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Updates to Will Rogers World Airport enhance family travel BY ERIN PAGE . PHOTOS PROVIDED. Let's Fly!
VISIT THE PUBLIC OBSERVATION AREA AT WILL ROGERS WORLD AIRPORT TO WATCH PLANES TAKE OFF AND LAND.
What’s new at Will Rogers World Airport? If you haven’t been to Will Rogers World Airport since before the pandemic, you might think you’ve been teleported to a different city when you enter the modern, airy, thriving travel hub. The most recent airport expansion, opened in September 2021, includes a new security checkpoint, two “meeter greeter” lobbies and a dedicated exit for disembarking passengers to head from the concourse level to baggage claim. Located at the new east end, past all the airline ticket counters, the new security checkpoint is expansive. Six checkpoints lanes, compared to the previous three, mean passengers are screened more quickly. Two more lanes will be added in the future. Once through security, the Town Center, an open, light-filled space, leads to restrooms, a mother’s nursing room, a pet relief area and three new Delta Airlines gates at the east end of the terminal. New restaurants include a Starbucks and Vino Volo, plus locally owned Tin Lizzie’s retail store features unique gifts and Made in Oklahoma products. Plenty of furniture for relaxing, holding a meeting before a business trip or charging your devices with built- in plug-ins dot the concourse.
Air travel is steadily climbing back to pre-pandemic rates, including at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport. In 2022, the airport saw 4 million passengers come through its doors. While that didn’t quite catch 2019’s record number of 4,418,768 passengers, the first quarter of 2023 outperformed 2019’s numbers, placing the airport on pace to grow into a 4.5 million passenger airport within the next year, reports public information officer and marketing manager Stacey Hamm.
14 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / JULY-AUGUST 2023
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