CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi International Airport is inching closer to flying 500,00 passengers a year as they go through our busiest holiday travel season of the year.
That's just part of the reason the terminal is in the middle of a $25 million dollar renovation.
Kevin Smith, the CCIA airport director spoke with 3News for an inside look at some of construction work that's underway.
Smith said that all of the improvements and renovations going on at the airport should be completed by 2026 at a cost of nearly $25 million. But 90% of that is paid for through the federal government.
The international airport is getting a facelift that is set to see a number of construction projects over the next couple of years. One of the first completed projects are the bathrooms on the first floor.
"We put the smart lights in, and you can know when someone is in a stall, and you know when someone is out of a stall," said Smith.
The airport director showed off some of the other work that's going on. The restrooms on the second floor across from the TSA checkpoint are being torn out and replaced.
"As you can see, we are taking everything down to the wall and rebuilding the bathrooms from the ground up."
The airport director said they are also making efforts to address the wishes of those who travel through the airport.
The results of a survey of airport customers prompted officials to upgrade the restaurants and power charging stations.
"We are addressing all of those this year. We have added about 85 charging stations and retrofitted some of the older seats. We are addressing all of the shopping needs. We are bringing in Island Joe's coffee. We're bringing in Salty Oak BBQ and we're bringing in made in Corpus Christi and Amazon just walked out," said Smith.
3News also found construction well underway on that 1200 square-foot outdoor airport lounge. We also noticed Patricia Moreno from Miami saying goodbye to her family members. She gave a big thumbs up to the improvements being made and even had a suggestion.
"I think a lot of us are plugged in all of the time and when you're flying, you need a place to do that easily and then I would like to see a TSA pre-check line here even though the security line is always short, but I still want to go through the pre-check because I always want to fast lane," said Moreno.
While all of this construction work at the airport is set to be finished by 2026 there are already plans in the works to make at least another $20 million in upgrades here over the next 15 years. Some of that work includes improving the runways. The projects have all been approved for funding by the FAA.