Travelers arrive and depart from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin on Friday. The FAA awarded Austin-Bergstrom a record $90 million terminal grant to support construction of the airport’s planned Concourse B. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
A record-breaking federal grant will help Austin-Bergstrom International Airport build its second concourse. The Federal Aviation Administration will give Austin-Bergstrom $90 million as part of the agency’s Airport Terminals Program, a competitive grant initiative intended to help airport operators upgrade and expand terminal infrastructure, airport officials announced. The grant will fund, in part, the airport’s planned Concourse B — a more than 860,000-square-foot facility that will be situated in the middle of the airfield and connect to the existing terminal via an underground tunnel.
The Austin allocation is the single-largest grant the FAA has awarded in the five-year history of the Airport Terminals Program, records show. It also marks a milestone for the airport, according to Sam Haynes, deputy chief of strategy and stakeholder relations for the airport.
"It’s the largest amount of competitive grant funding we’ve ever received," Haynes told the American-Statesman in an interview.
Airport expansion plans
The new concourse will be the largest piece of the airport's ongoing $5 billion expansion program, called “Journey With AUS,” which is set to add 32 new gates and hundreds of thousands of square feet to the terminal by the early 2030s. Concourse B will house 26 of those new gates, the majority of which will serve Southwest Airlines.
The $90 million disbursement for the 2026 fiscal year will add to more than $105 million the FAA has already awarded to the Austin airport for expansions under the Airport Terminals Program.
A rendering of Concourse B, Concourse M and the Arrivals and Departures Hall is displayed during a Jan. 7 press conference at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport announcing a new 10-year contract with major airlines. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
In 2025, the FAA awarded $50 million for Concourse B construction. It gave the airport more than $14 million in 2024 for concourse design and more than $25 million the same year for the atrium infill project to add floor space over the existing baggage claim area. The infill project is under construction and expected to finish later this year. The airport also received about $16 million in 2022 for capacity, accessibility and efficiency projects.
The terminal grants are distinct from an additional $108 million reimbursement the FAA announced late last year to support taxiway construction at the airport. New taxiways are needed to support Concourse B and will be completed before construction begins on the facility.
The Airport Terminals Program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021. Congress allocated nearly $1 billion per year to the program from 2022 to 2026. The program is set to end after 2026 grants are distributed, exhausting the $4.85 billion allocation. Airports competed against each other for a slice of the funding.
"This is a competitive application that we put in, and we’re scored and judged somehow by the FAA, and they awarded us the funding," Haynes said. "We’re so proud of this, but it was competitive."
In total, the FAA will fund 133 projects at 129 airports this year as part of the program. The agency received 588 applications requesting $7.1 billion for this funding round, according to the American Association of Airport Executives.
Keeping up with growth
Airport officials hope the expansion program — including Concourse B and a new arrivals and departures hall set to arrive around the same time — will relieve growing pains associated with record-breaking traffic through Austin-Bergstrom in recent years. The airport was originally designed to serve 11 million passengers per year, with later additions bringing its annual capacity to 15 million. The expansions will bring capacity up to 30 million.
Travelers wait in line at security at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin on Jan. 7. More than 21.7 million passengers traveled through the airport last year, making it one of the busiest airports in Texas. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
In 2023, the airport saw more than 22 million passengers, marking the busiest year in the facility’s history. Last year, 21.7 million people flew through Austin. Haynes said the rapid rebound and growth in passenger traffic after the COVID-19 pandemic far exceeded predictions.
"In 2019 we projected that we would hit that number in about 2027," Haynes said. "We had five years of passenger activity and airline activity that, for us, kind of happened overnight."
Other Texas airports are also set to receive terminal grants in 2026. San Antonio International Airport will get $10 million for its Terminal C, which will add 18 gates and 850,000 square feet and is slated to open in 2028. The award was the largest this year among the nation’s medium-sized hubs.
Houston’s Bush Intercontinental and Hobby, Dallas Fort Worth International, McAllen, Midland and Abilene airports will also receive grant dollars for terminal projects.