The New Hanover County Airport Authority this week approved $78 million worth of work on a project at Wilmington International Airport (ILM) and adopted the airport's $94 million budget for fiscal year 2026.
The $78 million is for phase 2 of the airport’s road, curb and parking garage project, and Monteith Construction is the construction manager at risk.
ILM director Jeff Bourk said during the meeting Wednesday that the board originally had a budget of $90 million in its vision plan for the project. But $10 million of that was counting on nonspecific federal and state funds that have not yet materialized.
“We’ve gone back and worked with everybody involved to get this project out front scaled down to about $80 million,” he said.
Bourk later celebrated the board's efforts to cut costs to meet the budget, and he offered an optimistic outlook.
“We think ultimately it's a good thing, and hopefully down the road we’ll still get the money, and that will help with the next phase of projects that we have in the vision plan,” he said.
Also regarding phase 2, Bourk said that $2 million of landscaping would be bid later. Plus, he added that the board is deferring about $2.9 million of work “that could happen at any point and add to the project.”
The airport's $94 million budget reserves more than $77 million in capital expenditures, including debt service. More than $64 million of that amount will go to airport parking, as well as its terminal access road, terminal curb and rental car area.
About $7 million will go to runway 06/24, and $500,000 will go to terminal expansion. Plus, $600,000 is allocated for an east ramp utility project, and $1.9 million is set aside for a road upgrade.
In addition to adopting the $94 million budget, the board approved the purchase of a Ford 350 shuttle. The shuttle would be the third shuttle the board has purchased for its fleet.
As part of its construction and capital improvements report, board officials also outlined in the agenda that the airport’s parking administration building is under construction. In addition, the report revealed that a temporary drop-off curb is opening in July. Both developments are part of phase 1B of the curb project.
During the meeting, the board reviewed photos of the airport’s new canopy. The canopy will carry visitors from the terminal's temporary curb to the existing terminal, and it will initially serve rental car customers, according to Granseur Dick, ILM’s deputy director.
Dick added that, for the long-term, it will be an employee parking canopy.
In addition, the agenda outline indicated that customs facility improvements are underway and should be completed in mid-June. Plus, it showed that new ticket counter bag belt parts were ordered (with an anticipated completion date of September) and that the east ramp utility project is expected in mid-June.
Bourk shared a report on the airport's terminal expansion, saying the team is finished with schematic design and will be moving to the next phase in the coming weeks.
“We were able to add a few thousand square feet to this terminal, and by doing that, we were able to get four gates in here instead of three,” he said. “Going from three gates to four gates is actually a pretty big deal, and we didn't think we were going to be able to squeeze it into that space, but they came up with a way to do it.”
