First look: Sky Harbor Terminal 3 upgrades

You'll find lots of charging stations, plus a dog park and desert garden.

Dawn Gilbertson
Arizona Republic
Frontier and jetBlue ticketing counters in Terminal 3 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport are shown on a tour with the city of Phoenix on Oct. 21 2016.

The first phase of the Terminal 3 makeover at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is nearing completion and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton on Friday led a sneak-peek tour of the gleaming building with windows galore.

The $150 million first phase includes improved ticket counters and a new consolidated security checkpoint with video monitors. Terminal 3 formerly had two security checkpoints, one for each concourse.

Passengers will still arrive and depart from Terminal 3’s existing gate areas until the remaining phases of the makeover are done in a few years.

The terminal, which opened in 1979, is “bit outdated’’ and needs the makeover to keep Sky Harbor and Phoenix competitive, Stanton said.

“Terminal 3 will be thought of completely differently than it is now,’’ he said. “This is a first-class customer experience.’’

Terminal 3 is home to Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Hawaiian Airlines. United Airlines, Spirit Airlines and other carriers currently operating out of tiny Terminal 2 will move there after the $590 million Terminal 3 project is completed in 2020. Terminal 2, which opened in 1962, will be demolished. Terminal 4, home to American and Southwest, will remain the airport’s giant, accounting for more than 80 percent of passengers.

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Five things to know about the upgraded Terminal 3:

  1. The improvements won’t be ready in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush but they might be by Christmas. Airport officials won’t reveal an opening date, saying simply that the new facilities will be open by the end of the year. Stanton told reporters they would debut “in a few weeks’’ but airport officials said it won’t be ready by Thanksgiving.
  2. New restaurants and bars a la Terminal 4’s stellar lineup are still a couple of years away. They are in the next phase and will debut in late 2018. For travelers who need to eat before they go through security, there will be a grab-and-go stand near the new Delta ticket counters. Just past security, there will be a temporary coffee cart for those who need a caffeine fix for the walk to their gate.
  3. A new garden and dog park are outside the west end of the terminal. Stanton calls the garden a mini-Desert Botanical Garden and says it will give departing passengers one last taste of the desert Southwest.
  4. The lights will be turned off during the day as long as the sun is shining. The new section of the terminal is outfitted with solar sensors. Officials believe it is the first airport to have that feature.
  5. Your smartphone and laptop shouldn’t die while you wait for a charging station. There are lounge chairs with power outlets before and after security. “Every single chair in (the new section of) Terminal 3 will have access to power,’’ Stanton said.