Booming Austin airport set to nearly double in size with 2 new concourses
Fast-growing Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) will add 32 new gates as part of a more than $5 billion expansion.
The airport will build two new remote satellite concourses as part of the expansion program: Concourse B with 26 gates and Concourse M with six gates. The plan also includes new taxiways and other infrastructure to support the expansion, all of which are due for completion by the mid-2030s.
AUS' existing terminal and Concourse A currently have 34 gates.
Southwest Airlines, the largest airline at AUS, will gain eight gates for a total of 18 in the new Concourse B, the airport said last week.
In December 2025, Dallas-based Southwest announced plans to open a crew base this March. It will be staffed with more than 2,000 flight attendants and pilots.
Delta Air Lines, which established AUS as a focus city in 2018 and is challenging Southwest in the Texas capital with dozens of new routes, will gain 11 gates for a total of 15 in Concourse A.
American Airlines will have nine gates, United Airlines five gates and Alaska Airlines one gate in Concourses A and B under the plan. Another 11 gates will be available to other U.S. and foreign airlines, including Delta partners Aeromexico, KLM and WestJet.
The expansion comes after years of blockbuster growth at AUS that has strained the airport's facilities. AUS handled 19.8 million travelers from January through November 2025, the latest airport data shows. That represents a nearly quarter increase from the same period in 2019.
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Delta led the growth at AUS over the period, with seats up 80% in the first 11 months of 2025 compared to six years earlier, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. Southwest grew seats by 66%, American by 20% and United by nearly 13%.
Delta, despite its significant growth, still offered less than half of the seats at AUS than Southwest in 2025, Cirium schedules show.
AUS is not alone in playing catch-up to the postcoronavirus pandemic rebound in air traffic. After postponing plans for a new sixth terminal in 2020, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) broke ground on the 15-gate Terminal F in 2024, only to double the size of the project in 2025. And Denver International Airport (DEN), after completing a 39-gate expansion in 2022, moved forward in December 2025 with a new 11-gate expansion to accommodate continued growth.
Major terminal and concourse expansions are also underway at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Dulles International Airport (IAD) near Washington, D.C., among other airports.
The expansion of AUS will come in phases. Later in 2026, a three-gate western extension to the existing concourse — the future Concourse A — will open. These will offset the closure of other gates at the airport during construction of Concourse B, which includes digging a new pedestrian tunnel under the aircraft apron to the existing terminal.
Concourse M will act as another relief valve for the airport during the construction of Concourse B and, once Concourse B is complete, provide the airport with "operational flexibility for irregular operations."
AUS must demolish its South Terminal before construction on Concourse B can begin. Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines operate from the three-gate facility.
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