong at Cleveland, so that is a very good news story,” Francis said.
Francis told McCormack and the committee they need airlines to help pay for the project. Conversations with the airlines started in summer 2022 and were expected to wrap up by this fall.
“While those discussions ensued it became evident several of our airlines were not yet ready to execute a new agreement,” Francis said.
The result, he said, was a decision to extend the timeline by two years as the airline discussions continue.
“What’s clear to me is all airlines recognize there is a need for infrastructure investment and improvement. That isn’t being questioned whatsoever so I want to be clear about that. That gives me relief,” Francis said. “Questions remain surrounding the total cost and how we get to that number.”
Increasing construction costs have contributed to the rising price of the project, now nearing $3 billion.
“It’s a big number but I think if you talk to customers, they’ll say it needs a lot of love,” McCormack said. “When I say major, I mean big overhauls in the terminal. Really the customer-facing parts of the airport that people will notice right away. Remember though, this is tricky because the airport has to remain operational the entire time.”
McCormack told 3News the two-year extension is necessary “so [airlines] can have further conversations about the details of the cost and scope of the master plan. So they’re just not there yet in their conversations.”
But he and Francis added that the hope is the airlines will not need the full two years to buy into a new agreement.
Groundbreaking is expected at the start of 2026, but McCormack said that doesn’t mean we won’t see other changes before that.
“I think customers would say they want it yesterday, which is totally reasonable, but what I’ll say is in 2024—so next year—projects will start.”
The projects expected to get underway next year include spending $3 million to remodel the airport’s bathrooms.