Philadelphia International moves closer to getting key property for expansion

A Philadelphia City Council Committee has approved a bill that would lead to purchasing some Tinicum Township properties critical to expanding the airport.

The two pieces of property would provide space to move the UPS airport facility so the runway can be extended. Airport CEO Mark Gale says the project is important.

“It is about trying to make the necessary improvements to the airport to reduce delay to enhance capacity for the future to redesign and rebuild our facility so we can set the airport up to handle the needs of the city long term,” he said.

Gale says the expansion plan was revised to avoid uprooting homeowners. He says the project will take 15 years.

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

“There are certain elements that need to occur before others. Obviously we can’t work on expanding the airport, until we start to acquire, the areas that we need in order to make some of the changes, to make a new runway to extend two of our existing runways and to rebuild some of our facilities going forward.”

Federal and airport funds will pay for the expansion.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal