Salt Lake City, Utah: Final Gates Open at the Airport, Completing a $5.1 Billion Rebuild

Salt Lake City International Airport opened its final seven gates on Tuesday, Oct. 27, completing a $5.1 billion rebuild that began in July 2014 and replaced the airport while flights kept operating. The last section of Concourse B East is now in service, and the airport reaches its full planned size of 94 aircraft gates and 101 concessions.

What opened on Tuesday

The final section adds seven gates and six concessions, and it adds about 132,000 square feet to the airport, according to the airport account cited by Simple Flying. The concessions named in that account include Einstein Bros. Bagels, Monarca and Swig.

Five of the seven new gates will be used by United Airlines. The other two are common use gates, available to other carriers. The completed airport also has six international gates and four hardstand positions, and it is designed to handle 34 million passengers a year.

The airport marked the end of construction with a celebration on Saturday, Oct. 24, under the theme Gateway to the World. Bill Wyatt, executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports, told the gathering, "We stand here today in this beautiful airport because of the dedication of hundreds of workers."

Why the old airport had to go

The program, called The New SLC, replaced three aging terminals from the 1960s with one central terminal and two linear concourses. The old complex was built for about 10 million passengers a year. The airport handled 26 million passengers in 2019, before the first part of the new terminal opened, and 28 million passengers in 2025.

Crews built the new airport beside the old one and moved operations in phases, so Salt Lake City never had to close. Phase 1 opened in September 2020. Later phases added the east side of Concourse A in 2023 and the Central Tunnel and Concourse B Plaza in October 2024, before the last stages of Concourse B East opened in 2025 and 2026.

Almost 25,000 craftworkers put in a combined 18 million hours across the 12 year rebuild, according to the airport figures cited by Simple Flying. The airport said no local tax dollars were used. Funding came from airport funds, airport revenue bonds, passenger and rental car charges, and federal grants.

United gains ground at a Delta hub

Salt Lake City remains a Delta Air Lines hub, and Delta is still the airport's dominant carrier by a wide margin. Simple Flying, citing Cirium schedules for November 2026, reported Delta has planned 7,182 flights from Salt Lake City, compared with 593 for United, out of 9,733 total departures.

That makes United taking five of the final seven gates a notable shift in space, even though it does not change who runs the most flights. For travelers in Salt Lake City and across Utah, the practical change starts now: more gates in permanent concourses, the last temporary arrangements retired, and a single completed airport after 12 years of construction zones inside a working hub.