Now Arriving: Renovated International Arrivals Area Substantially Complete

Arriving on an international flight into Pittsburgh International Airport just got a whole lot better – faster, more efficient, and more aesthetically pleasing.

The last major renovations to PIT’s international arrivals area are now open to travelers, providing a better experience for its international arriving passengers.

In February, PIT opened its reconfigured primary processing area to passenger traffic for the first time. Primary processing is the initial mandatory checkpoint where arriving passengers are screened by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for documentation, biometrics/fingerprinting and agricultural screening.

The upgrades modernize the primary processing area from its original 1992-era layout and make the space better suited for programs offered to make international travel easier at PIT, such as Global Entry and Mobile Passport Control, which now allow member travelers to enter the country to present their identification digitally through free and secure mobile apps for a quicker and seamless immigration process.

In addition, the airport has added a new secondary processing area dedicated for separate, more intensive screening by CBP for travelers who cannot be cleared immediately during standard primary inspection. This new area replaces the former secondary screening zone that existed prior to the opening of the new terminal in November 2025.

The secondary processing zone is expected to be fully completed by late March.

Both primary and secondary zones are the final pieces for PIT’s renovations to Concourse C, which handles PIT’s international flights, as part of the airport’s $1.7 billion Terminal Modernization Program. The upgrades to Concourse C are designed to streamline passenger flow and improve operational efficiency for international travelers.

In between the primary and secondary processing areas on Concourse C’s lower level is the airport’s new international baggage handling system, which opened to passenger traffic in July 2025. The baggage handling system is dedicated exclusively for handling international checked luggage and greatly reduces the time it takes for arriving passengers to claim their bags while clearing customs. The new system will make PIT one of the nation’s fastest airports for international baggage.

Passengers pick up their checked bags from PIT’s renovated international baggage handling system on Nov. 17, 2025. (Photo by Beth Hollerich)

Arriving international passengers now exit customs into PIT’s new terminal via a sterile corridor that opened with the transition to the new terminal in November 2025.

The new experience replaces outdated infrastructure built for connecting passengers and pre-9/11 security requirements that forced international passengers to navigate various tunnels to the trains for transportation to the former Landside Terminal.

The new terminal replaces the configuration entirely with a more efficient, dedicated corridor that leads passengers from customs to the arrivals level, improving wayfinding and reducing the time it takes going from the plane to exiting the terminal.

Outside, Concourse C has undergone multiple upgrades to the apron level where planes park. These include the addition of fixed walkway structures connecting the jet bridges to the concourse, a new tug route for the renovated international baggage claim system and newly painted markings for each aircraft type. The restriped C gates are marked for almost any widebody type, even up to the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380.

The upgrades come as PIT has grown its international service with nonstop flights to London Heathrow, Reykjavik, Toronto, Montreal, Punta Cana, Cancun and, most recently, Dublin. The airport is also a prime location for accepting diverted domestic and international flights from events, such as weather, given Pittsburgh’s close proximity to major East Coast gateways. In 2025, PIT handled 443 diversions, its second largest figure since 2018.