World Innovation Summit Offers Inside Look at PIT’s New Terminal

For three days, a global audience visited Pittsburgh–a hub for robotics and innovation–to collaborate and share ideas about the future of air travel. That included a sneak peek into Pittsburgh International Airport’s (PIT) new world-class, state-of-the-art terminal.  

The Future Travel Experience World Innovation Summit, hosted at PIT and Carnegie Mellon University from May 14-16, is a three-day deep dive into some of aviation’s most pressing challenges with conversations around how to solve them.  

In the past, PIT has partnered with Future Travel Experience (FTE) on similar events with tours of some of Pittsburgh technology innovators. This year’s event featured an in-depth look inside PIT’s new terminal, set to open in fall 2025.  

“The whole point was to redefine what it means to be an airport to its community and to a global industry, which frankly had counted it out,” PIT CEO Christina Cassotis said during her opening speech at the summit kickoff event inside the new terminal. “Getting to that innovation mindset was not easy. We had to actually change the way that people who had been hunkered down trying to stop loss for 10 years could think, and we have done that.”  

Cassotis and British Airways CEO Sean Doyle opened the event with a keynote conversation detailing the transformations at their respective organizations and sharing what it takes to maintain organizational resiliency.  

“This airport here, this is like walking into somewhere in the Gulf, whether it’s Abu Dhabi or Doha or Dubai,” Doyle said. “It’s a vision of the future. But it’s also a lovely expression of the heritage of Pennsylvania.” 

Designed with resiliency 

Throughout the three-day event, PIT’s leadership team led tours of the new terminal, hosted “Deep Dive” presentations exploring different facets of the transformed PIT, and provided an in-depth preview of PIT’s new baggage system, which will enhance efficiency and maintain safety and security practices at the airport.  

After leading a tour alongside Chad Willis, ACAA’s Vice President of Planning, Environmental and Sustainability, PIT’s Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Paul Hoback, presented the vision and strategic approach behind the new terminal’s unique design and the innovative approach that made it possible.   

“This is a story about how through the transformation of ourselves and our organization, we were able to build a resilient airport designed for the future that reflects, connects and serves our community in the region,” said Hoback.  

At the kickoff event, attendees saw firsthand how that story has started to come to fruition when they became some of the first to see the new terminal in its current state of 90 percent completion.  

“PIT has been at the forefront of innovation, and some of the innovations of this new airport that is going to be open later this year are going to show that off,” said former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who is now Executive Director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.  “The experience people will have here waiting for their flight, waiting for their loved ones in a park-like setting is much different than most airports have.”  

During the tours, attendees witnessed the culmination of years of innovation. The new terminal design immerses passengers and airport visitors into the Pittsburgh community before they even set foot in the city. Meanwhile, PIT continues to take measures that ensure the airport remains resilient, both in its ongoing energy strategy, which includes producing synthetic aviation fuel (SAF) on-site, and in its infrastructure, which is designed for aviation’s unpredictable future.  

Operating one airport, building another 

Despite spending the last decade developing and building a new terminal, parking structure and updated airside terminal, the work the PIT team does at the existing terminal has not and cannot stop.  

Early in the new terminal process, it was key to ensure every team at PIT worked together every step of the way to bring the new space to life. At other airports, Travis McNichols, Chief Operating Officer at PIT, noticed a lack of communication amongst teams. 

“Paul [Hoback] and I worked very closely to make sure that didn’t happen at PIT,” said McNichols. “We made sure that operational readiness and transition team was working all the way through the project from design during the build and now into activation of opening our terminal later this year.”  

The result is cross-functional collaboration between PIT team members and partners that advances innovation and processes to create a more welcoming airport experience for every passenger.  During the Summit, McNichols and PIT’s Chief Information Officer Deepak Nayyar led tours that provided insight into the technology developments and operations at the new terminal. 

“We really built a resilient airport that can expand or contract based on our needs in the future,” McNichols said. “It’s designed for Pittsburgh and the region in a way we need it operationally. It right sizes it and provides a passenger experience I think the passenger deserves.”  

Easy access for every passenger  

The new terminal experience goes beyond infrastructure and design. It has been designed for the passenger with a revamped experience from start to finish. During new terminal tours on the first day of the summit, Siri Betts-Sonstegard, Senior Vice President of Experience and Design at PIT, and Bryan Dietz, PIT’s Senior Vice President of Air Service and Commercial Development, explained the new and improved Pittsburgh passenger experience.  

With the new terminal came an opportunity to shape PIT into an even more welcoming space, building on its existing leadership in service design and accessibility. For example, the airside terminal will feature nursing rooms and adult changing tables in each concourse and the new terminal will have accessible height ticket counters, a welcome hub area for passengers to wait for their loved ones and increased seating and rest options.  

“I’ve lived in Pittsburgh for 71 years, so I’ve seen three airports here,” said Michael Doyle, former state Representative and Government Affairs Counselor at K&L Gates. “This is going to be a real jewel for Pittsburgh, and it’s going to attract a lot of people to the city.”  

PIT’s new parking system was designed through an in-depth process that brought together a diverse team of parking operators and airport leaders to find out what success looks like for passengers parking at the airport.  

“Picking our parking operator was just as important as picking the chief designer for a terminal,” Dietz said.   

Additionally, “We Got You,” a pilot program at PIT, focuses on helping passengers navigate the unexpected nature of an airport. The program equips frontline airport team members with handheld devices that help them provide real-time assistance and guidance to travelers. The program was developed through a data-backed, collaborative approach that involved passengers, frontline staff and other PIT team members, ensuring the solutions meet the needs of all users. 

Passengers will also have access to 15 new concessions, including local favorites that bring the flavor of Pittsburgh to the airport. Local brands comprise 35 percent of the new concession offerings coming to the transformed PIT.  

“This will open in the fall. It will open because of that mindset, because of our focus on resiliency and because of this art of assembly,” Cassotis said. “Those are the three elements that got us to start thinking about redefining what an airport can be, and we want to really think about redefining what aviation can be.”