WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. airports are upgrading and expanding capacity, despite complaints from cash-strapped carriers of the resulting costs.
Projected increases in the number of travelers and the need for better security have been driving the trend, USA Today reported Monday.
But such moves come at a cost. For example, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport's new 28-gate international Terminal D, which is to open Saturday, cost $1.4 billion.
That hits American Airlines, the world's biggest hard, particularly since American also is helping fund to other huge airport expansions, one at Miami's airport and the other at John F. Kennedy airport in New York.
Other big airport projects underway or recently completed are in Boston, Detroit, Chicago-Midway, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle.
At Seattle-Tacoma airport, a new concourse and terminal raised costs to $10 a passenger, up from $4 a decade ago. That is prompting Southwest Airlines to threaten abandoning Sea-Tac for close-in Boeing Field.
