Airport Authority chairman lays out development plans

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – The Terminal 2 expansion at Lindbergh Field will be
completely open to the public on Aug. 13, and future airport development plans
include a first-ever hookup with the region's trolley system, the chairman of
the board of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority said Wednesday.

In a presentation to the City Council's Rules and Economic Development
Committee, Robert Gleason said parts of the expanded terminal are already open,
with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for Aug. 8.

The expansion added 10 gates, which are already in use, along with new
food and shopping choices for passengers. A bi-level roadway will also be
opened for arriving and departing passengers.

Future development will include a connection with the San Diego Trolley
at a comprehensive transit center on the north side of the airport. The center
being planned by the San Diego Association of Governments, the regional
planning agency, would sit along Pacific Highway between Sassafrass and
Washington streets, Gleason said.

“As currently envisioned, that project would consolidate the light
rail, rail and bus operations to that station,” Gleason told the committee
members. “Those passengers wishing to access the airport would then cross a
pedestrian bridge across Pacific Highway (to) airport property, and we would
shuttle those passengers (to the terminals).”

Right now, trolley riders who want to go to Lindbergh Field have to
catch a bus from downtown.

A multi-story car rental center would be built right across the street
from the transit center, Gleason said. Also on the north side of the airport,
Landmark Aviation will construct a new facility for general aviation aircraft,
he said.

He said the airport authority is in the midst of planning to replace the
gates in Terminal 1, the oldest of the three terminals at Lindbergh Field.