Lawton airport’s new holding area moving toward completion

Officials at Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport will celebrate Spring by moving into their new secured passenger holding area.

Airport Manager Barbara McNally said this week that contractors are nearing completion on the holding area, a new site on the west side of the terminal designed as a seating area for up to 120 passengers who have been through security screening but haven’t yet boarded their aircraft. The new facility is double the size of the old one, and also will contain a larger security screening area for TSA, separate lanes for boarding and departing passengers, and a covered walkway between the terminal and aircraft. While that covered bridge is installed, it won’t be used until passengers move into the holding area, airport officials said.

McNally said contractors have been hanging the wood ceiling and are working on the holding area’s wood trims this week.

“By the end of the month, we’ll be able to be in the boarding area,” McNally said, of the long-awaited opening of an area of the terminal that hasn’t been modernized in years.

Airport officials have said they expect to begin using the boarding area soon after construction is completed, ending use of a temporary holding area created on the south end of the terminal near the baggage claim area.

In all, Herring Construction is 460 days into what is projected to be an 822-day, $15.3 million terminal renovation, McNally said.

Completion of the boarding area means work crews can move to the final stage of the terminal modernization project, which will include renovation of the airport’s front entrance and work to move TSA’s check baggage area behind a wall, outside public view. McNally said the contractor is projecting a completion date for the entire project of April 2, 2025.

Herring Construction began working on the project in early 2023.