By Carly Coombs | Posted: Oct. 22, 2024

Photo of the Central Tunnel inside the Salt Lake City International Airport, connecting the airport's A and B concourses.

Salt Lake City celebrated the unveiling of the next step in the SLC International Airport’s expansion, welcoming in Phase 3 at an unveiling ceremony on Tuesday.

The new phase includes five new Delta Airlines gates, 12 new concessions and restaurants, more artwork, and, most importantly, the new Central Tunnel.

The SLC Airport is infamously known for its long walk to the B Gates (where nearly every non-Delta flight departs from), with the walk from the end of security to the concourse being over half a mile.

However, with the new Central Tunnel beginning in the Main Plaza right after TSA, the walk will be cut almost half in most cases. Before, passengers had to walk half of the length of the A Concourse to another tunnel to cross over to the B Concourse. According to the airport’s website, the walk to the B gates is cut in half with the additional tunnel, with walking time being about seven minutes compared to the 15 minutes it took before.

The Central Tunnel includes a large art installation titled “River Tunnel” and a curated playlist of more than 100 songs related to Utah or travel.

The new tunnel has a calming ambiance — abnormal for an airport — with the tunnel being lit with soft, blue light that flows through the curving wall sculpture that lines the ceiling.

Going up the escalators into the B Concourse, passengers are greeted with the famous World Map, an expansive tile piece on the floor that was previously located in the old SLC Airport and was originally created in the 1960s.

During the unveiling, Bill Wyatt, the executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports, said when beginning the new airport, Utahns were constantly asking officials if the World Map would be preserved. Initially, officials believed the piece could not be saved, but after consulting with engineers, they found they could carefully take it apart and rebuild it in the new airport.

Other new artwork in the Concourse B Plaza includes a piece titled “Northern Lights,” a colorful, round sculpture made of glass hanging from the plaza’s ceiling in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

In addition to new artwork, the airport also unveiled a replica of an Allosaurus dinosaur (also the Utah state fossil) in partnership with the Utah Natural History Museum. The lifesize model skeleton, which is located in the B Concourse Plaza, is a replica of a dinosaur fossil excavated by University of Utah scientists in 1923-24 near Vernal, Utah.

Some of the new concessions in the latest expansion include Thirst, Freddy’s, Cotopaxi, and Sunday’s Best.

What’s next for the SLC Airport?

As the SLC Airport continues to grow, more additions are coming through 2026. The remainder of Phase 3 will be completed next year, with more gates to open next year.

Phase 4 will finish out the expansion and should include 16 more gates in the B Concourse as well as 12 more restaurants and shops. The airport announced those new concessions earlier in 2024, which will include local favorites, such as Swig, Mr. Charlie’s Chicken Fingers, and Moab Brewery.

Two new airport lounges will also open later, with a second Delta Sky Club and a Centurion Lounge, both of which will be located in the B Concourse.