Salt Lake City Airport

Not Verified | Salt Lake City airport is an unbelievable mess! How do they expect elderly people to walk that far. I read the other reviews and it’s all true, no reason for me to repeat all of Salt Lakes terrible mistakes.

Not Verified | A couple of prefaces. I’m in decent physical shape, I’m not Prefontaine (I picked a distance runner for a reason), but do work out 5-6 days a week. Also pre-Covid, I did a lot of business travel, 200K a year, and actually tried to go through SLC if an east-west layover was required, because it was a much more pleasant experience than Denver or Dallas. SLC was a great midsize airport. What happened? I’m seriously gobsmacked how thoroughly botched this new one is. I mean it’s clean and looks nice, but it’s a functional disaster that must have been designed by a walking fetishist. I saw a different review comparing this airport to Incheon and Hong Kong, which makes me think they’ve never been to those airports, because both have trams that get you close to where you need to go, have centralized shopping, lounges and food options, and have shapes not inspired by a giant equals sign. It’s like the designers looked at Detroit and Atlanta, and said, “That, but without the trains!” My personal story, discovering that my favorite east-west hub had been brutalized, was a on this most recent connection, my first trip since Covid. The plane parked away from the terminals next to a ramp, where a bus would get us. Not ideal, but whatever, I have been to airports under construction and this happens. We deplaned, and got on the bus. On arrival to the terminal, things started to unravel. You arrive to a structure that looks like a shrine to the world’s longest ramps that's connected to the end of Terminal B. When you get on this thing and look up, it’s almost comical how long and skinny it is. It’s no joke probably two hundred yards long, and a wheelchair wide. I don’t know how this thing is legal for either fire or ADA, because getting a wheelchair up this thing would be brutal, and if there’s a fire, there’s no escape. When I finished my climb, I then did what I always do, find the lounge. I used up about 20 minutes of my 90 minute layover with the bus and ramp, but still thought I had time to grab some breakfast. This turned out to be about as naive as thinking you can win a land war in Asia. I was at one end of Terminal B, and my connection was on the other end of Terminal B. I figured the lounge would be central like they usually are. Really should have looked at a map. I saw signage, and began to walk, and walk. Got to the opening to the tunnel to Terminal A, the signage indicated the lounge was on the other side, and I figured it must be central in Terminal A near the tunnel, so still doable. Ten minutes and a broken conveyor later, I get to Terminal A, and start following signage. Walking and walking. At this point I’m angry and committed. Turns out the lounge is at the very end of Terminal A, making it effectively useless for 3/4 of connecting traffic. I arrived 25 minutes after finishing the ramp hike, and scanned in for essentially a water break before my return journey to the connection that I now knew was a mile away. I arrived to my connection sweating through my shirt and angry, with my phone congratulating me for power walking nearly three miles. I understand this airport is a work in progress, but anyone who thought opening the airport in this state is negligent. I don’t know how anyone with mobility issues or children could do it without severe distress. Considering the money involved, it’s borderline criminal.

✅ Trip Verified | It took me 50 min briskly walking from C gate to the passenger pickup. Are you kidding me, SLC? You should hang your architect - every visitor that goes to SLC will judge you by this terrible design! Unless your arrive gate is A terminal at SLC, you should train several weeks of cardio for this airport. I arrived on C gate - the plane parks on the tarmac and a bus picks you up 3rd world nation style. Then you see dropped off at the bottom of a ADA ramp that is 200 yds long and on only 1 person wide, so forget about getting past a slow person. Then you find yourself at the very end of B terminal. Then you walk 1/2 mile to the end of B terminal. Then the 1/3 mile walk under the tarmac. Then you find yourself at the far end of A terminal. Another 1/2 mile walk and and you end up at passenger pick up and arrival- which actually was vastly improved. Note to SLC Olympic Committee - don't take the inspectors to B gate!

✅ Trip Verified | As a life long SL resident - I can say that without a doubt this new airport is a complete failure. The old airport was better from a passenger perspective in every conceivable way. The old airport was smaller and never built to exist in the current airport climate, yet it worked, and it had character and was a pleasant space. It never felt overly crowded even on busy days and with small concourses. Now the new airport 'feels' packed and its 5x larger. Everyone is channeled into the same spaces. Nobody likes walking in tunnels - in the hold airport you had to walk distances between concourses but they were pleasant walks with views. Now you know you are walking in a basement. I could go on and on and on - but it suffices to say the design is poor, the capacity feels *reduced* versus the old one, and its as cold and sterile a design that feels unpleasant to spend time there. There is nothing 'warm' in this design, it is like spending time in a hospital, how nice! Everything that everyone else says about it is true. It is a complete bomb. Avoid traveling here or connecting through here.

✅ Trip Verified | Uninspiring architecture inside, although blends in well to surroundings externally. Very few restaurants with long lines, which makes one wonder what purpose a Lego store is there for, for instance. The number of restaurants per given space less than any major US airport I have been. Others have commented on long walks. Although I agree there are long distances between moving walkways, those passengers have clearly never been to Minneapolis. In the lobby, the plastic white blobs are incredibly ugly. I don’t even know their purpose. Are they sculptures or seats? No one was sitting on them in any case. Arrival and departure areas much improved, and they are now up to standard of every major US airports. I saw 10 departure boards in concourses, but not one arrivals screen to see baggage claim or connecting flight arrivals.

Not Verified | Extremely disorganized border control. There's a dozen different lanes and none of them line up with the actual desks to go up to, and the person in charge of directing traffic was totally lost. Most of the global entry machines weren't working. I waited in line for 90 minutes at a brand new airport which only had a single half-full international flight arriving at that time. Once you clear customs, they don't have a dedicated security spot set up (they do but its all blocked off), so you have to exit the security area and re-enter in the main terminal with everyone else. For a brand new airport design that's completely unacceptable. Finally, the design is just an extremely long terminal building (think San Jose on steroids). There are huge gaps between the moving walkways, and the signage is really unclear if you're trying to get to B-gates. Overall it's very new/shiny but absolutely horrendous for a traveler in terms of usefulness.

Not Verified | We have been extremely disappointed with the new airport. Most of airport gates are a huge trek from security and also to baggage claim. They need a tram or similar system considering how spread out everything is and how crowded it is (think DFW). The lines for the food places are consistently far too long now. The LED screens for baggage claim is too small and seem to be located only in one spot. All flights funnel through one security line that can be massively long if you don’t have TSA or Clear! The lines to get on the parking lot shuttle are often very long, too. We miss the airport and it’s ease of use that existed prior to this expansion. Please improve this airport!!!

✅ Trip Verified | When we were told Salt Lake was to get a new airport we were excited as population growth made the previous airport over-busy. How terribly disappointed we are - as are most of our fellow Utahns who fly much. Whoever designed this airport should be fired/sued for a truly awful job - it is unbelievably passenger unfriendly. 1) Ridiculous walk times and distances from Terminal B. 2) Vast areas of wasted space. 3) Terrible seating design in dangerous ladder type format. 4) Hopelessly inadequate drop-off and pick-up facilities - probably worse than the old airport. 5) Food and refreshment facilities are lacking. Those of us who live in SLC are stuck with this dreadful airport probably for the rest of our lives but to anyone who has a choice do not fly from/to/or through Salt Lake City!

Not Verified | Anything more than 1 star is a lie! Horribly planned airport. Not customer oriented or even considered in the design and planning. Traveled through large and small airports worldwide and this is the worst! Much wasted, non efficient space. Poor seating and even worse signage and direction notification. I have cut my travel flights by 80% with this poor excuse for an international airport. Will leave from Jackson or Rock Springs if possible.

✅ Trip Verified | With 10 million miles between (and over 3 million on Delta that has SLC as a major hub) I can tell you SLC is the absolute worst airport for arrivals, departures and particularly transit/connections. I get the linear design concept what the distances are incredibly long with very poor passenger transportation, except for a few sparse and slow moving walkways. Detroit, perhaps the best example of linear design, has a tram system. SLC has nothing. Also, there is only one Delta sky club and it is located at the farthest point from all gates. Long tunnel, long concourses, 30 minute walk (no exaggeration) and then a bus to the plane. This SLC is perhaps the poorest airport design in all of my extensive travel experience and certainly not what you would expect from a “new” airport. It’s about as traveler unfriendly as could be conceived.